This congressional inquiry set an unprecedented record: First, Hoover's keynote speech and proposals shocked everyone and occupied most of the time and attention, and then German radio took over the center of gravity, and hundreds of people listened carefully to the "enemy station" broadcast on Capitol Hill for more than two hours, but their real goal -- to question the president and discuss the follow-up policy -- was very light. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Secretary of State Hull gave Roosevelt a meaningful look, gave a quiet thumbs up, and applauded the president's political skill and improvisation—when there is no way to avoid and no retreat, it is also an excellent means of political struggle to confuse the water and let the crowd lose sight of the main goal. Whether or not Hoover's request passed, it had at least succeeded in diverting attention and attracting most of the firepower. And he came up with such a wonderful excuse again - a spy! No one dared to say that there were no spies in the United States, after all, the FBI continued to receive intelligence and secret reports, and there were records of German agents being intercepted in submarine attempts to sneak.

The issue of espionage has largely alleviated the pressure of defeat on the front, and although it is not necessarily all right, it has at least hinted at the congressmen: the reason why it cannot be fought at present is due to various objective reasons, at first the United States was attacked by a surprise attack, and it was too late to react; Then there is slow mobilization and slow organization; Then there are the incompetence of the allies and all kinds of unreliability; Now it's spies or leaks -- in the final analysis, it's not that the United States is not strong militarily, it's that various reasons are holding it back. These explanations sound much more pleasing to the ear than the cold conclusion of "can't be beaten".

As for the fact that the war did not go well, especially the accurate "ambush" of the 1,000-plane bombing, Hull believes that there may be other reasons -- such as the code being leaked or deciphered, don't think that the US code cannot be broken, and isn't it because the Pacific Fleet won a major victory at Midway because it deciphered the Japanese code? Compared to the questionable issue of espionage, the issue of passwords may be more of a priority.

Roosevelt was Roosevelt because political experience always found something to use in a crisis, and he said: "Ladies and gentlemen, can we order that the Germans broadcast panic news be banned from listening to it?" -- even though it is not in line with the right to freedom. ”

There was a lot of discussion in the audience, and everyone didn't know what to do, but one thing was clear to the legislators: if this kind of broadcast was allowed to continue to be broadcast, the morale that the people had built up so hard would soon collapse. If nothing else, just after the news of the threat to bomb Washington is released today, tomorrow there will be a large number of middle-class and upper-class people who will find a way to relocate -- everyone at first had a contemptuous attitude towards the Axis clamoring to bomb the East Coast, until the catastrophe came, and it was only when the catastrophe came that they realized that the air raids were terrible, that the air raids would really kill people, and that the Germans would deal with the rich areas.

How many rich people and politicians are there in Washington? Do you hide in a bomb shelter every night and live like a mole?

"The Germans should not be allowed to do whatever they want, we should come up with ways to strengthen our defenses, and at the same time, we should educate and guide the people to establish correct concepts and further strengthen their confidence in their own country." Senator Carter of Connecticut stood up to be the first to support, and soon won applause, and Hoover had a smile on his face.

"Let's talk about strengthening the homeland defense...... Although he was very reluctant to put out the territorial defense plan and budget set up by the General Staff, the facts were in front of him, and Roosevelt, in turn, seized the opportunity to take advantage of the situation, changed the passive to the active, struck while the iron was hot and asked Marshall to report on the overall plan, and also took the opportunity to increase the number of personnel, equipment, and budget.

Judging from the level of detail and completeness of the report, it does not look like Marshall made improvised nonsense, which shows that the president has been prepared for a long time, and it is nothing more than letting the enemy take the lead. The lawmakers forgave him, and the anger over the attack on New York subsided considerably.

The reaction of the congressmen during the provisional vote still surprised Roosevelt and a group of senior members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: unanimously passed!

An additional resolution was even made: in view of the excessive losses from the air raids on Germany, until the army aviation could find a way to reduce the losses from the air raids, it was requested that the budget originally used for the manufacture of heavy bombers be changed to the budget for defensive aircraft. In the simplest terms, it was to learn from the Luftwaffe's response thinking, reduce the production of offensive weapons such as B-17 and B-29, and significantly increase the production of P-47 and P-51 air defense fighters, and the overall budget change involved 2,000 four-engine bombers.

Arnold shook his head with a wry smile, a B-17 is as high as 300,000 US dollars, which is 8 times that of F4F, 6 times that of F6F, and 5 times that of P51, 300 B-17 is about equal to an Essex (including carrier-based aircraft), and B-29 is more expensive than B-17, and reducing 2,000 heavy bombers can indeed do a lot, but in this way, the policy of strategic air raids against Germany will not be completely bankrupt, at least it will come to a standstill, and most of the people in the Eighth Air Force can go home directly.

The goal of a balanced budget still had to be taken care of, and since so much money had been spent on homeland defense, and a lot of money had to be spent on the restoration of the Panama Canal, it would have to be cut in other areas, and the parliamentarians demanded that, in view of Russia's failure to play a major role in defending itself against the German offensive and the large amount of supplies had been hoarded in the country, it was emphasized that the surplus materials should be allocated first, and that the budget for the remaining Lend-Lease materials should not be allocated this year.

This seems fair, but Marshall sighed: the rest of the supplies were old or obsolete, second-class goods such as the P-38, P-39, P-40 and Stuart tanks, which the United States itself no longer intends to equip, and are almost all in tatters. But now is not the time to consider Congress's attitude, and the most important thing is to make sure that the president passes the test. Besides, the shipping routes are all cut off, and good things can't be delivered to Russia.

The congressmen also pointed out that since the United States has given Britain so much material and support, coupled with the serious threat of Germany's new fighter planes, the government must exert pressure to bring British jet technology experts and scientific research results to the United States to jointly build American jet planes, which is called "joint research and accelerated development."

Lawmakers were not fools, and Roosevelt's request to relocate 100,000 British technicians and skilled workers was quickly passed, and he even authorized the president to issue visas to 30,000 more families this year and include them in the next year's immigration plan if he deemed it necessary, all hoping that the United States would grow as strong as possible.

"Next, it is up to Secretary of State Hull to report to Congress on whether or not he wants to make peace with Germany alone." When Roosevelt dropped the bomb, it caused an uproar, and Jewish congressmen were filled with righteous indignation.

Hull said unhurriedly: "Although we have not had direct or indirect contact with Germany, we have received information from secret sources and third parties that Germany does have the intention of making peace with us alone, on the very simple terms: we give up our support for Britain and Russia, do not interfere with German actions in Europe and Africa, and recognize their results, and Germany renounces our support for Japan, does not interfere with our actions in the Pacific and the Americas, and acknowledges the results; The two sides concluded a peace agreement with mutual neutrality, non-claims and non-interference...... The subtext is to recognize that Germany and the United States will jointly lead the world after the war. ”

Without waiting for the congressmen to discuss, Roosevelt immediately stated: "I myself am firmly opposed to this idea, which is not only unacceptable, but also cannot even be discussed, for the following reasons:

"First, the Atlantic Charter clearly stipulates that Britain and the United States advance and retreat together, that neither side can make peace with the Axis alone, and that we cannot violate national commitments and international morality;

Second, from a practical point of view, this condition is very unfavorable to us, and Britain may not be able to support it for even three months without the support of the United States, while Japan, without the support of Germany, can support it for a long time. ”

Nimitz believed that if the United States had gone all out against Japan and Germany had not intervened, the overall victory would not have been less than three years.

"Thirdly, in view of Hitler's usual habit of tearing up contracts, such peace promises are very unreliable - every peace treaty he signed was torn up in the end. As soon as Germany succeeds in dealing with Russia, Great Britain, they will monopolize Europe, at which point they may once again tear up the agreement and join forces with Japan, which will lead to eventual defeat;

Fourth, from the point of view of the feelings and dignity of the American people, we will not be allowed to make peace with Japan unless Japan surrenders;

Fifth, and most crucially, looking ahead to the post-war landscape, the United States cannot accept a political arrangement that is remote from the heart of the world - this is incompatible with the pride of the American people and incompatible with America's international standing. ”

Most of the members of the parliament thought that the explanation and explanation were reasonable, and some of them were still skeptical, at which point Roosevelt began to make a big statement:

"To sum up, I solemnly declare that if Congress passes a resolution to 'make peace between the United States and the Axis powers, in whole or in part,' I, as president, will respect the will of the people and will not exercise the right of veto, but will announce it on the day the resolution is passed......" Roosevelt scanned the audience majestically and slowly spat out a single word, "Resign!" ”

After these words were uttered, the audience was dumbfounded, and the parliamentarians were stunned one by one.

Hull quietly gave a thumbs up -- this hand was playing beautifully by retreating, and if there was really no victory, he would make peace, and the agreement had to be signed by Roosevelt, which not only seriously dampened his self-esteem, but also showed that the president's policy of preparing for war and putting Europe before Asia had completely failed, and this was a devastating blow to the prestige of the statesman.

At 2 a.m. on May 4, the congressional inquiry session finally came to an end:

unanimously adopted the Programme for Strengthening the Territorial Defence and the associated budget;

87% of parliamentarians expressed support for the continuation of the war and not for peace with the Axis;

Passed the Hoover proposal by a narrow margin of 54 percent, but cut the required resources in half and asked Hoover to report on progress six months later......

At the end of the meeting, the congressmen stood up and raised their arms and shouted: "The all-out war in the United States has just begun, and we will resolutely accompany the enemy to the end no matter how long the enemy wants to fight!" Without the occupation of Berlin, Tokyo and Rome, the war will never end! (To be continued.) )