Book Review: Never Wars: The US Plans to Invade the World by Blaine L. Pardoe

For better or worse, battles and wars play a big part in alternate history. Unsurprisingly, generals play the what if game all the time, although they usually look to prepare for future conflicts instead of the alternate ones we create. Blaine L. Pardoe, a self-confessed alternate history fan, nevertheless saw some potential of these old war plans when he wrote his counterfactual novel: Never Wars: The US Plans to Invade the World.

Never Wars covers the United States color-coded war plans that were created by Joint Army and Navy Board (the predecessor of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) in the early 20th century. These plans covered various scenarios for wars against other nations such as Canada, Britain, Mexico and even China. Although the theme of the book is to show the evolution of American strategic thinking, Pardoe showcases the alternate history potential of these plans since if just one of them had been implemented it would have changed the entirety of human history.

I found that some of the most interesting plans were the ones that we knew the least about, like the plan for a war with the British Empire in the mid-1930s. What was surprising about this plan was the evidence that our top generals saw the United Kingdom as a greater threat to America then Nazi Germany. Not only was this a sign of incredibly bad judgement, but it is also terrifying to think how pro-Nazi America was leading up to WWII. Along with overall coverage of the plans, Pardoe also comments on how successful some of these plans could be if implemented and pointed out moments where American intelligence was lacking.

Never Wars is a non-fiction counterfacutal history, so don't pick it up expecting a thrilling anthology of alternate history wars. In fact, the book can be dry at times, especially when Pardoe quotes long sections from the plans themselves. As an attorney who spends much of his day going over legalease, even I found the way soldiers write agonizing to read. Nevertheless, the dryness may just be a characteristic of counterfactual histories in general, as I felt the same way when I read Frank Harvey's Explaining the Iraq War.

Overall I found Never Wars to be an engaging book with an interesting subject written by an author with a real love for alternate history. Along with the aforementioned dryness, there were some formatting and spelling errors, but otherwise I can honestly recommend this book to readers who enjoy military history, war gamers looking for fun new scenarios and alternate historians crafting a different war for their version of America.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. Check out his short fiction. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.

Civilization II: Eternal War

The year is 3991 AD.

The polar ice caps have melted.  Nuclear war has rendered most of the Earth uninhabitable. Only 15 million people still call the planet home, most of humanity having died off from radiation, flooding and famine.  Almost all of them are part of the last three nations on Earth (the theocratic Americans, the communist Neo-Celts and the theocratic Neo-Vikings) who have been locked in a two thousand year war for the last remaining resources on the wounded planet.

Modern technology has made ICBMs obsolete, but that has not stopped tactical and suitcase nuclear weapons from being used on the modern battlefield.  Democracy and individual liberty are a thing of the past, but almost every generation a doomed rebellion is launched that accomplishes nothing but insure that some soldiers die at home instead of on the stalled fronts that have become a hell on Earth.

In this bleak future there are a few reformers who want to use humanity's advanced technology to save the planet, but when the choice is either feed your people or total annihilation, there really is not much of choice. So the factories pump out their war machines with little hope of victory or salvation from a slow death as our world dies.

This grimdark future is brought to you by...Civilization II?!?!

That's right kids.  Around 10 years ago a Reddit user by the name of "Lycerius" started a game of Civilization II that he has been playing on-and-off ever since.  Somehow, completely unintentionally, the world came to closely resemble Orwell's 1984.  After sharing his nightmare with Reddit, news of his marathon gaming exploded across the Internet and was covered by such publication as The Huffington Post and PC Gamer.

The game has inspired its own subreddit where people discuss the implications of the game and share their own fan fiction set in the universe.  Someone even recently created a Wiki, though there is not much content there...yet.

What I find most intriguing about this game is how eerily it resembles Orwell's future of eternal war and absolute state oppression.  Now I know some are thinking that this was a fluke and Civilization II is just a computer game.  Nevertheless in a world where a World of Warcraft glitch can realistically portray a global epidemic, who is to say that we are not seeing the outcome of what happens when we compete with other nations for scare resources without any consideration of the good of mankind?

Either way I am going to go dig up my old Hearts of Iron game where I conquered the world as a fascist US and see what happens next!

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a volunteer editor for the Alt Hist magazine and a contributor to Just Below the Law. One of his short stories will be published in the upcoming Echelon Press anthology, Once Upon a Clockwork Tale (2013). When not writing he works as an attorney in the state of Illinois and enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana.