The Contiguous United States disappears in 1962

[King Washington]

On October 29th, 1962, in the middle of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the contiguous United States (the 48 adjoining U.S. states + the District of Columbia) are suddenly replaced by the same chunk of land from a universe where humanity never evolved.

Other than obvious stuff like the world economy being thrown into utter chaos and the Soviet Union being left as the sole global superpower, what is the fallout of this?

What happens to the remnants of America (Alaska, Hawaii, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico) as well as the nations aligned with the United States? How is the "Event" viewed in the aftermath (act of God, freak natural event, glitch in the matrix, aliens)?

 

[Amv2]

After American headquarters, ships and planes lose contact with North America, they launch missiles and a nuclear war occurs between the remnants of the North Atlantic bloc and the USSR. Even after realizing that the Soviets had nothing to do with it, blood had already been spilled. I think the remaining forces of the Warsaw Pact countries will be enough to capture Western Europe, Cuba will be burned by the American fleet at once, and England will be burned by Soviet aircraft and missiles during the breakthrough to the English channel. The result is a world ruled by Mao Zedong.

 

[Cybandeath]

I cant see this not ending in instant nuclear war for one reason or another, hell im not even sure what the point of this question is other then maybe somehow a soviet wank without America around to stop them but anything the soviets do even if nuclear war does not start right away will alos end in nuclear war as the remnants of the west will be MUCH more trigger happy of ANY kind of ground gained by the soviets as being simply too costly.

 

[Amv2]

I cant see this not ending in instant nuclear war for one reason or another, hell im not even sure what the point of this question is other then maybe somehow a soviet wank without America around to stop them but anything the soviets do even if nuclear war does not start right away will alos end in nuclear war as the remnants of the west will be MUCH more trigger happy of ANY kind of ground gained by the soviets as being simply too costly.

Click to shrink...

Well, theoretically. In the USSR during this period, there were attempts to abandon radical communism. The famous "thaw". The complete abandonment of private farming in favor of collective farms and private small businesses occurred only recently after the death of Stalin (Yes, Stalin was for private business). In reality, the threat from the United States and the need to mobilize the economy for military parity prevented it. If the United States ceased to exist, the USSR begins perestroika 20 years earlier. Plus profit from the redistribution of markets.

But this is unlikely. During the Caribbean crisis, everything will end in mutual extermination.