American Cold War (22nd Century and On)

The American Cold War is a regional and non direct-confrontation between the United States and the Dixie Republic. Like other cold wars, the United States and Dixie do not engage in hot conflicts, but rather fund proxy conflicts in order to extend their spheres of influence. The main issues regard the fates of Kentucky, Missouri, West Virginia and Maryland, to which both the United States and Dixie Republic claim as being part of their nations, though the three are legally recognized as being American states. Both nations sell weapons to paramilitary groups operating in the states.

In addition, Dixie has strong influences in southern Indiana and Illinois as well as Arizona.

Both countries are military powers, as a matter of fact, the top two military superpowers of the region, possessing not only large armies, but also up-to-date equipment, but also large and strong navies, well as nuclear and space weapons. Both nations also gaurantee their citizens a Right to Bear Arms, which often-not, leads to the formation of paramilitries in both countries.

The closest the two ever came into hot conflict was the Dixie invasion of Florida, and the consequent American invasion of Cuba as a response. During Dixie's invasion of Florida, members of the Florida National Guard were killed in the conflict.

Both nations also have client states and allies in Central and South America, with the United States having the Latin States and Mexico as allies, and Dixie having Belize, Bolivia and Brazil as allies.

History
After the reunification of much of the former Confederacy, Dixie had North America's largest land force, with sufficient nuclear and space weapons technology to back it up. In addition, many former American Navy warships became warships for the navies of Dixie's coastal states. In 2049, Dixie forces intervened in the Florida Dispute, and led to their invasion. Dixie forces successfully captured northern Florida, and made their push to southern Florida. Dixie troops expelled Cuban Americans and Haitian Americans, those that remained were coerced into assimilation, meaning becoming Baptists and often-not were severely discouraged from speaking Caribbean Spanish or Haitian Creole.

The United Nations condemned the Dixie invasion. As a result, the Americans invaded Cuba, to which Cubans had actually favored. The Americans demonstrated their naval and aerial strength in their invasion. Like the Dixie troops, American military missionaries also began conversion attempts to convert Cubans into Baptist faith.

At this point, Dixie and the United States had become embroiled in a regional Cold War and space and arms race. Similar events to the 1946-1992 Cold War played out, such as Dixie and American forces placing tanks facing each other in Kentucky, and had warships stationed in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico aimed at each other. Both militaries also avoided direct confrontation and instead funded militias to fight one another. The Russian government backed Dixie, and told the government in Richmond that Moscow would be happy to aid Dixie.

In 2077, American troops were called into Kentucky as Dixie soldiers were spotted amassing in northern Tennessee. The following week, a group of African-American males threw Molotov cocktails across the Dixie-American border from southern Missouri into northern Arkansas. This led to Dixie soldiers opening fire across the border, killing 3 of the perpetrators and injuring 2.

In 2082, two U.S. Army veterans opened fire across the West Virginia-Virginia border, while yelling anti-Dixie slurs. In retaliation, three Virginia Army veterans opened fire into West Virginia.

In 2086, Democratic president Edward Jabari called Dixie a "bunch of racist, traitorous, backwards redneck losers, who relies on their Russian friends to protect them". As a result, Dixie paranilitary forces of the Northwestern Battalion of the Virginia Paramilitary, backed by the Army of Virginia and the Central Government of Richmond, bombed an American military base in West Virginia. The ensuing firefight resulted in the deaths of 43 American paramilitary and 12 injured, with 33 Virgini Paramilitary fighters killed and 23 injured.

As a result American paramilitary destroyed an Army of Tennessee base with aerial attacks. In 2087, President Jabari was impeached.

However, there were points of cooperation. In 2092, after the Islamic terrorist attacks in Las Vegas, America and Dixie conducted joint exercises. In addition, Liberal Republican president Adam Winston even looked to Dixie for help in dealing with Islamic terrorists. In 2095, Dixie and the United States cooperated in the Anti-Piracy Caribbean Raids.

In 2099, Dixie and the United States set their space warheads to DEFCON 2, due to an American misunderstanding of a Dixie space signal. The issue was corrected when an American military space engineer caught the mistake and confirmed the signals were non-combative.

In 2101, a Dixie marine merchant ship, mistaken as a warship, delivering goods to Belize was raided by Oaxacan soldiers. This resulted in Dixie and Belize's air forces bombarding Oaxaca's naval bases. Troops from Louisiana captured 32 Oaxacan navy personnel, and found that they had used American-guided directions. The warahip DBS Stonewall engaged with the OA San Pedro, in a decisive Dixie naval victory. In addition, the Dixie aircraft carriers, the LS Beaureguard and the GS Carl Vinson began to aim their weapons at the American aircraft carriers the USS John C. Stennis and the USS Abraham Lincoln, all four being Nimitz class carriers.

In 2105, President Edward Thompson declared a cattle and oil embargo against the United States. This forced the U.S. to rely on Australia, Brazil, Argentina and Canada for cattle exports. It also brought about an upsurge in California's cattle industry.

In 2100, the Belizian government seemed to be displaying Dixie-friendly attitudes, including increase trade and even defense contracts with arms companes in Alabama. This alarmed the other NAU member states, and called for Belizian President Tristan Hensley to provide the NAU with answers.

When President Hensely announced that he had indeed purchased arms from companies in Dixie, the NAU ordered him to cease or else Belize would be forcefully expelled from the NAU and with consequences. President Hensely then asked the Central Government of Richmond for assistance, to which the Aerial Forces of Louisiana, the Texas Air Force and Alabama Air Force sent warplanes and troops into Belize. The navies of the same states also began moving warships south towards Yucatán, sending a warning to Washington D.C. that they would destroy the American naval blockade.

Although the Belizian government was expelled from the NAU, the NAU recognized its exit, thus, preventing a major hot conflict between two of North America's top military superpowers. The U.S. and Canadian Navy increased their presence in the Caribbean.

In 2112 however, the navies of Dixie and the NAU saw one of their largest points of cooperation in Operation Hurricane, in which Dixie, Belize and the NAU forces conducted massive raids against maritime drug lords, as well as their allies in Islamic terrorists, that had captured sailors and maritime construction workers from Dixie, U.S. and Mexico, that had been working on the Florida-Cuba Trans-Oceanic Highway or the Havana-Miami Highway. The four militaries eventually ended up driving deep into Jamaica and Haiti. Afterwards, Hernán Guzmán (a descendant and follower of El Chapo) and his ally, Yusuf Rahman were caught hiding at a prostitute house in Haiti.

This led to both the Dixie Republic and the United States supplied militias in Haiti, as both countries wanted Haiti as a strategic location. Seeing as to how Haitians were essentially sick and tired of being a third-world nation, Haiti became a state of the Dixie Republic. Haiti's transformation was handled primarily by people from the states of Louisiana and Florida.