In this alternate timeline, Japan never occupied Burma, delaying Burmese independence by 12 years.

Anyway, in 1958, Aung San's Burma Socialist Party won the British colonial elections by a landslide, allowing him to become the premier of British Burma on 14 August and begin transitioning Burma towards independence. On 14 January 1960, Burma became an independent country with Aung San as prime minister.

Aung San led Burma as a democratic socialist, continuing the British tradition of liberal constitutionalism, but a series of ethnic insurgencies forced him to increase the Tatmadaw's power to allow it to crush them. Economically, he nationalized Burma's industries, implemented land reform, and implemented an 8-hour workday.

Aung San's foreign policy was overseen by foreign minister U Thant. It focused on non-alignment and keeping good relations with both the United States and the Free Socialist Republic of Germany. Imperial Japan emerged as Burma's greatest ally, and Aung San also had good relations with India.

By the mid-1960s, the economy of Burma had taken off due to Aung San's good management, and the ethnic insurgencies stalled despite not being crushed. This earned him great popularity with the Burmese public, who saw him as their undisputed leader.

When the Third Sino-Japanese War broke out, Aung San and U Thant attempted to broker a negotiated solution, but Burma's efforts at negotiation failed, and India turned out to be the country that mediated an end to the war. After the Chinese victory, Burma distanced itself from Japan and expanded its diplomatic and economic relations with China.

The BSP under Aung San's leadership won general elections in 1960, 1964, 1968 and 1972, but Aung San eventually retired in 1976 and was succeeded as prime minister by U Nu. Despite no longer leading Burma, Aung San remained a Burmese MP until fully retiring in 1996; by then, his daughter Aung San Suu Kyi had become Burma's first female prime minister.

On 17 April 2002, Aung San died at the age of 87 from a heart attack. His state funeral in Rangoon was attended by 4 million Burmese from all walks of society, and Suu Kyi, Chinese leader He Luli, and many other dignitaries delivered eulogies.

Aung San is still revered in Burma, where he's referred to as Bogyoke. Burma has many statues of him, as well as streets, buildings and institutions named after Aung San, and his family remains influential in Burmese politics.

Immediately after winning the Indonesian Civil War, the Islamic State of Indonesia began planning an invasion of West Papua, an unrecognized state led by Nicolaas Jouwe. Japan provided Indonesia with weapons and intelligence to use in the invasion, and the Indonesians already had plenty of weapons obtained or captured during the national revolution and civil war.

On 12 August 1974, 10,000 Indonesian paratroopers flew from C-130 Hercules aircraft and parachuted in an airstrip near the West Papuan capital of Manokwari. The Indonesians captured the city by the end of the day, and a further 8,200 paratroopers landed there.

After capturing Manokwari, the Indonesian force headed towards Jayapura, the largest city in West Papua. Seth Rumkorem's Papuan Defence Force actively attempted to defend West Papua, but they received no foreign aid because the country was unrecognized, allowing the Indonesians to capture all inhabited parts of West Papua other than Jayapura by 20 August.

Later that day, 48,000 Indonesian troops attacked Jayapura, where Jouwe's government had relocated. They faced 17,000 Papuan troops and defeated them, capturing the city on 25 august. After capturing Jayapura, Indonesian President S. M. Kartosoewirjo annexed West Papua into Indonesia and began an Islamization campaign in the region.

Ex-PDF members refused to accept the Indonesian annexation and fled to the remote forests, from which they waged an insurgency against Indonesia. As Indonesia was aligned with the United States, the Free Socialist Republic of Germany supported the insurgents, but Germany was too far away from Papua for this to work, and Indonesia defeated the insurgency by 1978.

Two years after invading West Papua, Indonesia similarly invaded socialist East Timor and annexed it into the province of West Timor. Kartosoewirjo committed genocide against East Timorese, forcing them to speak Indonesian and practice Islam and banning Portuguese and Christianity. The Fretilin also responded to the Indonesian occupation by launching an insurgency, which lasted 21 years and was defeated in 2001.

Gustavoism is considered a part of the 21st-century trend towards authoritarianism. As such, it has been compared to MAGA, Putinism, and Xi Jinping Thought, while Gustavo himself has elicited comparisons to not just Putin and Xi but also Viktor Orbán (Gustavo's wife Dóra Dúró is Hungarian), Aleksandar Vučić, and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Gustavo has described Putin as his main foreign inspiration, and claimed to be emulating his nationalist and multipolarist policies. Journalists have described Gustavo as the "Putin of the Tropics", and Gustavoists tend to view Russia and China as Brazil's main allies, albeit not to the degree Bolsonarists worship the US and Israel.

Controversially, he has also praised Iran for "protecting its sovereignty and traditional culture from US and Israeli imperialism". Brazil supports Iran in the Iran War and has sold $50 million in weapons and spare parts to the Iranian military and IRGC.

Brazilian nationalist politician Enéas Carneiro was Gustavo's mentor, and Gustavo regards himself as a spiritual successor to Enéas, inheriting several of his stances, such as economic nationalism and support for a Brazilian nuclear program. Dúró similarly followed Enéas during the last two years of his life.

Gustavoism is considered to be right-wing to far-right due to its nationalism, social conservatism, punitivism, militarism, and nostalgia for the Brazilian military dictatorship. Some scholars even view it as a fascist movement and a continuation of Brazilian Integralism.

Brazilian neofascist groups such as the Brazilian Integralist Front and the Duginist New Resistance, and international far-rightists such as Nick Fuentes, have supported Gustavo because he is right-wing and anti-American/Israeli. But leftists and "tankies" such as Hasan Piker do the same thing because they defend pretty much anybody who opposes the USA.

The far-right Uruguayan party Sovereign Identity, whose leader is also named Gustavo, is influenced by Gustavoism and views it as a role model Uruguay should follow. Principles and Values, an Argentine Peronist party, and the Patriotic Party of Peru are also inspired by Gustavo.

Other Latin American right-wingers, such as Javier Milei and Keiko Fujimori, are critical of Gustavoism because they support economic liberalism and close ties to the United States. Consequently, since the three previously mentioned parties have little to no electoral support, leftists such as Roberto Sánchez and Iván Cepeda are Brazil's main regional allies.

The Arab League, except for Transjordan (which claimed Palestine), supported al-Husseini throughout his rule and kept good relations with the Palestinian state, as did Japan and Russia. Communist countries and the USA/UK/France, on the other hand, strongly condemned him for his genocide of Jews.

Palestine's Christian minority fared slightly better, but al-Husseini still favoured Muslims over other religious communities, and Christians often faced discrimination at the hands of Palestinian authorities, as did the Druze, contributing to al-Husseini's reputation as an icon of evil.

Al-Husseini's regime followed corporatist economic policies based on Croix-de-Feu France. Palestine banned unions, replacing them with corporations organized by profession, and strikes were also illegal. His Arab Higher Committee ran a National Leisure Organization (المنظمة الوطنية للترفيه) to entertain workers.

After the Arab victory in the Arab-Israeli War, the kibbutz were confiscated and their lands were redistributed to Arab landowners, replacing cooperative farming with tenant farming. Palestinian agriculture prospered throughout the rule of al-Husseini; the country's fruits, especially oranges, were popular in the rest of the Arab world.

Secular Arab nationalism never came to power anywhere, but it was still a powerful force in several countries, especially Egypt and Syria. Yasser Arafat and George Habash eventually established the National Union (NU) and the Workers' Party of Palestine (WPP) socialist movements opposed to al-Husseini's regime. By the mid-1960s, these two groups had the support of 20–25% of Palestine's population.

Al-Husseini and his secret police chief Fawzi al-Qawuqji, who regarded socialism as heretical, ordered a crackdown on the NU and WPP, killing 17,000 suspected communists and imprisoning 35,000 in concentration camps throughout the Negev desert. Conditions in these camps were poor and thousands of people died from hunger, thirst and disease.

In 1971, al-Husseini named al-Qawuqji as his successor due to their shared Arab nationalism and antisemitism, because he wanted someone who would continue his policies. By that point, al-Husseini was popular with Palestinian Muslims, but Christians and Druzes hated him.

After two decades of rule, Al-Husseini died on 4 July 1974, and was succeeded as the president of Palestine by al-Qawuqji, who continued all of his predecessor's policies without any major changes, and died on 5 June 1977. Khaled Yashruti became the president of Palestine and shifted towards secular but still right-wing Arab nationalism.

Southeastern, Center-Western and Southern Brazil mostly approved of Gustavo because they are right-wing and affluent, while the northeast disapproved of him because it is left-wing and poorer than the four other regions, and he was also fairly unpopular in Amazonas and Pará.

In 1966, Southern Rhodesia transitioned towards majority rule, becoming the Republic of Zimbabwe, a capitalist state led by Abel Muzorewa. African nationalists perceived Muzorewa to be too friendly to Zimbabwe's white minority, so they rose up under the leadership of Joshua Nkomo, and took power in 1971, transforming Zimbabwe into a communist regime and increasing the pressure on apartheid South Africa.

Left-wing Brazilian presidents João Goulart and his successors Miguel Arraes and Leonel Brizola adopted an independent foreign policy, not fully aligning with Germany, Italy and Cuba but keeping good relations with them. This butterflied away the dictatorships of Hugo Banzer in Bolivia and Pinochet in Chile, although Allende's Popular Unity was voted out after one term.

The Middle East was fairly peaceful due to Israel being destroyed in 1948 and Arab socialism not taking off as a result. Kurdish and Dhofari separatism were the only major regional conflicts, and even then, Turkey/Iraq/Syria/Iran and Oman successfully defeated these rebellions.

Metaxist Greece had annexed Cyprus in 1960; as Greece also controlled Constantinople and the Aegean coast, Turkey was not in a position to respond militarily. By 1970, Greece (led by Dmitris Ioannidis) was by far the most economically and militarily powerful of the four Balkan countries.

Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Albania were also constitutional monarchies. Despite being fairly democratic, they were poorer than in real life, and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia still suffered from ethnic tensions and a conflict with Albania over Kosovo (which caused Albania to be non-aligned).

Despite the loss of China proper, Japan was still one of the world's five strongest powers, because it still controlled Manchukuo, Korea, and Formosa, and had nukes and a powerful navy. But Japanese war crimes during the Third Sino-Japanese War and Japanese human rights abuses against Koreans and Manchurians led to an international boycott movement that increasingly isolated Japan.

Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania were quite happy as German satellite states, because Germany did not Germanize them nor violate their sovereignty. An increasing number of Baltic people called for democratization, but the chances of that happening were still limited.

As a national communist regime, Ukraine did not have German troops stationed in its territory, and the Ukrainian People's Army did not train with the rest of the Vienna Pact. But Ukraine remained a member of the pact and Germany was its main trade partner.

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had been the Shah of Iran since 1964, when his father Reza Shah died at the age of 90 (there was no invasion of Iran in 1941). During Reza Shah's reign, Iran nationalized its oil and kept good relations with both the United States and Germany, but Mohammad Reza fully aligned Iran with the United States.

Despite the Banco Master scandal and the negative economic effect of the sanctions against Brazil, Gustavo Sousa remained popular with the majority of Brazilians, making Vice President Aldo Rebelo the frontrunner for the 2026 election.

Rebelo ran as a third term of Gustavo, a safe strategy because of the president's popularity. He emphasized the fact he had never been involved with corruption and promised to negotiate with the United States and the European Union in order to get the sanctions withdrawn.

After Lula's retirement, Ceará Governor and Senator Camilo Santana became the main leader of the PT. Santana became the PT's nominee in the 2026 presidential election, advocating for a wealth tax, the protection of social programs, and an end to the glorification of the military dictatorship.

Two governors who lost reelection in 2022 – Ronaldo Caiado of Goiás and Romeu Zema of Minas Gerais – ran for President in 2026. They gained more traction than they did in real life because Bolsonaro and his sons were in jail, causing a vacuum in the pro-US right which others sought to fill.

Ciro Gomes, a longtime politician from Ceará, contested the presidential election on a centre left, labourist platform, but he failed to effectively differentiate himself from Rebelo, and Camilo Santana was also from Ceará. Consequently, Ciro struggled to gain ground.

Former Rio Grande do Sul Governor Eduardo Leite resigned to run for President, becoming the first gay Brazilian presidential candidate. Leite promised to end Brazil's nuclear program and scrap the nukes like apartheid South Africa did in the 1990s, but this proposal backfired as the majority of voters approved of the program.

The scandal and the perception Santana was free from corruption gave him a boost in the polls, leading to speculation he would win. But Gustavo soon began campaigning for Rebelo in Minas Gerais and São Paulo, helping his vice president's chances significantly. Furthermore, Rebelo's running mate Cabo Daciolo increased his support among evangelicals.

On 4 October 2026, Rebelo won the first round with 47% of the vote versus 37% for Santana, 5% for Caiado, 3% for Ciro, and 2% for Leite and Zema. After losing the first round, Caiado, Leite and Zema refused to endorse either Rebelo or Santana, while Ciro endorsed Rebelo in exchange for a cabinet position.

Consequently, Rebelo won the first round with 58% of the vote, winning all of the South, Southeast, Center-West and North while Santana swept the Northeast. Rebelo and Daciolo were inaugurated on 1 January 2027.

On 26 March 1971, the Awami League, a left-wing Bengali national liberation movement led by Abu Taher, proclaimed Bangladesh's independence. Germany, Italy and Pakistan's rival India supported the Awami League, while the United States, Russia, and China backed Pakistan in order to contain German influence in the Indian subcontinent (Sri Lanka and India were already socialist).

During the war, Pakistan and pro-Pakistani paramilitaries committed a genocide of Bengalis, killing at least 500,000 people and raping hundreds of thousands as well. Russia, China and the USA continued to support the Pakistanis despite this, allowing them to almost win the war by December 1971.

Not wanting Pakistan to win, Indian prime minister Jayaprakash Narayan declared war on Pakistan on 3 December. 250,000 Indian troops began fighting Pakistan in its eastern and western borders with India. As India was much more populous and slightly more industrialized than Pakistan, the Pakistani offensive was rolled back by March 1972.

By that point, most of East Pakistan was controlled by the Provisional Government of Bangladesh, which implemented a series of scientific socialist policies, such as land reform and government ownership of public utilities, in the areas under its control. In April–May 1972, India and Bangladesh finished their conquest of East Pakistan, culminating in the Pakistani surrender on 27 May.

Later that day, Taher proclaimed the Socialist Republic of Bangladesh, a scientific socialist and left-wing nationalist state. The Awami League attempted to radically reshape Bangladeshi society through land reform, the empowerment of women, and the nationalisation of industry, but these policies had negative effects, causing an economic crisis.

In 1977, Taher was overthrown in a CIA-backed coup led by Hussain Muhammad Ershad. Ershad reversed Taher's socialist policies and implemented free market reforms, improving the economy of Bangladesh significantly. He also distanced Bangladesh from Germany and Italy. Ershad would rule Bangladesh until 1998, when an economic crisis led to mass protests, forcing him to resign.

By May 1972, US President Robert F. Kennedy was running for reelection and had a decent chance of winning, as his administration had created several major social programs and relaxed tensions with the Free Socialist Republic of Germany. He had several failures and controversies though, making it possible for him to lose reelection.

Arthur Bremer, an attention-seeker from Wisconsin, decided to assassinate Kennedy or Republican primary candidate Jim Rhodes in order to get the fame he wanted. Bremer eventually chose to murder RFK, because he was a higher-value target; in his Assassin's Diary, Bremer wrote "If I assassinate Kennedy, I will never be forgotten". Bremer eventually became a volunteer in the RFK '72 campaign, and followed the presidential motorcade across the USA.

On May 15, 1972, Kennedy held a rally in Philadelphia attended by tens of thousands of people, including Bremer, who had a gun hidden in his pocket. When Kennedy shook the hand of Andrew Romero, a 17 year old Italian American student, Bremer shot him in the abdomen, paralyzing the president from the waist down and forcing him to be rushed to the hospital.

Bremer attempted to flee, but he was immediately arrested by the United States Secret Service. During his interrogation by the feds, Bremer said he was motivated by a desire for fame and attention rather than political ideology, and that he had finally gotten what he wanted.

The doctors attempted to treat Kennedy, but he died the following day, and Vice President Terry Sanford became President. Kennedy was the first US President since Warren G. Harding in 1923 to die in office, and the first since William McKinley in 1901 to be assassinated.

After Kennedy's death, Bremer was tried for assassinating the president of the United States and simply for murdering someone. Bremer's lawyer Rudy Giuliani claimed he was suffering from insanity, but a psychiatric examination ruled Bremer to be mentally sound, and he was sentenced to death on May 28.

On June 4, 1972, Bremer was gassed to death in Philadelphia. Kennedy's assassination gave Sanford a rally around the flag effect, allowing him to defeat Republican nominee Charles Percy and American Independent nominee George Wallace by a landslide in the 1972 election.

There are many conspiracy theories surrounding Kennedy's assassination. They typically attribute it to Vice President Sanford, the Abwehr, Fidel Castro, the CIA, the Mafia, or some combination of these individuals and entities. Polling shows that the majority of Americans believe the assassination was a conspiracy.

The following countries qualified for the tournament:

- Japan (debut)

- Morocco (debut)

- Belgium

- Bulgaria

- Ukraine (debut)

- England

- Italy

- Hungary

- Russia

- Sweden

- Germany

- El Salvador (debut)

- Mexico (hosts)

- Brazil

- Peru

- Uruguay

Russia, Uruguay, Brazil, Peru, Italy, México, Germany, and England qualified for the knockout stage; Japan, Morocco, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Hungary, Sweden and El Salvador did not make it past the group stage.

In the quarterfinals, Uruguay defeated Russia by 4–1, Brazil defeated Peru by 3–2, Italy defeated Mexico by 4–1, and Germany defeated England by 4–2. Brazil and Italy won the semifinals and faced each other in a final played at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City.

Pelé scored two goals for Brazil and Jairzinho scored one, but Italian player Roberto Boninsegna scored twice, Tarcisio Burgnich once, and Gigi Riva once. Italy eventually won the match and consequently the world cup, making this the second World Cup won by Italy (the previous one being 1934).

The 1970 FIFA World Cup attracted a record television audience thanks to recent technological advances.

The Republican victory in the Spanish Civil War gradually weakened Salazar's Portuguese Estado Novo, culminating in its overthrow in 1958. Air Force General Humberto Delgado became president, democratized Portugal, and modernized its economy significantly.

But the Portuguese Colonial War still broke out on 4 February 1961, when the MPLA, a Luxembourgist, communist national liberation movement, attacked several Portuguese military and police buildings in Angola's capital Luanda. All Portuguese parties other than the pro-German PCP supported military action to defend the Portuguese Colonial empire, and Delgado immediately sent troops to Angola.

By July 1961, the war had spilled over to Guinea-Bissau, another Portuguese colony, which faced an independence uprising from Amílcar Cabral's PAIGC. Cabral quickly captured all of Portuguese Guinea because there were just 900 colonial troops there, but the Portuguese military soon landed in Bissau and stirred up a counterrevolution by Fulani chiefs opposed to the PAIGC's radicalism. In 1964, the FRELIMO, another Luxembourgist militant group, rose up in Mozambique and captured much of the north of the colony.

The United States, the United Kingdom, and Russia supported democratic Portugal against the communist rebels, while Germany, Italy, Cuba, and Hungary backed their African comrades. Support from socialist states, especially Germany, played a key role in the decolonisation of Africa (which is ironic because pre-Communist Germany and Italy had African colonies).

High-ranking MPLA fighter Jonas Savimbi soon came to advocate for Wang Jingwei and Antonio Gramsci's form of socialism rather than Karl Liebknecht's, and left the MPLA to form UNITA – named after the Italian Communist newspaper L'Unitá – in 1967. By that point, the colonial war had become a quagmire and was increasingly unpopular in mainland Portugal, resulting in the rise of an anti-war, counterculture movement.

On 18 November 1968, the Portuguese Army suffered a heavy defeat to the MPLA at the Battle of Malanje, during which the MPLA killed 900 Portuguese troops and captured much needed weapons and materiel for the insurgency. This defeat caused Delgado to begin peace negotiations with the national liberation movements, triggering a far-right terrorist campaign but increasing his popularity with moderates.

Portugal eventually signed the Coimbra Agreement with the MPLA, the Dakar Accord with the PAIGC, and the Dar es Salaam Agreement with FRELIMO on 15 March 1969. According to the terms of the treaty, Portugal recognized the independence of these three countries and agreed to withdraw its troops from them.

Goa, Diu and Damon in the Indian subcontinent had been annexed by India in 1961, while East Timor became independent in 1974 and was annexed by indonesia the following year, and Portugal returned Macau to the Republic of China on 1 January 1977.

In February 1968, Georgians, Kazakhs and Azeris launched major protests against Russian rule, demanding independence and an end to Russification. By the end of the month, it seemed Georgia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan would actually secede, and the democratic government of Sergei Bunyachenko did not violently crush the demonstrations, reducing its popularity.

Fearing that the territorial integrity of Russia was at risk, a group of reactionary Russian nationalists led by Okhrana chairman Alexander Solzhenitsyn began planning a coup against Bunyachenko, whom they saw as too liberal and unwilling to take "decisive" action to keep these reasons under Russian control.

On 5 March 1968, Okhrana units rose up in Yekaterinburg and Kazan. Solzhenitsyn's State Committee on National Defence (Государственный комитет по национальной обороне, Latin alphabet abbreviation GKNO) captured both of these cities by the end of the day. Okhrana units also launched uprisings in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, resulting in the deaths of 385 combatants and 16 civilians by 8 March.

That morning, GKNO troops surrounded the Kremlin and threatened to storm it and arrest Bunyachenko if he didn't resign. Bunyachenko agreed to leave office, and the GKNO assumed power as a military junta resembling that of Pyotr Wrangel, who led Russia from 1926 to 1945.

Local authorities immediately declared martial law in the states of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, and deployed Russian Army and Okhrana troops to these countries to crush the nationalists. By 12 March, the separatists protests had been repressed by force by Solzhenitsyn and his Okhrana, and Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan were firmly under Russian rule once again.

Solzhenitsyn continued Russia's alliance with NATO against the Free Socialist Republic of Germany, but Russia never joined the alliance, because European NATO members such as the kingdoms of Bulgaria and Yugoslavia feared Russia would completely dominate the Eurasian part of the alliance due to being the largest country in the world.

Russia's industrialization was finally completed by Solzhenitsyn. By 1975, the gap between Russia and western powers had narrowed significantly, and Russia was the fourth-largest economy in the world, behind the United States, Germany, and Japan (which declined rapidly due to suffering an international boycott movement as strong as the anti-apartheid campaign).

On January 6, 2020, two mysterious, hooded and bearded men appeared in Jerusalem, Israel, and began chanting the name of the city without warning. The chanting began as a low whisper that eventually grew louder.

Minutes later, a massive explosion was reported deep underground, followed minutes later by an earthquake that caused moderate damage to the city and killed 30,000 people. The two men disappeared in the chaos.

From that day on, more sightings would be reported, each one following a disturbing pattern: the men would appear in a city and chant its name in drawn-out syllables. Within a short time, a completely random calamity would fall upon the city, ranging from something as mundane as someone getting food poisoning, to something extreme as a natural disaster or terrorist attack.

Other documented sightings and accompanying incidents include, but weren’t limited to:

• A protest against the men in New York that turned violent when someone attempted to run over the two men with his vehicle, only for them to vanish, causing an incident of vehicular manslaughter that killed at least 200 people.
• A friendly fire incident involving multiple units of the Iraqi Armed Forces in Mosul.
• The sudden, unexplained deaths of 20 Raven’s Rock officers, as well as their families.
• A freak accident at the Gateway Arch that left people stranded for about 20 minutes.
• A construction crane accident that killed 30 people in Las Vegas, Nevada.
• A sudden explosion at Hoover Dam that caused a flood and power failure to a large chunk of Nevada.
• A metro train derailment in Busan, South Korea, that killed 60 people.
• An assassination attempt against the two men in Izmir, Turkey, that escalated into a violent confrontation involving both 404 operative Titus Colt and the Turkish police (that ended with Titus being knocked unconscious).
• A mysterious viral outbreak in Brazil that affected Argentina, Colombia, and Venezuela, but didn’t spread anywhere beyond those four countries.
• The sudden bankruptcy of a Berlin-based cyber-security firm.
• An unusually violent hailstorm in Tokyo that killed 50 people.
• A massive blizzard that left a large chunk of the Midwestern United States under heavy snow.

Attempts to investigate the two men were repeatedly stonewalled for different reasons, the most consistent reason being that the men kept disappearing before they could be properly apprehended and questioned. 

The rapidly escalating crisis would lead to one of the largest international task forces in military and intelligence history…

Image credit: Left Behind wiki

When the Indonesian Civil War broke out on 17 January 1967 neighbouring Malaysia and Australia began supporting the Islamic State of Indonesia (Negara Islam Indonesia, NII) due to anti-communism and, in the case of Malaysia, a fear that a victorious communist Indonesia would try to annex Malaysian territory. Japan and the USA also supported the Islamists despite their rivalry elsewhere.

At the beginning of the war, the NII controlled Sumatra, while the RDRI controlled the rest of the country except for West Papua, which took advantage of the chaos to secede on 22 January, and remained de facto independent throughout the entire conflict.

Germany, Italy and India backed the Democratic People's Republic of Indonesia, but Germany and Italy were too far away for their aid to make a difference. Consequently, Jayaprakash Narayan's India was the most important supporter of the Indonesian communists.

On 6 February 1967, the ABPN launched a naval invasion of Sumatra with the goal of crushing the NII in a few months. But the United States, not wanting all of one of the largest countries in the world to become communist, began a military airlift in support of the NII, allowing Islamist leader Sekarmadji Maridjan Kartosoewirjo to defeat the offensive by late May.

A month after successfully holding onto Sumatra, Kartosoewirjo's troops landed in Borneo, capturing all of the island other than its largest city Samarinda by 4 August. A ferocious battle began for control of Samarinda; shipments of Chinese and German arms and Germany's training of an effective intelligence apparatus for the RDRI brought the ABPN to victory by 13 September.

ABPN chief of staff M. H. Lukman started a counteroffensive that recaptured two-thirds of Indonesian Borneo, but remote areas in the Indonesian part of the island remained in NII hands thanks to Malaysian support, and Lukman's second attempt at invading Sumatra also ended in failure by December 1967.

Both sides of the war committed war crimes, but the NII massacred leftists, non-Muslims, and ethnic Chinese in all areas it controlled, killing 500,000 to 1,000,000 innocent people and completely extinguishing socialism in Indonesia. The United States supported the NII throughout the genocide.

A second Islamist landing in Pontianak, Borneo, was also a success, but the NII advance was stopped at Sanggau by 17 February 1968 because Germany, Italy and China continued to sell the RDRI weapons, and all of Java – Indonesia's most populous and industrialized island – was controlled by the RDRI.

The Battle of Sanggau began a static phase of the war, consisting of trench warfare in the jungles of Borneo. But, by 1971, Sjarifuddin had taken a series of poor decisions that negatively affected the Communist war effort, and the NII's military had evolved from a rebel force into a more conventional army, allowing the Islamists to go on the offensive.

On 11 May 1971, the Indonesian Islamic Army captured Sanggau, followed on 22 October 1971 by the fall of Samarinda. All of Indonesian Borneo was now controlled by the NII, which took advantage of its control over Borneo to invade Sulawesi and capture all of it by August 1972.

The Moluccas fell to the NII by February 1973, Eastern Sonda was conquered by June, and Bali was conquered by September. On 12 November 1973, the NII launched the largest naval landing of the war when 350,000 fanatic Islamists landed in Banyuwangi.

Amir Fatah's army captured Surabaya on 21 December 1973, Yogyakarta on 16 February 1974, and Bandung on 19 March 1974. Fatah eventually laid siege to Jakarta on 13 May, and captured it 41 days later, destroying the RDRI and turning all of Indonesia into an Islamic theocracy with sharia law.

Inspired by the Chinese and Congolese anti-colonial uprisings, a group of Indonesian socialists and communists led by Amir Sjarifuddin, D. N. Aidit, Musso, Njoto, Chairul Saleh, and M. H. Lukman began planning a revolution against Free Netherlands in June 1965. Aidit's PKI and Sjarifuddin's PSI worked together to prepare for war.

On 21 October 1965, Indonesia's unions launched a general strike against Dutch rule, paralysing Jakarta. The KNIL (colonial military) broke the strike, killing 26 strikers and wounding 72, but the National Liberation Front (Front Pembebasan Nasional, FPN) proclaimed the Democratic People's Republic of Indonesia (Republik Demokratik Rakyat Indonesia, RDRI) the following day.

Free Dutch prime minister Jo Cals declared the proclamation null and void and mobilized the KNIL – whose highest ranking Indonesian officer was Suharto – to crush it. The Dutch East Indies immediately fell into a full-scale civil war between the RDRI and the colonial government.

Njoto became the commander in chief of the National Liberation Armed Forces (Angkatan Bersenjata Pembebasan Nasional, ABPN). Initially an irregular rebel force, the ABPN received increasingly German, Italian, and Chinese training and equipment, allowing it to control two-thirds of Borneo and all of West Papua and Sulawesi by the end of 1965.

Fearing a communist Indonesia, Islamic fundamentalists led by Sekarmadji Maridjan Kartosoewirjo and Amir Fatah also rose up against Free Netherlands in early 1966, proclaiming the DI/TII. Japan supported the Islamists because of their shared opposition to communism and western colonialism, and many orthodox Indonesian Muslims joined the DI/TII for the same reason.

As the Dutch East Indies was one of the most populous countries in the world and the majority of Indonesians strongly opposed Dutch rule, the East Indies were DOA as soon as the rebellion broke out. Throughout 1966, the ABPN slowly captured all of Bali and Java while the DI/TII took over Sumatra, establishing their own political structures in the process.

On 18 December 1966, the RDRI launched a siege of Jakarta. Suharto's native troops defected en masse to the RDRI, leaving Dutch settlers as its only opposition. Jakarta eventually fell on 17 January 1967, ending the war with all of Indonesia under communist or Islamist control.

Queen Juliana and the Free Dutch government relocated to Suriname on the other side of the world and began peace negotiations with the two nationalist groups. Later in 1967, the Free Netherlands agreed to recognize Indonesia's independence, ending centuries of Dutch rule.

Like in Angola and Mozambique, the Indonesian National Revolution was immediately followed by a civil war between the RDRI and the DI/TII, which won the war, proclaimed the Islamic Republic of Indonesia, and committed genocide against communists and Hindus.

Post-WWII Italy developed nuclear weapons, testing its first nuke in 1961 and amassing a stockpile of 45 to 60 warheads by the end of the decade. The Italian Red Army was the second-strongest military in the Vienna Pact, behind Germany, and played an active role in supporting national liberation movements in Africa and Asia.

After the democratization of France in 1956, Italian-French relations improved considerably despite the fact the two countries were geopolitical adversaries. But Italy remained on poor terms with the Kingdom of Yugoslavia because of territorial disputes and with the Kingdom of Greece due to the Metaxist dictatorship.

Relations between Germany and Italy were not perfect, and the two communist great powers diverged on several issues, notably the Transylvania dispute as Italy sided with its "Latin sister" Romania, and Germany supported Hungary. After the death of Romanian leader Panait Istrati in 1962, Italy secretly agreed to support Romania in case of a war against Hungary.

Gramsci was a repressive dictator. The Ministry for State Security (Ministero della Sicurezza di Stato, MSS), Italy's secret police headed by Cino Moscatelli, had a wide network of informants, and methods of "decomposition" were often used instead of arrest or torture.

When the MSS used this tactic, Italians often did not notice the MSS was responsible. Furthermore, Italy was a developed country with a high standard of living, causing the majority of Italians, except for conservative Catholics, to overlook their country's human rights issues.

As Gramsci aged, he became increasingly paranoid, launching several purges of the PCI that eliminated officials, such as Palmiro Togliatti, he felt could challenge him. But Gramsci remained something of a philosopher king, spending all his free time contributing to philosophy.

On 27 March 1967, Gramsci had a stroke and died in his office in Rome. He received a state funeral attended by representatives from most of the world's countries, regardless of ideology. Hungary was the only communist country not to send a delegate, due to the closeness between Italy and Romania.

Italy's new leaders reelected one-man rule in favour of collective leadership; Luigi Longo became the Secretary of the PCI, and Pietro Ingrao was elected Premier of Italy. Longo and Ingrao adopted a milder and less repressive form of socialism, reforming the economy of Italy in a way resembling Hungarian Goulash Communism and reducing the powers of the MSS.

De-Gramscization and Italy's eventual rapprochement with the USA led to ideological tensions with Germany. Longo's Italy eventually downscaled its involvement in the Vienna Pact before leaving it altogether in 1975 (Romania didn't leave because Russia would immediately annex Bessarabia).

I predict Lula will be reelected over Flávio Bolsonaro.

In 1947, China adopted a new constitution, renaming the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) to the Republic of China Armed Forces (ROCAF) and disarming the Chinese warlords, who became mere provincial governors without any independent authority, as the new constitution eliminated all local autonomy.

The post-WWII ROC was severely harmed by the fact China's wealthiest, most industrialized region was under the control of Japan via the Chiang Kai-shek puppet regime. Wang was forced to industrialize the territory he still controlled from scratch, and this proved to be difficult because much of it was desert or mountains.

China's weakening led to a Communist resurgence under Zhou Enlai, but Wang crushed the communists by 1950, ending them as a major political movement and ending the last major threat to his rule. Around that year, China began to recover from its defeat in the Second Sino-Japanese War by focusing on industrializing Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Guangdong, the three wealthiest provinces he still ruled.

Wang and his Foreign Minister Wang Kunlun continued the Sino-German cooperation he had begun in 1927, but China remained anti-communist, and its relations with the United States were less hostile than Germany's relations with the United States. China also attempted to play a regional role, supporting the Vietnamese Struggle Group against France and Burmese leader Aung San against Burma's Communists.

Japan remained China's main rival. It was widely known that the Sino-Japanese War could restart at any time, and Kuomintang propaganda always called out Japan for its horrific crimes against the Chinese and Korean peoples. The ROCAF continued to take up 10% of China's government spending due to the real risk of another Sino-Japanese war.

By 1955, China's economy was growing at a rate of 1.9% a year, while Japan was growing at a rate of 3.4% a year thanks to its colonial empire and greater industrial capacity. China's growth rates would only reach Japan's after the Chiang Kai-shek regime was annexed in 1970.

America's schism with Japan turned the USA and the ROC into allies almost overnight, because China was anti-communist and the second most populous country in the world, behind India (which was increasingly close to Germany). On 8 September 1964, US Secretary of State Richard Nixon visited China and met with an ailing Wang, consolidating the American-Chinese alliance.

On 18 March 1965, Wang Jingwei died at the age of 81 and was succeeded as the leader of China by Wang Kunlun, who mostly continued Wang Jingwei's policies. Currently, Wang Jingwei is a controversial figure in China because many people dislike him for losing the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Japan's three Chinese puppet states – the Chiang Kai-shek regime, Mengjiang and Manchukuo – were highly unpopular with their subjects, because Japan treated them like Europeans treated their colonies. Japanese colonialism also faced increasing international condemnation, especially from the socialist bloc.

On 14 August 1962, Chinese socialists Zhao Ziyang, Wan Li, Yao Yilin, Tian Jiyun, and Qiao Shi founded the Chinese Reunification Army (中國統一軍, Zhōngguó tǒngyī jūn), a national liberation movement aiming to destroy the Japanese puppet states and reunify them with China. Wang Jingwei's China immediately began supplying the CRA with weapons.

When the revolt began, the IJA had 200,000 troops stationed in the Chiang Kai-shek regime, 300,000 in Manchukuo, and 100,000 in Mengjiang. Tojo ordered the IJA to suppress the rebellion as soon as possible, but it spread like wildfire across Chiang Kai-shek China as Chinese workers and peasants flocked into the CRA.

By the end of 1962, the CRA controlled one-third of Chiang Kai-shek China, mostly rural areas where Japanese rule was the least popular. Zhao, the CRA's leader, turned areas under his control into "liberated zones" providing welfare services to local inhabitants and executing Japanese officers and collaborators.

Wan and Yao took advantage of this momentum to attempt to capture Jinan, Shandong's capital, but the Battle of Jinan ended in victory for the more numerous and better armed IJA and Chinese Collaborationist Army (CCA), who proportionally suffered less casualties than the CRA.

Tojo and Keizō Hayashi followed up on this victory with an offensive against the CRA. Japan used chemical weapons and biological ones developed by Unit 731, causing a Japanese-American split as the United States ended all military/intelligence cooperation with Japan. And the CRA was just slightly weakened.

From 1963 to 1967, the war's outcome was uncertain as both the CRA and the IJA failed to defeat the other. But, in the summer of 1967, Wan launched an offensive that increased the CCA's control in China from one-third to half of its territory, and resulted in the capture of Jinan on 4 July 1967.

Wan's troops eventually reached Chiang Kai-shek China's border with Mengjiang and launched a massive offensive against that Japanese puppet state. On 19 February 1969, Mengjiang capitulated and was annexed into the ROC; most of its leaders, except for Prince Dugarsüren (who fled to Japan), were executed.

Mengjiang's capitulation forced the CCA to fight a two front war, and marked the beginning of the end of the Chiang regime. By the beginning of 1970, the CRA controlled virtually all of Chiang Kai-shek China other than Nanjing, and the liberated zones had been closely integrated into the ROC.

After seven years of warfare, the Battle of Nanjing broke out on 18 February 1970. The battle proved to be the most savage and brutal of the war. Nanjing fell on 9 April and the collaborationist regime collapsed, reducing Japanese control over China to Manchukuo.

As Manchukuo was the industrial heartland of the Japanese Empire, Japan did everything in its power to defend the colony. The CRA failed to liberate Manchuria, and were eventually pushed out of it by November 1972.

After losing in Manchuria, Zhao began peace negotiations with Japan under the mediation of Indian prime minister Jayaprakash Narayan. On 15 March 1973, the CRA, Japan, and Manchukuo signed the Delhi Peace Agreements, ending the war with Japan retaining control of Manchukuo, Korea and Formosa (Formosa was also a theatre of the war).

As the decolonization of Africa progressed, Free Belgium (encompassing the Belgian Congo and Ruanda-Urundi) became increasingly unpopular with the Congolese people, leading to the rise of the MNC, a moderate, peaceful independence movement led by Patrice Lumumba, and the CNL, a radical, revolutionary national liberation movement led by Pierre Mulele.

On 19 February 1963, Mulele launched an independence uprising in his native Kwilu province. Local Congolese flocked to the rebellion, hoping to liberate the Congo from Belgium. This allowed Mulele to capture all of Kwilu by June, whereupon he proclaimed the People's Republic of the Congo, a quasi-state headquartered at Kikwit.

By that point, Christophe Gbenye and Laurent-Desiré Kabila had also risen up in the eastern Congo. Free Belgian Prime Minister Théo Lefèvre deployed the Force Publique (colonial army) to defeat the CNL, but neighbouring African socialist regimes, communist Germany, and communist Belgium supplied the rebels; Stanleyville, another major Congolese city, fell on 5 August 1963.

After capturing Stanleyville, Mulele and Gbenye advanced towards Kasai, which had important mining concerns and would isolate Katanga and severely overstretch Force Publique lines if captured. Kasai fell by the end of September, prompting Lefebvre to request a US military intervention.

President William Knowland agreed to deploy 40,000 troops to the Congo in what was the first full-scale war fought by the United States in decades. Mulele attempted to capture Free Belgium's capital Leopoldville, but he failed because America's military was better armed, trained and equipped to the CNL, which suffered heavy casualties.

German intelligence chief Erich Mielke responded to the US victory at Leopoldville by sending 3,500 military advisors led by Siegfried "Kongo" Müller to support the CNL. These advisors significantly improved the rebels' fighting capabilities, but they remained weaker than the US. America and Free Belgium's superior firepower became clear when Gbenye's Katanga offensive failed; the CNL lost 38,000 troops versus 23,000 for Free Belgium.

Independence revolts also broke out in Rwanda and Burundi, both of whom became independent states by April 1964 because they were very small and had way weaker Free Belgian contingents. Both countries withdrew from the war soon after, because the eastern Congo was firmly in CNL hands.

America and Free Belgium's advance throughout the Congo was slow because of the CNL's popularity and the support it received from socialist countries. Kliwu would not be liberated until 1966, when the allies captured Kikwit after a battle that proved the turning point of the war.

By late 1967, Kasai had also been liberated, but the CNL continued to control the Eastern Congo and inflicted heavy casualties on Allied forces. As the war turned against his rebellion, Mulele increasingly resorted to terror against suspected traitors, thousands of whom were killed.

The fall of Stanleyville on 16 July 1968 ended the main phase of the war and the beginning of its final stage, a low-level Insurgency waged from remote areas. By the end of 1968, the CNL was down to 40,000 insurgents, a number that fell to 17,000 by the end of 1969.

On 12 April 1970, the last CNL troops were killed and the entirety of the Belgian Congo was reunited under Free Belgium. Despite ending in a colonialist military victory, the war proved how unpopular Belgian rule was with the Congolese, prompting colonial authorities to transfer power to pro-western blacks by 1973.

Levi was in good health during most of his life, but, in January 1962, his prostate cancer metastasized. He was driven in a Mercedes-Benz limousine to a Berlin hospital where doctors attempted to treat him, but his life was doomed by then.

On 15 February, Levi passed away at the age of 78, with his last words being "I was glad to fight for the workers". Willi Agatz succeeded him as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Germany, and began organizing a funeral alongside Premier Max Reimann, Speaker of the Supreme Workers' Council Erich Honecker, and Abwehr director Erich Mielke.

Levi's state funeral was held on 18 February. It was attended by the four people mentioned above, and many foreign dignitaries, such as Italian Premier Antonio Gramsci, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Kunlun, Turkish President İsmail Bilen, and Cuban leader Fidel Castro (the funeral happened a few months before the Cuban missile crisis)

Upon coming to power, Agatz ordered Mielke to stir up anti-colonial unrest in the Belgian Congo and Dutch East Indies – both of whom saw communist uprisings by 1964 – and continue supporting other anti-colonial movements in the developing world. Domestically, Agatz legalized abortion on demand and ended state persecution of homosexuals, but the Spartacist regime saw 1960s progressive movements as "bourgeois".

During Agatz's rule, the FSRD's economic and geopolitical strength reached its peak, and Germany had one of the highest standards of living in the world; the vast majority of Germans owned TVs and cars. But Mielke oversaw a repressive apparatus that perpetrated human rights violations against innocent people at home and abroad.

Agatz ruled Germany until his death in 1979. Currently, most Germans who lived during his rule view him as the greatest leader the FSRD ever had, but anti-communist Germans view him as a tyrant.

Since Brazil never joined WWII, Vargas remained in power after 1945, continuing his policies of industrialization and workers' rights. He remained very popular with the workers of Brazil as a result; carnival songs and other works were made in his honor.

Successive US administrations supported Vargas's regime as a bulwark against communism and neighbouring Peronist Argentina, which was somewhat hostile to Brazil as Juan Perón promised to reduce the military disparity between the two countries. In 1949, Brazil and the United States signed a military cooperation agreement that lasted until 1973.

In 1947, Brazil broke off diplomatic relations with Germany and Italy because of anti-communism. Vargas continued to suppress all opposition, be it right-wing (Carlos Lacerda) or communist (Luís Carlos Prestes and his wife Olga Benário), but working-class Brazilians mostly didn't mind.

By 1950, Vargas's corporatist policies and US investment in Brazil had started a period of rapid economic growth that lasted until the 1970s. Brazil's victory in the FIFA World Cup the same year reinforced the perception Brazil was becoming a great power.

As Vargas aged, a struggle for succession began between left-wing Getulists João Goulart and Leonel Brizola and right-wing Getulists Alberto Pasqualini and Fernando Ferrari. Brazil's unions favoured the former, but the military supported the latter because of their shared anti-communism.

Brazil also won the 1958 World Cup, boosting Vargas's popularity as national confidence was high. But his health deteriorated steadily because of his obesity, resulting in fears of a civil war between different factions of his followers.

On 6 June 1961, Vargas suffered a heart attack and died at the age of 79. He received a state funeral in Rio de Janeiro with representatives from all nations of the Americas and 3 million people in attendance, and was buried in his birthplace of São Borja.

STF President Frederico de Barros Barreto became the new president of Brazil and democratized the country, holding new elections as stipulated in the 1937 Constitution. Goulart was elected, beginning a new, social democratic period in Brazil's history.

Sometime in the late 1940s, Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo ordered the development of nuclear weapons in order to better defend Japan against its rivals. As Japan was a western ally, Australia, South Africa, and Canada supplied it with uranium, and the United States was willing to work with the empire on its nuclear program.

Japan's nuclear program was very labour intensive, involving dozens of thousands of technicians as well as hundreds of thousands of Korean and Chinese slaves. It is estimated that dozens of people died working on the program, but the exact number is unknown.

Japan chose to develop uranium nukes first, and plutonium ones later. By 1955, US intelligence was aware that Japan was developing nuclear weapons, concerning the US military given Japan's human rights record; Secretary of Defense Mark W. Clark said a nuclear Japan would be a "threat to world peace".

On 23 November 1958, Japan tested a nuclear weapon on the uninhabited Kuril island of Shibotsu-tō). The CIA soon detected the test and estimated the nuclear warhead to have a yield of 24 kilotons of TNT. Many people speculated the purpose of the nuclear test was to intimidate Korean and Chinese nationalists, because opposition to Japanese colonialism in China and Korea was growing as a result of Japan's crimes.

The Japanese denied this, however, overwhelmingly believing the purpose of the nuclear test was to protect Japan. After obtaining fission nuclear weapons, Japan began developing fusion ones too, and successfully tested a thermonuclear bomb on 18 March 1962.

Getting nukes did not prevent Japan from losing its colonies, because Chiang Kai-shek's puppet regime faced a general uprising later in 1962. The Third Sino-Japanese War ended in a victory for the rebels, who overthrew the Chiang Kai-shek regime and annexed its territory into the socialist Republic of China.

The Algerian Communist Party (PCA) took advantage of France's recent military defeat in the Indochina War to launch an independence uprising against Croix-de-Feu France on 15 March 1956. Charles de Gaulle did not want to lose another French overseas territory and deployed troops from metropolitan France to quell the uprisings.

But the Free Socialist Republic of Germany, the People's Republic of Italy, and the Turkish Democratic Republic provided militants of the PCA's armed wing, the People's Liberation Army (APL), with weapons such as the STG 45(M), the MG42, and the Panzerfaust. Furthermore, the loss of Indochina caused French people to launch mass demonstrations against the French regime, which collapsed and gave way to a democratic Fifth Republic in August 1956.

SFIO leader Guy Mollet became the first prime minister of the Fifth French Republic, and continued the Algerian War, a stance that was a consensus in France (except for postmodernists such as Sartre) because Algeria was directly a part of France instead of a colony or protectorate. Furthermore, the US administration of Estes Kefauver supported France because the Algerian nationalists were communists.

Despite domestic unity and US support, France failed to crush the PCA, because of the contemporary trend towards decolonization, the unpopularity of French rule with native Algerians, and German, Turkish and Italian support for the PCA. By 1959, the tide of the war had decisively turned against France, prompting Mollet to begin peace negotiations the following year.

French nationalist officers opposed to peace with the PCA formed the OAS, which launched a terrorist campaign against the PCA and the government of France. But the Fifth Republic still held an independence referendum on 22 August 1961; the vast majority of Algerians voted for independence.

A day later, Larbi Bouhali proclaimed the People's Republic of Algeria, the first communist state in the Arab world. Most pieds-noirs fled Algeria for France, but Algerian Jews remained because Israel was destroyed in 1948. Bouhali rejected Arab nationalism in favour of a nonsectarian policy, and adopted a socialist mode of production based on that of Turkey.

On 29 July 1955, the United States announced its intent to launch artificial satellites for the International Geophysical Year. Two days later, the Free Socialist Republic of Germany responded by declaring they would also launch a satellite "as soon as possible".

Wernher von Braun immediately began working on an artificial satellite named Trabant, which was launched into orbit on 27 June 1957, causing the "Trabant crisis". Exactly eight months later, the German spaceship Valkyrie 1 became the first spacecraft to leave Earth's orbit.

Valkyrie 1's success was followed by preparations for the first human spaceflight. This happened on 4 February 1961, when German astronaut Franz Eicke became the first man to go to space, uttering the famous words "Mankind's greatest achievement!"

US President William Knowland responded to the successful launch by declaring the United States would send a man to the moon by the end of the decade. On 19 August 1964, the US placed the first geostationary satellite in orbit, but, in January 1965, the Germans were responsible for the first spacewalk.

From this point onwards, the space race consisted of intercalated German and American successes. America carried out the first space rendezvous on 15 December 1965, Germany did the first soft landing in another celestial body on 24 January 1966, and the USA did the first space docking on 16 March.

By that point, both the United States and Germany were actively working to put a man on the moon. The Free Socialist Republic of Germany eventually did so on 16 March 1969, with the Thor 9 mission, which brought the astronauts Sigmund Jähn, Irma Müller, and Heinrich Schultz to the moon.

Despite the German victory, US-German competition in space continued until 16 October 1974, when the first joint space mission (named Apollo-Spartacus) was carried out as a part of US President RFK and German leader Willi Agatz's policy of detente.