Alternate History of the Earth [exploring 2 Scenarios of Every Possible Event]

WHAT IF NATO HELPED PORTUGAL RETAKE GOA (PART 1)

That's right I'm back with another scenario (sorry for taking so long I ran out of inspiration).

On December the 17th 1961, India marched a garrison of troops into Portuguese controlled Goa and annexed it, claiming it was Indian land stolen from it. The annexation took 2 days and on the 19th Goa was Indian.

Portugal, as expected, was utterly furious and tried it's best to retake it. It argued that Goa was not a colony but an actual part of Portugal despite being 2 continents away. It gave this excuse to NATO hoping for help (Article 5 {attack on 1 NATO nation is an attack on all}). However NATO did not buy the excuse and Portugal eventually dropped the subject.

However what if NATO agreed to Portugal's claims and Portugal actually used Article 5, today we will explore 2 scenarios, one in which NATO invades and defeats India and another in which the USSR intervenes and a 3rd world war starts.

Let's start with the first scenario.

The date is 1st January 1962 and Prime Minister (ahem dictator ahem) Antonio de Oliveira Salazar declares that after carefully considering the options he has decided to invoke NATO article 5. He stated "Portugal has already been pushed out of Africa by it's rebellious colonies, we will not lose lose a vital part of our country whether it is considered a colony by India or not. Therefore we invoke article 5, hoping our allies see the injustice done to us by the Indians!".

2 days later the secretary general of NATO recognizes the use of Article 5 by Portugal and calls upon NATO nations to help their fellow ally.

This would lead to the parties of the different NATO nations to meet up on 10th January to discuss the situation. One thing would lead to another and NATO would prepare for war against India.

The Indian reaction to this is be one of shock and dismay. The Prime Minister, Pandit Nehru gives a statement to his country "My fellow people, the reaction of the world to us retaking our former land is of anger and rage. We face a threat far greater then when the British threatened to colonize us all those centuries back. But I implore you to remain steadfast for we and our allies will lead India to victory!"

Following the speech Nehru and Salazar would meet in Vienna, Austria to discuss the invocation of Article 5. Salazar would give Nehru the option of returning Goa or war against NATO. Nehru refuses to return what's rightfully theirs and so preparations for war begin.

NATO began to make a plan which took 2 weeks as the different leaders of the nations would meet up and discuss strategy. Finally, a plan would be made, it went as follows

NATO forces consisting of 2000 men from France, 3,900 from Germany, 3000 from the British, 930 from the Spanish, 1670 from the Italians, 300 from the greek, 0 from Iceland (only history fans will get this joke), 400 from Norway, 3500 from Turkey, 1500 from Canada, 2800 from Denmark and a whopping 5000 from the US, making a total of 25,000 troops would land in Rawalpindi, Pakistan on the 2nd of February 1962, Pakistan was a close ally of the Americans and west at this time and a huge rival of India and would hopefully help in the invasion.

From there troops would enter Lahore and cross the border into Amritsar, from there the troops would divide with 15000 marching straight to New Delhi and another 10000 marching on to Goa, hopefully destroying industries along the way, Once New Delhi was under NATO control the rest of India would fall and the war would be won.

They reached out to Pakistan and President Ayub Khan would gladly agree to assist Pakistan's fellow allies, under the condition that Pakistan got Indian-controlled Punjabi, Kashmir, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Rajkot and Ahmedabad. NATO agreed and the plans were set into motion.

Over in India, Prime Minister Nehru would most likely be preparing his troops for war as well, India at the time had armed forces of about 550,000. They outnumbered the NATO army that was being sent however were not as highly advanced. Nehru, fearing the worst, would prepare an army of 250,000 men and would place 20,000 at Goa, 50,000 at New Delhi and the rest along the Pako-Indian border. Nehru also met up with current Soviet President Nikita Krushchev on 28th January to ask for a military alliance. Krushchev would declare full economic support of the communist world to India but would refrain from supporting them militarily, 1 thing is to be noted that China did not support India and sanctioned it, declaring that Portugal had every right to retake Goa.