by sirhumphrey
(Thanks a lot for the support and pointing out rules issues. I'd also like to know your advice on this:1)I had 2Ops at most to coup Iran, making success unlikely. What should I have done to make lemonade out of lemons?)
1949. Early in the year, the Soviet Union deployed agents to Egypt with the goal of installing Arab nationalist Abdul Nasser in the seat of power. However, the station chief there defected to the CIA, providing details about operations there. The planned uprising is swiftly put down by the local government as a result.
In another act to upset the balance of power in Pakistan, Stalin orders a coup in Pakistan to be carried out by rogue generals. Although the coup deposed the pro-US government there, the would-be socialist government is not unscathed from the fighting: a caretaker government is appointed in its place.
Communists worldwide did not share this bad luck, however; socialist opposition parties gained weight in elections across Western Europe, particularly Italy and West Germany. Nevertheless, the US was fortunate enough to transfer some of its resources there to influence the new Pakistani government and to support Chiang's regime in Taiwan.
These events in Asia, among others, prompted the pragmatic Tito to reposition his place on the world stage, and he indicated a desire for US support against Soviet efforts to dominate the world Communist movement. Even as he did this, however, the Italian Socialist government edged closer to the Soviet Union, maintaining the fragile balance of power in Southern Europe.
Disturbed about Soviet presence in Italy, the retired President Truman spoke up on world affairs near Christmas that year, declaring that the US had an obligation to protect Italy from Communist expansion. President Eisenhower took advice from his predecessor surprisingly well, and the Socialist government was quickly forced to dismiss itself by threat of sanctions and even invasion.
Met with disappointment in Europe, the USSR turned its focus to the Middle East again. Nasser and other Arab elements returned to govern Egypt with heavy USSR support just after the new decade began, while a shipment of aid to Iraq was also approved.
Perhaps afraid of being overthrown like the governments of Egypt and Italy, the King of Romania abdicated in favour of Communist elements, who swiftly took the country over. To prevent Chiang of Taiwan from having similar worries, the US also sent aid to the KMT government there.
It was this move that forced Chairman Mao of Communist China to lend his weight to the Soviet Union. In a plan to establish Chinese-- and by extension Soviet-- power in the Middle East, he sends sufficient support to the governments of Libya and Iraq to put them in the Soviet orbit, and finances guerillas in Afghanistan for a future anchor of Soviet influence in South Asia.
Chinese agression in the Middle East and Asia prompted Congress to approve its recognition of Formosa as the 'real China', causing the small East Asian state to take on additional significance in the Cold War.
Middle Eastern leaders adopted a different approach to this matter than their European counterparts, as would be proven by their early 1951 conference, in which they approved a statement that accepted Soviet participation in regional affairs, which for many meant that the Soviet Union was dominating the region.
Inspired by this, Ho Chi Minh finally established a Communist state in Vietnam, even as the US extended aid to Indonesia and cemented Chiang's position as leader of Taiwan with further support.
Unfettered by this, Ho Chi Minh continued leading revolutions in Southeast Asia, bringing a large contingent of rebels to Thailand.
With developments in Southeast Asia to counteract the US' dominance of South Asia proper, a conference of Asian leaders passes a non-alignment treaty similar to that of Europe, even as Russian militarism threatens world peace.