Chapter 247: Fish Dead or Net Broken? (ENDS)

On the afternoon of February 5, a spirited Roosevelt addressed the members of Congress. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

"Vice President Wallace has reported to you about the course of the war, the accumulated war losses and the consumption of resources, I have nothing to add, most of the facts have been reported to Congress, but this is the first time that they have been gathered together, so it looks more shocking, but it does not change the numbers themselves, and I will focus on how to look at them today." Roosevelt glanced majestically across the audience and began to speak confidently.

"Of the more than $300 billion in military spending, in addition to nearly $100 billion in support of the allies, the United States spent about $200 billion on its own defense forces.

Simply looking at the numbers, it seems that we are very inefficient and lose more than we gain. But first of all, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the military spending of the United States had been limited to a very low level in the years leading up to the war, and that Germany had been taking advantage of every opportunity to expand its military, and that a large part of the more than 200 billion dollars spent on it had been used to compensate for previous military expenditures.

Second, the United States is about 12 times the size of Germany, and if we want to achieve the same defense force and air defense system deployment as Germany, it means that we need to invest more than 12 times the strength and funds, which virtually increases the corresponding military expenditure, but this is a national defense construction necessary to protect the people, and cannot be weakened.

Again, the strength of the German navy is relatively weak, in addition to submarines, its surface fleet mainly relies on the help of Italian and French warships, and the United States must retain a strong navy due to its special geographical location, this part of the expenditure accounts for a very large proportion, we should list Japan, Italy, France in the surface ships part of the military expenditure in order to get a fair figure, in the army ranks, the size of the United States is not inferior to Germany, and the average degree of mechanization is better than it (this is not bragging), The cost of this part of the equipment is also quite high.

Again, Germany plundered a large amount of supplies from the countries it invaded, and obtained a large amount of military supplies and agricultural products from its client countries, such as Romania, Hungary, Turkey, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Italy, and the Baltic States, which we count at about $30 billion to $40 billion, while the United States buys every penny of material with money, because we never plunder, and the disparity is understandable when the difference is taken into account;

It should also be noted that Germany had received a great deal of money for the plundering of the Jews, Poles, Czechs, and other common people, and that the Jewish people were still forced to participate in unpaid coolie labor, and that the German occupation forces in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands were dependent on local government expenses, and that the rest of its front-line troops in Western Europe was also paid for by these countries.

To sum up, our actual military spending is about 30-40% more than Germany's, which I think is a relatively reasonable figure. Of course, I don't think the same amount of money can be blamed on the use of funds, but on other aspects such as mobilization, organization, training level, and command ability. Because war is not decided by just relying on more money and less money, otherwise, France's military spending before the war has always been higher than Germany's, and its naval strength is also stronger than Germany's, why would it be defeated? ”

"Let me come back to the issue of strategy. As the war has developed to the present, with the Axis achieving good results on the battlefield, it seems unthinkable to insist on the unconditional surrender of the other side, and it is difficult to restore the pre-1939 pattern that many people insisted on at the beginning. But I still have clear pursuits: first, the Axis countries must stop intervening, encroaching on, and meddling in the American continent; Second, Germany must terminate all kinds of relations with Japan, and Japan's crime of attacking Pearl Harbor must be settled; Third, we respect the will of the countries concerned in the overall situation of Europe, but Great Britain deserves decent peace and respect...... "Roosevelt's tone was much lowered because it was an internal speech in Congress, and as soon as these few words came out, many parliamentarians began to talk about it -- the president began to retreat from the previous tough conditions, and they thought that the withdrawal was wise and effective.

However, the German side openly rejected these conditions, which were already extremely tolerant, restrained, and based on reality, and they expressed through diplomatic channels and radio channels that Germany would not only continue to maintain its alliance with Japan, but also occupy Great Britain and enslave its people, and grossly interfere in the internal affairs of the South American countries and carry out armed occupation, the Atlantic and the Americas, so who continues to contain Germany in Europe? There were only two allies, Great Britain and the Soviet Union, so I was determined to continue to provide assistance to them under the Lend-Lease Act as far as we could, until Germany threw in the towel or made peace on our terms. ”

Everyone is a human spirit, and they can't understand the meaning of Roosevelt's words: The president did not say it explicitly just now, but he has already put forward the bottom line of the war, that is, after liquidating Japan, the United States can tolerate Germany gaining a certain degree of hegemony in Europe and forming a two-headed confrontation with the United States. This goal is obviously a big step backward from the hegemony of the United States, but the possibility of achieving it has also been greatly improved, and Roosevelt also said that aid is not a bottomless pit, as long as Germany agrees to this condition, aid to the Soviet Union and Britain can be used in exchange -- isn't Germany also aiding Japan?

The crowd applauded enthusiastically, believing that the president was an old-fashioned politician with a realistic spirit, and that such conditions could barely be explained to the American people and the financiers behind everyone.

After many congressmen finished asking questions, a voice suddenly sounded: "Your Excellency, you have explained the apportionment and use of military spending, which I think is basically reasonable; I think the majority of parliamentarians can support the idea of an overall strategy for the future, but I have two important questions that I wonder if you can answer. ”

Although Dewey is not a senator but only the governor of New York, because he has been confirmed by the Republican Party as the next presidential candidate, considering the importance of the future political situation, Dewey also attended as an observer after applying and signing a confidentiality letter.

Roosevelt smiled slightly: "Of course, you say." ”

"First question, I learned that all the supply ships that were delivered to the Soviet Union last time were captured by the Japanese side, and in order to maintain this hard-won supply line that was the only remaining supply line of the Soviet Union, the Joint Chiefs of Staff planned to send 40% of the supplies to Japan in exchange for their release. Numerically, that percentage may be less than the cost of the Britannica supply line, but I wonder what you think of this kind of behavior that is in fact an enemy? Do you think it is reasonable for the United States to behave at the expense of its enemies in order to defeat Germany? Is it possible to gain the understanding and understanding of the people? ”

Roosevelt's face changed greatly after hearing this, but he still continued to listen quietly, and at the same time, his mind was racing fast How to deal with this thorny question, and the people around him were also very nervous, and immediately exchanged opinions with their eyes -- this thing can't be admitted today, otherwise it would be too bad.

"The second question is that the Joint Staff Committee said in the war report that the 3rd and 5th Divisions of the Army were unable to complete their tasks in the later stage of the Cape Verde Campaign because of the commander's cowardice, disobedience, and compromise and vacillation. However, according to the investigation of some members of the party, these two army divisions were actually abandoned by the navy, and the person who made the decision was General Turner, who was the chief of staff of the fleet at the time, and of course, the retired fleet commander, Admiral Ingersoll, I want to know what you think about this matter? If there is a similar situation in the future, will General Turner still take the fleet and turn around and leave the army? ”

These two questions were thrown into the room like a 5,000-pound bomb, and everyone was in an uproar. The top brass of the Republican Party looked at each other and smiled, this was a political offensive specially created by the party, which could have been mentioned by a Republican congressman, but they carefully chose to be attacked by Dewey, the purpose was to catch Roosevelt and the Democrats by surprise and build momentum for the 1944 election -- although no one was sure that Roosevelt would not run again, it was generally believed that Roosevelt's body was very likely not to run, and the current Vice President Wallace, Roosevelt, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff did not agree with each other, so the probability of winning the election was very high.

Roosevelt's face changed again, and he finally knew what the anxiety and uneasiness in his heart were before today's meeting -- the opponents were all waiting to attack here.

Seeing Roosevelt's extremely difficult expression, Dewey smiled slightly, in fact, he still had a third attack shell in his heart: After the "Loyalty Act" was introduced, Hoover and the FBI took advantage of the bill to greatly expand their powers, and did a lot of shady things for high-sounding reasons such as purging spies and preventing leaks, not only promoting the actual spy politics, but also conducting internal racial screening -- the top leaders of the Investigation Bureau who held real power were all Anglo-Saxon or Jewish, These two races are also staggeringly high in the number of new federal employees.

But after careful consideration, he decided to give up, because the point of attack is difficult to choose: the "Loyalty Act" was unanimously approved by Congress, and it is true that many spies have been investigated based on this thing, and the irony is that more Soviet spies have been caught than German spies, so the other side cannot be accused of wrong goals, at most the means are excessive, and it is easy to get rid of. As for ethnicity or something, Dewey also felt a headache, of course, there are other ethnic groups at the top of the FBI, but most of them are responsible for administrative, logistical and other transactional work, and there is no real power in charge of business, but after all, it is also a high-level, and it is also based on the principle of job rotation to achieve "job transfer", why is business important, and affairs are not important? If it were not for this consideration, Nimitz, Halsey, Eisenhower, Spruance, Patton, and Spatz were all Germans, so could they accuse the army of being controlled by the Germans and deliberately losing the war? So he let it go.

As for Hoover himself, he was just a dog from Roosevelt, and the owner fell, and he was afraid that he would not become a lost dog?