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.

Plot

In the summer of 1989, East Germany is in turmoil. Many citizens are dissatisfied with their nation’s Communist leadership and seek reunification with West Germany. As demonstrations against the regime spread throughout the country, East German leader Erich Honecker hopes to crush the uprisings with military force. On October 7, CPSU General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, a supporter of those reforms, visits East Berlin. During his return flight, the hard-line Communist leadership stages a coup that deposes Gorbachev. Following a plenary session of the Central Committee, (fictional) 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. The Soviet government announces Gorbachev resigned for "reasons of ill health," and he is never heard from again. Soshkin and the hard-liners resist the rise of glasnost and perestroika. Gorbachev's reforms are quickly reversed, and the Soviet Union experiences democratic backsliding as the country returns to autocratic rule.They are determined to end the uprisings in the Eastern Bloc with a swift and brutal Chinese-style military crackdown in late October. (In East Germany at least, the crackdown is not limited to demonstrators; numerous moderate Communists such as Egon Krenz and Günter Schabowski are also "disappeared".) The crackdown inflames popular opposition to communism. In late November, a demonstration in Leipzig is repressed by the East German Army at great loss of life. Two days later, a demonstration at the Brandenburg Gate ends with East German Grenztruppen border guards and Army soldiers killing many East Berlin residents trying to scale the Berlin Wall. Those soldiers also fire shots over the wall into West Berlin. Soon after, the East German government responds to the international condemnation of their conduct by ordering all foreign journalists out of the country, effectively imposing a media blackout. Following the bloodshed, Soshkin holds his first ever interview with western media in Moscow. Sitting down with West German ZDF correspondent Dirk Sager, he attempts to justify the recent bloody events by accusing the western news media of using Gorbachev's reforms to discredit the Soviet system and using the status of West Berlin as a 'base of aggression' against Warsaw Pact nations. He also claims that he and his co-conspirators had no other choice but to 'take defensive action' and remove Gorbachev from power. In mid-December, NATO airlifts military reinforcements to West Berlin following threats by both far-left and far right groups. Soon after, Secretary of State James Baker arrives in West Berlin to secretly meet with General Dmitry Leonov, the Soviet commander in East Germany, who opposes Soshkin's crackdown. However, on the way to the meeting, Leonov is killed by a car bomb, for which a West German neo-Nazi group claims responsibility. After Soshkin implicitly threatens West Berlin, an American colonel orders that tactical nuclear weapons in West Germany be placed on high alert. Soshkin responds with new threats, a massive deployment of the Soviet submarine fleet, and incursions of Soviet Bear bombers into Alaskan airspace. On January 25, 1990, several East German and Soviet tank divisions are mobilized to cut off transportation and supply links between West Germany and West Berlin, and the Soviet Air Force moves to close off East Germany's airspace. Soshkin hopes the plan will prevent the West from encroaching into the Soviet sphere of influence and isolate Berlin from the West. NATO deploys thousands of additional troops into West Germany to strengthen their existing garrisons there. As the United States prepares their first military convoy across the North Atlantic, the Soviets announce their intention to blockade the U.S. Navy transports. The US and Britain condemn the blockade and last-minute attempts at a compromise fall through. When the convoy crosses into the designated exclusion zone, Soviet forces are ordered to attack. Nearly a quarter of the convoy is sunk in the ensuing battle before the NATO fleet clears the air and sea lanes to Europe. Shortly afterward, the UN Security Council holds an emergency session in New York as angry demonstrators gather outside and burn the effigy of President Bush. Hoping to diffuse the conflict, the Security Council tries to reach a solution to the crisis, but each superpower refuses to back down until the other does so. The world panics after the failed session and the USA dispatches (fictional) National Security Advisor Martin Jacobs to the Soviet Union for last-ditch effort talks with Soshkin. Figuring that Soshkin knows that the Soviets are losing power in Eastern Europe, Jacobs offers Soshkin an extended timetable for the Soviet withdrawal from Eastern Europe in exchange for a de-escalation of the military buildup. Soshkin refuses him, speaking only once in the entire meeting: "Nyet" (No).

The battle for Germany

On March 12, Soshkin orders a massive amphibious landing near Kiel on the Baltic coast, carried out by the Volksmarine and the Soviet Navy's Baltic Fleet. The landings catch NATO off-guard, and they scramble forces northward to push back the beachhead. The next day, Warsaw Pact ground forces drive through the Fulda Gap, with orders to push to the Rhine to divide the stretched-out NATO armies. To support the assault, the Soviet Air Force bombards targets on the Baltic coast and NATO bases further inland, such as Ramstein Air Base. The plan is to cripple the NATO buildup with a swift strike and then press for a new round of diplomatic bargaining from a stronger strategic position. NATO forces are pushed back, though they inflict substantial losses on the Warsaw Pact forces; both sides lose well over 1,000 dead in the first 24 hours. By March 17, the Warsaw Pact forces have advanced 50 miles into West Germany. Entire towns are destroyed in the fighting as increasingly desperate NATO commanders try to stall the Warsaw Pact's advance, and civilian and military casualties are heavy, overwhelming NATO medical personnel. Public order collapses amid the mass panic, and 20 million automobiles jam the roads as West German civilians try to flee. While preparing to launch a tactical nuclear counter-assault, NATO carries out a last-ditch conventional air campaign––code-named Operation Bloody Nose––launched 24 hours before the nuclear strikes were to begin. The already-overworked NATO aviators are given just one day to turn the tide of an entire war. Thanks in part to a raid on the Soviet Army's forward headquarters in Poland and the use of American stealth aircraft, Bloody Nose is a success: the initial strikes cripple Warsaw Pact command and control posts, throwing their armies in the field into chaos. During the accompanying aerial battles, NATO also inflicts devastating losses on the Soviet Air Force (which had already lost 20% of the aircraft supporting the initial offensives), thereby gaining supremacy over Eastern European airspace. Combined with assistance from the Polish underground that cuts off Soviet supply lines, the tide of the war turns. With their 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 reach and liberate West Berlin on March 27. Now in full retreat, the Soviet Army withdraws to Poland, abandoning the East Germans to fend for themselves. With the East German army beaten, its central government falling apart, and foreign armies advancing into the country, East Germany collapses, leaving many on both sides of the Iron Curtain to hope that reunification is at hand. With victory close, the American leadership tries to reassure Soshkin that NATO has no intention of pressing their advance beyond East Germany. Open revolt erupts across the Eastern Bloc as citizens of the communist nations, as well ethnic minorities within the Soviet Union, press for the overthrow of their own leaders, emboldened by the collapse of East Germany. Soshkin's paranoia rises as the Eastern Bloc starts falling apart, and while NATO has no intention of actually doing so, he is convinced they will fight all the way to Moscow. As a show of force, on March 31 Soshkin orders a nuclear strike above the North Sea. The USA responds by going to full nuclear alert and preparing 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 an all-out 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 intones, "There is no further historical record of what happens next," suggesting that civilization was either wiped out or destroyed to such a great extent, that overall post-war human survival -- much less, the rebuilding of civilization itself -- would be rendered all but impossible.

Back to reality

On that grim, ghastly note, the film suddenly backtracks to Gorbachev's visit to East Berlin. A montage ensues, with heartwarming music, where the audience is reminded how the Cold War actually ended - with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the eastern bloc regimes, concluding with the different course history actually took.

Characters

Actors playing fictional characters

Clips of real life political leaders

Differences between German and English versions

Parallels and references to real-life events