On the evening of 12 February, the day before the Independent Commission of Inquiry reported to Congress its preliminary conclusions on the "protection money" incident, Robert E. Hannigan, the leader of the Democratic Party of St. Louis, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee and a fellow member of the investigative committee, approached Truman to exchange views. Pen fun and pavilion www.biquge.info

"Now the conclusion is obvious, all the details of the verification, the inquiry of the insiders and the archival research can not make the matter of 'protection money' established, that is, no matter what the truth is, at least there is not enough evidence for the conviction!" Hannigan said, "In the face of the facts, I believe the Republicans have nothing to say. ”

Truman nodded: "It's good that we spent so much effort, so much brain, and so many complaints, and finally want this result." ”

But Turner's case is a thorny one, and everyone is still debating it, and there is an opinion that even if Turner did so, Admiral Ingersoll should not be enough to take responsibility and that Turner should resign — but that would not be in line with the president's request. Not only the Republican Party has this attitude, but several other members of our Party seem to have this little bit of awareness, but they just don't show it. In addition, Republicans are inciting discontent among the Army's rank-and-file units against the Navy, saying that if there is no element of injustice, why did the two divisions 'revolt before the battle' instead of surrendering? Trying to deduce the Navy's ill-intentioned ...... through counter-evidence"

Truman nodded and said with a wry smile: "Actually, there is a more obvious saying about sowing discord: Turner said that the army has many such divisions that day, and the naval fleet only has one, which means that two army divisions are not as important as the fleet, so in the future, the navy may continue to abandon the army units in case of emergency?" There was a lot of discontent among mid- and lower-ranking officers. ”

This point is still a headache, whether one fleet is more important or two army divisions are important, anyone who understands military affairs knows how to choose. As in everyday life, it is easy to judge whether a young man in the prime of life and a promising young man is more valuable or an old man who is dying and dying is more valuable, but this obvious conclusion is not "correct" or inconsistent with the principle of "political correctness" - because the constitution says that all people are equal, and no one is more noble or important than the other. On this occasion, can we clearly state whether the army or the navy is important?

"So Turner is a very troublesome matter, I don't know what to say......" Hannigan sighed, "especially after they checked the information and found out that Turner had put forward a lot of battle plan ideas, including the crazy idea of using 50-60 escort carriers to attack the Azores and fight out German planes to open the way for subsequent fleet landings." ”

Truman shook his head and said, "I don't see things that way, I actually think Turner is right, and not only that, but the reason why we have a string of losses is because we didn't play to our best advantage." ”

"Can you tell me about it?"

"I consulted the Joint Chiefs of Staff's operational command records and checked the campaign communiqué and found a very interesting scene: while the Combined Fleet was fighting the Germans and us on the African front last year, General Nimitz's Pacific Fleet and General MacArthur's ground forces were continuing their counteroffensive in Southeast Asia, and the Japanese troops on the islands were dying one by one – completely in isolation. If it were our army, the army would have protested indignantly, what about our planes? And what about our fleet? However, the Japanese, with tens of thousands of dead and wounded, held us back, creating a good opportunity for the victory of the Combined Fleet. Although I don't like the Japanese, I have to admit that this crazy spirit of sacrifice is much more clever than our damn 'political correctness', is the Japanese Army willing to die for the Navy? Could it be that the life of the army is cheaper? It's not topped, is it possible? ”

Hannigan nodded, he was not very familiar with the army, this was the first time he had heard this statement, it was very new.

"I'll give you another very typical example, which I just learned from my exchanges with the Soviets in the past few days...... "Truman explained," Truman explained. It was a lieutenant general named Keiji Shibasaki, who commanded a U.S. Marine Brigade. You and I don't know this man, but when you mention it, you understand - he was the supreme commander of the Japanese defenders of Tarawa at that time, and General Nimitz annihilated the Japanese army on the island from 5,000 to only a few dozen in the Battle of Tarawa, and he was one of the few survivors. Then I checked the naval battle minutes and found that Horikichi led the combined fleet to sweep Australia and New Zealand instead of directly saving him, in other words, the reason why Shibasaki Keiji was so miserable was entirely due to the slow rescue operation of Horikichi. But it's such a person, but in turn he works for Horikichi, what do you think? In our army, in our system, will there be such an officer who has the spirit of self-sacrifice and does not hesitate to die for his superiors? ”

"Horrible, horrible......" Hannigan muttered to himself.

The tradition of the U.S. military is to call for allegiance to the country and the American people, so how can it be possible to emphasize allegiance to the commander and die for the commander? - It's not democratic!

"If everyone thinks they are important and they can't be sacrificed, then who will?" Truman said excitedly, "The president has arranged for someone to appear tomorrow, hoping to use his speech to boost morale and thwart the Republican conspiracy, and then put off Turner's affairs to see if there is a turnaround, and that's all he can do." I understand what the president thinks, and I can understand what Dewey meant. I just don't understand why the Republicans are messing up the military with this demagoguery, and what good is it for them? Aren't they Americans? Don't they ever want to be president? ”

"It's just a way for them to compete for power, the president is not in good health, and our party has traitors like Wallace, so they're not only looking at the general election, they're also eyeing the congressional election." Hannigan sighed, "I understand the president's idea of keeping Turner, but your performance has gone a little too far in the past few days, not only the Republican Party is deeply surprised, but even the military circles that don't know the truth have a lot of criticism about you, of course, I think the high-level military circles understand, and I also understand that this is a kind of political trick - high standards and strict requirements will not be able to overturn the case in the future." ”

"Yes...... That's good, and I'll be ruthless if I want to do it in the future. ”

"Start?" Hannigan was surprised, "What are you going to do?" ”

"Do you think this war can still be won?" Truman asked in a playful tone.

"This ...... I can't say it. ”

"I think it's hard to win." Truman smiled slightly, "Not only do I think so, but the president probably thinks so too." ”

"What about him?"

"He still has 11 months left in his term, and he is very tough in words, but in essence he doesn't want to be a failed president, so whether he lives or dies, he has to drag it out for a year, and as for the future negotiation......s," Truman laughed, "and that's not his business." ”

Hannigan nodded: "No wonder he gave up his re-election so quickly, and asked him on Thanksgiving Eve to talk about him." ”

"This is also the real reason why Wallace jumped out and was in a hurry to wash away, he didn't want to sink with this big ship, but he jumped in the wrong position, and then he was used by Dewey."

"So what do you think? Didn't the president nominate you for the vice president? You're quitting? ”

Truman smiled slyly: "Of course the vice president wants to do it, but the next president is not easy to do, and the next president is likely to go to Berlin to kowtow to Hitler and beg for peace. ”

"I ......," Hannigan was embarrassed, not knowing how to take it.

"And now these senior members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will definitely resign, and no one knows them better than I do - this is all a slippery head, and even the most honest Eisenhower is now a bad learner." Truman smiled, "If I am elected by the party to run for president, I will be faced with the question of whether to withdraw from the war, and perhaps I will not be able to stop the war immediately, but I will have to delay it for a while." Can Dewey shout the slogan of isolationism again, can we follow along? Even if I could shout, no matter what my relationship with the military was, they would jump out and speak out against it in order to maintain the dignity of the army - after all, no one wants to be a general who has lost a battle and surrendered. ”

Hannigan had a vague guess at Truman's thoughts, and the latter did not think it was glorious to be a president who represented the surrender of the United States, nor did he think that close ties to the military would allow the latter to accept defeat frankly.

"Of course, we still have to look at the situation, maybe the situation will improve?" Truman smiled slightly, "As long as Congress can smoothly push forward the issuance of 50 billion national bonds, we will have more money to build warships and equipment, and we can continue to fight with the Germans and the Japanese." ”

"Now the oligarchs are unhappy with such high tax rates and want to cut them."

"It's impossible, don't even think about it!" Truman categorically refused, "The Germans have reached out to South America, even if they are isolationist, you can't leave South America alone, right?" Don't look at the capitalists' strong opposition to expansion spending, if they really stop aiding Britain completely, they will even more scold. ”

"Why?" Hannigan was surprised, "If we hadn't helped the British, wouldn't we have saved money for other uses?" ”

"You didn't figure it out?" Truman smiled slyly, "How many kinds of supplies are included in the aid of Britain?" From daily necessities to logistical products, from energy to raw materials, military equipment accounts for only a small part of it. If the focus on the production of armaments was stopped, the arms capitalists, of course, would be more satisfied, but the capitalists who could produce civilian products would be satisfied? Can the owner of the cargo ship manufacturing industry be satisfied? In the final analysis, it has nothing to do with how many of these materials are sunk by the capitalists, it is all paid by the government and the American people, and whether the loss rate is high or low, it will not affect their profit margin. I sometimes even wonder if the profiteers want everything to be sunk by the Germans, and then the government has to spend money to buy a new batch. ”

Hannigan was stunned, he had never seen things in that way.

"So you see, Wallace demanded that aid to Britain and the Soviet Union be stopped, and that all foreign aid should be stopped, and very few people responded to him - the oligarchs are all smart people, and only this fool naively thinks that he is really speaking for the fundamental interests of the American people."