Soviet Domination - A Red Dawn story

Even George McGovern would have intervened in Mexico, IMO; Kennedy is not just proving himself to be one of the worst (if not the worst) US presidents of all time if he doesn't intervene but, also, one of the worst leaders in world history...

Wait until September!





His behaviour throughout the story has shown naivety verging on stupidity. That's why I chose him!




The Soviets see themselves as strong but don't realise that the only US weaknesses are political. That can change. They also think their allies will do as they are told when they have been acting independent for some time now.
The Vietnam issue is key. that was the last conflict that the US was involved in. The Northern Alliance will lose without US help. As you say, eventually this will concentrate minds... finally.


Two updates to come. What will be done about that red line in the second will come tomorrow. It has always been the intention for the US to act, just at a very late stage.

(112)

April 1984:

After Tampico, Tirado López sent his army northwards again. Their destination was Monterrey, capital of Herzog Flores’ regime, and that was by the way of Ciudad Victoria. That second smaller city had been the site of early political resistance first to García Paniagua, then el coronel and afterwards Tirado López. It was the state capital of Tamaulipas which was one of the two initial states to say NO to Mexico City; neighbouring Nuevo León with Monterrey as its state capital was the other. It was a major transportation hub and along the road heading up to Monterrey on the way from the recent coastal gains made by the communists. To Ciudad Victoria first, such was the plan, and the Monterrey afterwards. Tirado López was certain that once those two cities were taken, the heart would be cut out of the resistance. Sinaloa had come to an agreement with Mexico City and there was belief that Yucatán was about to as well. To victory marched the communist army. Herzog Flores had military officers who could read a map and also understood the basic intentions of their enemy. Taking Ciudad Victoria was what they could do if they were on the offensive in similar circumstances. It made sense in every way. They moved what they could towards that city, which weakened the defences of Torreon to the west (a calculated risk), but allowed them to have faith in the ability to finally hold back the tide. Their troops were well-sited and equipped as best as possible. Morale was still low among the soldiers generally though ahead of Ciudad Victoria, many locals had been forced into the ranks of defenders and assurances given that they were fighting for their city to stop it being sacked by the communists. There were stories spread among the men that that had happened elsewhere. If they didn’t fight for the city, it would be looted and burnt with their families suffering. Stop the communists here!

Air power had been a little-used feature of the Mexican civil war. Pre-war, there was a professional but small national air arm which operated in defence of the nation. Recent arms purchases, taking place before the economic crash and subsequent security meltdown, had seen the Mexicans buy from aboard two different types of good quality combat aircraft: F-5 lightweight interceptors from the Americans and Mirage F-1 attack-fighters from the French. Those latter aircraft were fewer in number than the American ones and were actually originally destined for Iraq before the arms embargo had occurred and Iraq was unable to acquire them. Like Kuwaiti Mirage F-1s also held by the French following Iraq’s storming of that country, these aircraft were marketed around the world at low cost. Development costs had already been paid for and France was willing to help integrate them into air forces which might take them. Just over a dozen of these jets were currently operational with the communist forces. They had been grounded for some time but Tirado López had demanded that his army had air cover. The Northern Alliance had their own aircraft operational and no longer would they go unchallenged. To open the offensive to take Ciudad Victoria and clear away its defenders, the Mirage F-1s were sent into action. They were tasked for missions in early April where they made low-level bomb & rocket attacks (munitions not likely to be replaced any time soon) in support of the ground forces. One was downed by a missile shot from an F-5 as the civil war moved to the skies and another badly damaged by anti-aircraft fire. The others were meant to work with the ground forces but the coordination was quite terrible. Those on the ground didn’t make the best use of the air power at-hand: far too many of them were inexperienced and narrowly-focused on the ground fighting for Ciudad Victoria which didn’t go like Veracruz and Tampico. Here the Northern Alliance soldiers held. They didn’t desert en mass nor withdraw. Finally, they stood their ground. A decision was made to use the air support in a more useful manner. Ciudad Victoria was terror-bombed. Eleven aircraft couldn’t drop that many bombs (serviceability was another problem with the French training teams & mechanics having long gone home) but they delivered enough in two missions do cause quite the carnage. The city which they attacked was full of refugees from elsewhere that were caught in the bomb blasts when the ordnance falling from the jets above fell to the ground and blew up. Frighten those in the city to cause anarchy was the aim of the bombing in addition to overawing the city’s defenders outside. It just made the latter fight harder though. There was something else that the communists didn’t foresee: there were American media teams in Ciudad Victoria.

Up in Washington, a red line had been seen to have been crossed with this deliberate killing of civilians that this time was witnessed first hand rather than through reports of others. Kennedy had recently set a red line, one forced on him by events and the actions of others, and it was a red line that had been crossed. He would do something demanded of him and intervene… finally. If it would be effective and do any good was a different matter entirely.

I'm getting there soon enough.

You've hit the nail on the head with all of that. Other things will happen too but they are key events. Kennedy also has the issue of the coming election where he needs to be as tough as those who are talking tough.
Operation Blue Spike commences tonight.

(113)

April 1984:

The Pentagon had been putting together strike options for action against the regime in Mexico City for months now. Secretary of Defence Bentsen had authorised that planning; he hadn’t authorised the leak to the New York Times back in February of the scale of that planning where a lot had been revealed. Revision had been done and better security implemented to stop such leaks from reoccurring. No more Vietnams, had been a cry from some – isolationists of different political stripes from the left and right which agreed on the same thing though for different reasons – who had justified what they read to protest against planned military action. The new plans were multiple and varied in scale from full-scale military action to limited attacks. Outright eliminating the entire military capability of the communist forces of Tirado López was at one end of the scale; punishment actions against selected elements of those were at the other. Bentsen had been pushing for Kennedy to take action though not screaming atop his lungs like others in Washington. After news came of the Red Terror which took place first in Veracruz then later in Tampico, his hand was strengthened. Kennedy moved from not wanting to listen to now listening to the idea that the communists needed to be struck at less they take all of the US-recognised Northern Alliance and slaughter thousands more innocents. Furthermore, Bentsen’s concerns were shared by Tip O’Neil from the House: a far bigger influence on Kennedy. O’Neil let the president know how concerned Congress was about not just what the Mexican communists were doing but also the role played in this by Cuba and the LAComs too: Congressional committees were getting CIA briefings. What also motivated Kennedy to eventually start considering military action, something which he was so completely opposed to before for fear of a conflict spreading to war with the Soviet Union in the end, were further domestic issues where his reelection campaign was gravely under threat due to the inaction shown by his administration. Everyone was lining up against him. In the end, his mood shifted. He really hadn’t wanted to budge. The thought of losing in November was not pleasant and was that deciding factor. The terror bombing of Ciudad Victoria was an event where he declared that a red line had been crossed. The Mexican communists had shown their true colours. They were a threat to the security of the United States. His strong words on this matter were delivered to the American people in an address right after Kemp had won a massive victory in the Arizona Primary – Arizona had Mexican refugees – and while Kennedy won the state too, the turnout in the Democratic race was embarrassingly low. Kennedy’s presidential address told the country that the killing of innocents in Mexico would no longer be tolerated; neither would ‘foreign military interference’ in Mexico. On that last note, detractors would point out that Operation Blue Spike was just that: foreign military interference though this time from the United States.

Blue Spike was one of three air strike options presented to Kennedy by Bentsen and the Joint Chiefs; Blue Star and Blue Switch were the other two. These were computer-generated codenames from the Pentagon. Kennedy ‘s chief-of-staff complained that the name was uninspiring, especially as it had to be sold to the American people. The codename wasn’t being sold though, Bentsen’s retort came: stopping the ability of Tirado López to launch terror bombing against his own people was the aim. Anyway, it wasn’t Ham Sandwich or Merry Christmas. Blue Star and Blue Switch were plans for stronger, more-damaging air strikes than Blue Spike was. Kennedy went with the latter option. He preferred to let diplomacy do most of the work with Cuba and the Central American countries let know in no uncertain terms that the United States was serious and for his planned contact direct with new General Secretary Ustinov on the matter. The bombs sent south were actually secondary, something in addition to the diplomacy. In a private conversation after Kennedy authorised Blue Spike, Bentsen had to reprimand the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs for off-the-cuff remarks made about Kennedy showing weakness with Blue Spike. This was the president after all, the commander-in-chief. Far worse things were being said elsewhere. On April 16th, Kennedy declared a state of emergency through the Border States which were home to all of those refugees and released federal aid plus signed authorisation for FEMA to move in to assist the national guard forces of the four states along the US-Mexican border. Later that day he had the diplomatic offensive start where other countries were given notice that Mexico was off-limits. To complete what the White House press secretary would go on record as calling ‘strong presidential action’ in response to a ‘matter of serious national concern’, Kennedy sent the US Air Force southwards that night on an attack mission into Mexico.


Those Mirage F-1s at Zapopan airbase were targeted by Blue Spike. The strike package to hit the airbase was quite impressive regardless of what was said about Blue Spike. A squadron of F-111s with the 27th Tactical Fighter Wing flying from Cannon AFB in New Mexico struck with laser-guided Paveway bombs. Those 2000lb high-explosive weapons were targeted upon the aircraft and the associated support at Zapopan to keep them flying. Escorting the strike-bombers – to deal with any Mexican air interference when really the F-111s could defend themselves against anything the Mexicans could throw at them – were a squadron of F-15s with the 49th Tactical Fighter Wing also based in New Mexico and this time at Holloman AFB. There were tankers in support, stand-off electronic warfare aircraft, airborne radar aircraft and air-rescue aircraft as well to pick up any downed aircrews. It was a big deal. The US Air Force had the capability to do a lot more than it did with such a force. Those F-111s rained bombs down upon Zapopan while the F-15s circled at a distance (in multiple groups) just itching for the radio call to come that the Mexican communists, maybe even the Cubans somehow, were in the sky. With the airbase being near to the city of Guadalajara, the use of laser-guided bombs was a mission priority and they showed their worth in hitting the right targets and not going anywhere near civilians in that city. Kennedy had personally been involved in that, something which had irked the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, someone who had no wish to kill civilians either but had been in uniform during Vietnam when there had been political micro-management like that then. The bombs slammed into the airbase one after another blowing it and the aircraft there to pieces.

No friendly casualties were taken and the aircraft returned to Cannon and Holloman. Post-strike reconnaissance done by a satellite with its orbit re-tasked showed the mission a full success. Those Mexican aircraft were out of action for good, so too a lot of people who had been at the airbase. High-fives were for everyone involved. At the Pentagon the next morning, Bentsen briefed the press in a big event and then there were one-on-ones with friendly journalists afterwards. Blue Spike showed the intention of the Kennedy Administration not to sit idly by while civilians were massacred. Kennedy gave an interview that evening to ABC News where he spoke of how the warning would be understood elsewhere in the region. He looked serious, he talked tough. Everyone was supposed to take notice at home with the voters and abroad with the governments which he had diplomats talking to. This was the solution to everything. The United States had acted and would do so again too, if that was necessary.

But it wasn’t the solution it was believed to be. Fighting continued outside Ciudad Victoria where the two opposing armies carried on shooting at each other. The communists were held here and wouldn’t be taking that city anytime soon. However, in the following days, they did manage to take Torreon though, up in the state of Coahuila and from where the Northern Alliance had pulled fighters from to hold the line at Ciudad Victoria. Tirado López wasn’t intimated by the loss of those aircraft into inaction around Torreon with a full-scale assault to take it and therefore seal the fate of resistance to his regime in Mexico City from Sinaloa away to the west by cutting them off fully. Blue Spike only encouraged him with the weakness he saw in one air strike against a target such as those aircraft that had limited value in real military terms in their current condition. He gave orders – on the advice of those Nicaraguans with him leading his military forces – for the entry of covert teams towards the northern cities of Chihuahua and Saltillo as well to act as a fifth column for later attacks. The Monterrey Government doomed themselves by begging the Americans for aid and his opinion was that once the people under their control realized how the gringos had been called upon to help, his own cause of reuniting his country would be emboldened. In Havana and Managua, Castro and the Ortega brothers took no notice of the warnings / coded threats from Kennedy’s emissaries. Weapons and other support would keep being sent to Tirado López. At home, domestically for Kennedy, Blue Spike wasn’t the answer to the issue of the president’s embattled administration. Congress was still demanding full support for the Monterrey Government with arms transfers and full air support: a naval blockade of Mexico, like what Kennedy’s brother had placed around Cuba in 1962, was demanded by some there. Others almost screamed for Kennedy’s impeachment after what was seen as such a weak response. And the Mexican refugees? They kept heading north, many actually choosing to leave after what they heard – rumours it must be said – of Blue Spike for they feared that the civil war was now only going to get worse now the Americans were involved. Safety for them was up over the border, across in the United States were so many more of their fellow Mexican citizens had already sought that. Each and every intention of Blue Spike saw failure apart from the destruction of some aircraft.

They did have those still, but in the previous update I mentioned they brought some of those French-built Iraqi-embargoed jets which Paris was hawking about to anyone who would take them.
In addition, I previously also discussed the regional security role which Mexico was trying to play and the effects of Guatemala going communist in making Mexico having a slightly-stronger military. Those French jets are ashes now though.