A Thought Experiement

[KSK]

On 29 July 2016 at 9:11 AM, BashGordon33 said:

I know that the US won't have any of it's global trade, but with it's superior technology and military, anything it wanted, it would take. 

I can think of at least one historical precedent where that assumption went horribly wrong. And even if it was a case of USA uber alles, all that would accomplish is to stoke global resentment and bring about today's political landscape (based more on a fear of extremist groups than Russian tanks) that much sooner.

Umm. Yay?

[BashGordon33]

6 hours ago, KSK said:

I can think of at least one historical precedent where that assumption went horribly wrong. And even if it was a case of USA uber alles, all that would accomplish is to stoke global resentment and bring about today's political landscape (based more on a fear of extremist groups than Russian tanks) that much sooner.

Umm. Yay?

Yeah, but unlike today, USA would be 75 years more advanced than anyone else. Today just being 5 more years advanced can lead to huge advantages. And it's not like USA would be alone. Europe would have helped them in anyway possible, as would Canada. Yeah there would be rebellions and extremist groups, especially from Soviet Russia, but America would be that advanced there would be nothing to fear. America is already the only existing superpower, if it got a 75 year advantage it would rapidly become a hyperpower. The definition of a hyperpower is that you could take on the rest of the world combined and still win.

[KSK]

Nothing to fear in a straight shooting war, sure. Which is lovely if your opponents choose to engage you in a straight shooting war. Which, not being idiots, they wouldn't. A 21st century jet fighter wouldn't have much to fear from an Me109 but 21st century America can still be badly hurt by the undercover application of good old WW2 high explosives. I'm sure I don't have to point out the obvious modern example of those kind of tactics.

You're also assuming that the rest of the world is going to happily stand by at let the US keep it's 75 year tech lead. For that matter, you're assuming that maintaining a 21st military force in a 1940s global economy and technological base is even possible. Worst case scenario, some faction will decide that if it can't beat the US in a conventional war, maybe a little NBC will get the job done. No that wouldn't be remotely sensible but when you're faced with a 75 year military disparity...*shrugs*.

I think you're also placing rather too much faith in Europe helping out in any way possible. Even today, Europe is far from a monolithic entity - witness the distinctly mixed support for the last Gulf conflict. Immediately post WW2, particularly in the face of an overwhelmingly superior US, you're as likely to unite Europe against you as for you.

Finally, what happens once you've 'won'? Spend the rest of your lives maintaining the Pax Americana in your resentful and uncooperative conquered territories? Because, if modern precedent is anything to go by, it's when the straight shooting war stops that events go south in a big way.

[Dispatcher]

My premise is that as far as the earlier group being transported to the future, it will not matter.  What would matter is the latter group being transported to the past.  This group from the future would not only have an unmatched knowledge of technologies, but of financial and military history.  This group from the future would alter its timeframe and all future moments would be changed as well.

As such we do not know what our own present or future would be like after such an impact in the past.

[specialopsdave]

The space race would be so much quicker to end. They just have to find a guy who remembers the Saturn V blueprints, a little bit of testing, then BOOM; Soviets are destroyed (in a competition-based way, not literally).

[TheKosanianMethod]

On 8/3/2016 at 1:52 AM, specialopsdave said:

The space race would be so much quicker to end. They just have to find a guy who remembers the Saturn V blueprints, a little bit of testing, then BOOM; Soviets are destroyed (in a competition-based way, not literally).

XKCD would help...