World War III (1998 film)

World War III (Der Dritte Weltkrieg) is a 1998 German alternate history television pseudo-documentary, directed by Robert Stone and distributed by ZDF. An English version was also made, which aired on TLC in May 1999. It depicts what might have transpired if, following the overthrow of Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet troops, under orders from a new hard-line regime, had opened fire on demonstrators in Berlin in the fall of 1989 and precipitated World War III. The film mixes real footage of world leaders and archive footage of (for example) combat exercises and news events, with newly shot footage of citizens, soldiers, and political staff.

World War III
Cover art
Genre	Alternate history Pseudo-documentary
Written by	Ingo Helm Robert Stone
Directed by	Robert Stone
Starring	Boris Leskin, Klaus Schleif, Christopher Wynkoop
Narrated by	David McCallum
Music by	John Kusiak Caleb Sampson
Country of origin	Germany
Original languages	German English Russian French
Production
Producer	Ulrich Lenze
Running time	94 minutes
Original release
Network	ZDF TLC
Release	December 1998 (1998-12)

Plot

In the summer of 1989, many East German citizens are dissatisfied with Communist leadership and seek reunification with West Germany. East German leader Erich Honecker hopes to crush demonstrations against the regime with military force. General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, a supporter of reforms, visits East Berlin in October but is deposed by hard-line Communist leadership in a coup. Lieutenant General Vladimir Soshkin, a senior official in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Soviet security apparatus, is installed as the new General Secretary and Gorbachev is never heard from again.

Soshkin and the hard-liners, resistant to glasnost and perestroika, reverse Gorbachev's reforms and the Soviet Union experiences democratic backsliding and a return to autocratic rule. In late October Chinese-style military crackdowns against uprisings in the Eastern Bloc inflames popular opposition to communism. In late November, a demonstration in Leipzig is repressed by East German military and police with great loss of life, and a demonstration at the Brandenburg Gate ends with East German border guards border guards and soldiers killing East Berlin residents trying to scale the Berlin Wall and firing into West Berlin.

The East German government responds to international condemnation by ordering foreign journalists out of the country and imposing a media blackout. Soshkin holds his first ever interview with western media in Moscow, and tells West German ZDF correspondent Dirk Sager that the western news media used Gorbachev's reforms to discredit the Soviet system and turn West Berlin into a 'base of aggression' against Warsaw Pact nations. The removal of Gorbachev, he argues, was a 'defensive action'.

In mid-December, NATO airlifts military reinforcements to West Berlin following threats by far-left and far right groups. Secretary of State James Baker tries to meet secretly with General Dmitry Leonov, the Soviet commander in East Germany, who opposes Soshkin's crackdown, but Leonov is killed by a car bomb by West German neo-Nazis. When Soshkin threatens West Berlin, US tactical nuclear weapons West Germany are placed on high alert. Soshkin responds by deploying the massive Soviet submarine fleet, and sends Soviet Bear bombers into Alaskan airspace. On January 25, 1990, East German and Soviet tank divisions cut off transportation and supply links between West Germany and West Berlin while the Soviet Air Force closes off East Germany's airspace. NATO deploys additional troops to West Germany.

When the United States announces the first military convoy across the North Atlantic the Soviets announce their intention to blockade the U.S. Navy transports. Negotiations with the US and UK fail and when the convoy enters the designated exclusion zone, Soviet forces sink several ships before NATO forces clear the air and sea lanes to Europe. An emergency session of the UN Security Council fails to reach a solution to the crisis. American National Security Advisor Martin Jacobs travels to the Soviet Union for talks with Soshkin, and offers an extended timetable for Soviet withdrawal from Eastern Europe in exchange for a military de-escalation. Soshkin refuses.

The battle for Germany

World War III
Date February 18 – April 1, 1990 (1 month and 14 days) Location Initially Germany; eventually Europe, North America, and the Soviet Union Result Initially, dissolution of East Germany and its impending reunification with West Germany. Ultimately, a global nuclear war and possible human extinction.
Belligerents
NATO including  United States  United Kingdom  West Germany Polish resistance movement Royal Netherlands Army units	Warsaw Pact including  Soviet Union  East Germany
Commanders and leaders
NATO bloc George H. W. Bush James Baker Martin Jacobs Margaret Thatcher Helmut Kohl	Warsaw Pact Gen. Vladimir Soshkin Yuri Rubanov Erich Honecker
Casualties and losses
Unknown, likely massive (≥300–400 million)	Unknown, likely massive (≥300–400 million)
Additional deaths from aftermath: Unknown, but likely over 1–2 billion (see Nuclear winter for aftermath effects) Total deaths: Unknown, but likely very large (≥1.6–2.8 billion)
The amount of fatalities is solely based on what’s implied and the current populations of the military alliances in 1990.

On March 12, amphibious landings near Kiel catch NATO off-guard and Warsaw Pact ground forces drive through the Fulda Gap toward the Rhine with heavy air support. The invasion is intended to provide Soshkin a stronger strategic position for diplomatic bargaining. Losses on both sides, and among civilians, are heavy and by March 17, the Warsaw Pact forces have advanced 50 miles. Public order collapses as West German civilians try to flee.

NATO launches a successful air campaign, striking the Soviet Army's forward headquarters in Poland with American stealth aircraft and crippling Warsaw Pact command and control posts. NATO gains supremacy over Eastern Europe while Polish underground forces cut off Soviet supply lines. With numerical superiority negated by Western technological superiority, the East German and Soviet armies melt under NATO airstrikes, and counterattacking NATO forces cross into East Germany on March 23.

Global nuclear war

NATO forces liberate West Berlin on March 27 and the retreating Soviet Army abandons East Germany, which collapses, spurring hopes on both sides of reunification. American leadership reassures Soshkin NATO will not advance beyond East Germany. Open revolt erupts throughout the Eastern Bloc, spurred by the collapse of East Germany. Soshkin's paranoia rises as the Eastern Bloc falls apart, convinced NATO will advance as far as Moscow.

On March 31 Soshkin makes a show of force with nuclear strike above the North Sea. The USA orders full nuclear alert and prepares to execute the Single Integrated Operational Plan. On April 1, a Soviet radar post suffers an equipment malfunction. Falsely believing the USSR is under nuclear attack, Soshkin orders a retaliatory strike against the West. The nuclear powers of NATO have no choice but to respond in kind, and thousands of nuclear devices are launched across the Northern Hemisphere. The narrator announces "There is no further historical record of what happens next."

Back to reality

The film shifts back to Gorbachev's visit to East Berlin and a montage of heartwarming music reminds the audience the Cold War actually ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the eastern bloc regimes.

Characters

Actors playing fictional characters

Actor	Character	Title
Boris Sichkin	General Vladimir Soshkin	General Secretary of the Soviet Union
Boris Leskin	Yuri Rubanov	Soviet Foreign Minister
Christopher Wynkoop	Martin Jacobs	US National Security Advisor
Sigrid Braun-Umbach	Franziska Bruckner	West Berlin doctor
Gunter Walch	General Karl Frohm	West German Army
Klaus Schleif	Colonel Wolfgang Heckler	East German Army
Oliver Hohlfeld	Markus Lehmann	East German citizen
Daniel Schorr	himself	Reporter in Washington, DC
John Ydstie	himself	Reporter in Lower Saxony

Clips of real life political leaders

Person	Title
Mikhail Gorbachev	General Secretary of the Soviet Union
Erich Honecker	General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany
George H. W. Bush	President of the United States
James Baker	United States Secretary of State
Bob Dole	United States Senator from Kansas
Phil Gramm	United States Senator from Texas
Helmut Kohl	Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany
François Mitterrand	President of France
Margaret Thatcher	Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Manfred Wörner	Secretary General of NATO

Differences between German and English versions

• The German version is preceded by a disclaimer clarifying that the events of the film are based on actual contingency plans of various governments (the filmmakers consulted numerous military experts on both sides, and received access to previously classified NATO and Warsaw Pact war plans),^[1] but that, "Thankfully for us all", the situations they were created for never happened.
• The news broadcasts which make up a significant part of the film are different: the German version, as a ZDF production, uses that network and its on-air personalities for the segments, while the English version shows various reporters working for an unnamed American network (for the opening scene, the English version shows Daniel Schorr's full report, while the German one has a ZDF report before switching to Schorr for the nuclear explosion).
• Similarly, in the German version, Senator Gramm's statements on the coup are replaced by those of Schleswig-Holstein Governor Björn Engholm, leader of the opposition SPD at that time.
• In the English version, other languages are subtitled (except for a Gorbachev speech about perestroika); in the German version, other languages are translated (except for field interviews with US Army officers once the hostilities start).
• The two West German characters, Gen. Frohm and Dr. Bruckner speak in German in the ZDF version and English for TLC.
• The English version contains two scenes not included in the German one: an interview with two East German soldiers who escaped to the West during the Brandenburg Gate massacre, and a pair of "man on the street" interviews (one bellicose, delivered with the accent and demeanor of a stereotypical New Yorker, the other nervous but optimistic) in Times Square.
• The English version mentions West German, British, Dutch, and American soldiers meeting the initial Baltic attack; in the German version, Belgian forces take part as well.
• In the German version, the decisive NATO air assault is named "Operation Bloody Nose"; in English, it is never given a name.
• The rewound montages between the missile-launch "ending" and the celebratory images of the actual events are slightly different.
• While the German version concludes with scenes from both the events of November 1989 and reunification (along with the "different course" line), the English narration has no such coda, and the montage is entirely from the fall of the Wall.

Parallels and references to real-life events

• Prague Spring/Invasion of Czechoslovakia—General Soshkin had participated in the 1968 crackdown; the brutality of the forces under his command was so notorious that he appeared on the cover of Life magazine.
• Stanislav Petrov prevented the start of nuclear war during a time of increased US/Soviet tension when a Soviet radar computer malfunctioned in November 1983.
• Black Monday of 1987—Images of the alarming headlines it generated for the New York Post ("CRASH!") and Daily News ("PANIC!") were used to illustrate a Wall Street crash caused by uncertainty over the future.
• Tiananmen Square protests of 1989—Chinese students hold a pro-democracy protest near the seat of the Chinese government. After weeks of demonstrations, the Chinese military forcibly ended the protest. This is likely the "Chinese solution" alluded to by Soshkin. The events of the movie are set four months after the crackdown. In reality, Honecker openly desired to deal with the unrest in this manner (to the point of trying to talk Gorbachev into such crackdowns in Poland and Hungary), even issuing a written order to do so in Leipzig, and was ousted in mid-October largely to prevent them from being carried out.
• The fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany—Clips from both also appeared out of context: footage of the reunification was used to show celebrations following the liberation of West Berlin, to suggest it happened after the November massacre.
• The Soviet coup attempt of 1991 against Mikhail Gorbachev—Clips of US officials and "West German" Chancellor Helmut Kohl discussing this event were used in this film; since the coup occurred after 1990, Kohl was actually speaking as the leader of a unified Germany when he made these statements.
• The Persian Gulf War of 1990–91—Clips of US officials discussing this war were used in this film. FLIR video footage of Coalition air attacks on Iraq is used to illustrate the attack on Warsaw Pact headquarters. News footage of the Allied airstrikes on Baghdad at the start of Operation Desert Storm is used to illustrate the bombing of Hamburg by Soviet and East German air forces.
• The Falklands War of 1982. Footage from the Battle of San Carlos and the Bluff Cove Air Attacks is used to illustrate the naval battle.
• The Bosnian War of 1992–95. Shots from aircraft cameras were used to illustrate the NATO bombing of Legnica.
• The Vietnam War. Footage of the US Marines at Khe Sanh under attack from North Vietnamese Army artillery is used to illustrate the Soviet and East German airstrikes on Ramstein Air Base in West Germany.
• The First Chechen War. Footage of Russian troops in the Battle of Grozny is used to illustrate Soviet forces retreating from West Germany back into East Germany. Footage of Chechen rebels fighting Russian troops is also used to illustrate the collapse of the East German government as well as to illustrate the growing armed resistance inside the Soviet Union to Soshkin's regime.
• The Soviet–Afghan War. Footage of Soviet troops is used to illustrate Soviet forces retreating to Poland.
• George H.W. Bush's statements "We're dealing with Hitler revisited" and possibly "our hearts go out to the hostages" refer to Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, not Soshkin.
• MiG 29 pilot ejecting at extremely low altitude. He is not shot down, he was performing aerobatics at the 1989 Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport when his engine flamed out.