[BRIEF NOTE] CFTAG After-Report

[rfmcdonald]

Fun was had at CFTAG this afternoon and evening, with myself, schizmatic and robertprior all in attendance. As is typical, many subjects were discussed.

• How could Ethiopia become as dynamic as other uncolonized Third World countries? (Later posted to soc.history.what-if.)


• The outside world sees a dynamic China growing ever more powerful. From the Chinese perspective, however, China is still a weak country doing its best to catch up to a post-industrial world that has caused it great harm in the past. Canadians are lucky that Norman Bethune has such a good reputation; Americans, unfortunately, are off.


• The Traveller universe was discussed. robertprior defended the Swordics. In other news, he pointed out that my thesis that Isis arranged for the assassination of her father makes her very bloody-minded indeed. More likely, perhaps, that she tipped off the Imperium and hoped for a quiet non-violent ending, not (say) three simultaneous explosions on her father's shuttle as it was entering Sylea's atmosphere.


• China fought the Korean War as a desperate effort to keep the Americans from establishing a base immediately adjacent to China's industrial heartland fo Manchuria and launching another invasion just five years after the Japanese were driven off. China, desperately poor, had bad supply lines. Among other things, this meant that Chinese front-line soldiers didn't have enough Vitamin A to fight effectively at night. What if they did? A China that was more successful in the early stages of the Korean War might provoke a sharp American retaliation, even a nuclear one. (Later posted to soc.history.what-if.)