Soviet Domination - A Red Dawn story

After tgis, I'm getting the idea that a certain last name will get far less popular and will become a serious liability for politicians, even if they aren't related at all.

The general problem with ITTL Ted, it's that probably it's approving rating at the moment are very good; let's be frank, no US president really lost an election due to the foreing politics and while in the inner circle and in many othe places will see the Soviet expansion and the growing rift with long term allies  as very problematic, the average citizen of the USA will look primary at how the economy go and how his life in general had improved.
ITTL USA at the moment will have probably dodged the cocaine epidemic of the 80's with all the consequences, due to no US support for contras and Panama leaderships deciding to be good (for the moment), but also (ironically) due to major soviet control of Afganistan (one of the biggest producer of opium of the world).
No reaganecomomics and deregulation...and this is always an up for everyone involved, so in general Kennedy numbers will be probably up, not epic (but that usually become that way...once you left the office) but at least safe, foreign politics notwithstanding, as it's better remember that unlike the orange idiot that actually had that works (and honestly i see a type like him doing exactely what your Kennedy do in this story), Ted has been a politician, born in a family of politicians so he know the system and how to use it...at least in his area of interest and expertise aka internal politics (see healthcare reform).

  Their probably also worried that Greece and its new 'allies' will seek to reunite Cyprus, especially given the Turkish military invasion of the north has never set that well with its NATO allies and hence its probably going to be even more paranoid about that occurring and not getting support from their allies.  Especially after they meet Kennedy.

(79)

September 1982:

During early September, Andropov was still on vacation. He had been in the Crimea at Foros, down on the Black Sea coast, all summer and planned to stay for another week or two. He wasn’t feeling himself. His doctors pretended that they knew what was going on with his health and everything was okay. Andropov banished them from his summer residence, his gosdacha by the sea, and remained there with his wife. The warm weather would be good for him, she said. Being down at Foros when everyone else was returning to Moscow meant that Andropov believed that he would get an extension to his break from the hustle and bustle of leadership of the superpower state which he led. He was wrong. He had visitors with important business. The bodyguards he had – loyal men, long in his service through his time as KGB Chairman and now General Secretary – only allowed those on approved lists to come see him. The gosdacha (state dacha) was comfortable and as nice as another one available for Andropov to use in the Lenin Hills near to Moscow. There was no extravagance though for that wasn’t something which Andropov wouldn’t abide by. A KGB-manned patrol boat, with missiles and guns, was offshore while the KGB Ninth Chief Directorate bodyguards were all around Foros. That one week in September when he remained down in the Crimea before finally going back to Moscow would be truly instrumental for the future of the Soviet Union, bringing about later events long after Andropov had departed from the world.

He was first visited by the Ukrainian party boss, Shcherbytsky, who was a rival from the Politburo, someone who dreamed of having Andropov’s role. Shcherbytsky came to deliver good news in person. The reports of the coming harvest across the breadbasket of the Soviet Union which was the Ukraine were showing that a bumper harvest would be brought in this year. The weather had been good but more than that there had been some remarkable wonder in some areas with high crop yields when it came to those treated with some of the new, post-experimental bio-engineered chemicals. Full reports for the Politburo would come later but for now, Shcherbytsky was in Foros to tell Andropov in person that Andropov had done the right thing in giving approval last year to the use of such chemicals to not just control pests but increase growth too. Andropov was wary of all that was said by Shcherbytsky yet couldn’t help but be pleased. He knew he had been correct on such a matter. The Soviet Union had the technical know-how to create such chemicals and the controlled laboratory tests had proved that there was no danger. He made up his mind there and then that afternoon that when he returned to Moscow and the Politburo discussed the issue, approval would be given for a major expansion of chemical treatment of crops next year. More crops, especially wheat, grown at home meant less to spend foreign currency reserves on buying from abroad in the capitalist West where they used their own chemicals. As in so many areas of technology, the Soviet Union would catch up with and surpass the West. Andropov hoped to see that before the end of his rule, hopefully many long years off… if his health held out.

After Shcherbytsky, Andropov was then seen by Chebrikov. He didn’t have good news to bring. The head of the KGB came down to the Crimea and brought with him some reports of his own. These concerned yet-to-be-released economic numbers that Chebrikov brought to Andropov’s attention first before such a matter would be discussed by the Politburo when they next formally met. They showed a further downturn in the bringing in of those valuable foreign currency reserves – US Dollars, Pound Sterling, Deutschmark and Yen – coming from oil sales to the West. Those exports were down less than two percent this year… seemingly a minor figure. It equated to a lot of money though, money that was no longer coming into state coffers to spend abroad where Rubles weren’t as viable as a currency for many countries. At the end of last year, there had been a downturn of half a percent; Chebrikov had with him too economic forecasts (not ones for release) that showed that next year the downturn on the high of 1980 might be as much as five percent. Five percent! Oil, lots of it, plus plenty of natural gas too, was being sold to the West and would continue to be. That wasn’t going to stop. Iranian oil remained at a trickle of pre-revolution / pre-invasion figures while Iraqi (and thus Kuwaiti) oil was embargoed. From elsewhere in the world though there was more oil than before being made available on the international markets. The price of a lot of that was falling. In addition, oil extraction from the North Sea, Alaska and Mexico was closer to the valuable markets from where it was being exported to. Politics was another factor with some voices of influence in the West unwilling to allow for the mass purchase of Soviet oil by their countries to go unprotested. Added atop of this, he and Chebrikov had previously discussed the rise of environmentalist ideas for energy in parts of the West (pure insanity in their shared view) and also the continued expansion of nuclear power in other Western countries too. Long-term threats they might be, but their presence now, especially the nuclear power side of that was troubling: how it went cap-in-hand with environmentalism was no longer only found somewhat amusing between the two men in Foros.

Chebrikov remained in the Crimea overnight at a nearby gosdacha and spoke with Andropov the next day. One thing that Chebrikov didn’t mention in all that time was Andropov’s health. He knew more about that than Andropov did. Information is power, especially in an issue of eventual succession. What they discussed was something long in the works between the two of them and how there was an opportunity for it now to be brought forward. It was something that the Politburo would normally have to approve… but maybe there was a case to be made that the rest of them shouldn’t be informed. Andropov and Chebrikov decided to keep this to themselves. The pair of Chekists didn’t need to hear the concerns of others. West Germany was one of those countries which was buying Soviet oil but also starting to plan for the expansion of domestic nuclear power. It was led by a man regarded as a serious opponent of the Soviet Union in the form of Chancellor Schmidt. Chebrikov had intelligence that said Schmidt’s recent effort to get a commitment from Kennedy on NATO troop numbers in his country had failed while at home Schmidt was in trouble with his own party. In West Germany there was a growing environmentalist movement who were opposed to nuclear power like they were nuclear weapons; the latter were something tied in the public’s mind to Schmidt’s government. This was quite the opportunity for the Soviet Union. An active measure had been what Andropov and Chebrikov had discussed before, something bigger than what had been done in Greece and the secretive funding of anti-nuclear marches in West Germany. Could it, Andropov asked, bring about the downfall of Schmidt? No, Chebrikov told him, not on its own. However, if combined with another active measure, then yes, it was possible. Schmidt would fall and Soviet economic, geo-political and security goals would benefit. It would be a win-win situation. Andropov wanted no Soviet fingerprints on either of the two covert actions taken. They were to be carried out and overseen by others; Chebrikov nodded. So it would be done. There would be an accident at a sensitive place and a killing of someone allied to Schmidt. Both men returned to Moscow the next day. Their minions and those unknowing working for the KGB would act on what was discussed in the peaceful surrounding of the Black Sea resort with violence and terror.

Yes, using others to do their dirty work though. It's been done throughout the story and will continue. Khomeini, the Pope and Greece. When things went wrong with Iran and the 'active measures' no longer worked, they had to send in the tanks. There will be no need for that with West Germany. 

One of the two, yes.

And eventually so many others too.
From that update, the story will kick up a gear. Now we go for the run-in: the start of the war is two years away from Sept 82 and all early ideas, everything in fact, is now meant to be starting to fit together in one heck of a jigsaw puzzle (which I hope won't be too much of a puzzle).