For the last week or two, John has been busy attending various Parisian upper-class gatherings. Pen ~ Fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info Thanks to the introduction of cousin Consuelo and brother-in-law Balesson, he quickly opened up the situation in the top social circles in Paris, and established initial contacts with many "big names" in French politics and business.

John wasn't such a high-profile person, and he wasn't really keen on this kind of social event. According to the previous plan, John did not intend to stay in France for too long. As soon as the "bodyguards" sent by Reilly arrived, he was supposed to leave for Germany to inspect the family foundation's estate.

But plans could not keep up with the change, and John stayed in Paris for more than a week. This was not just for the sake of managing so-called connections, but because John had recently accepted a secret mission from the White House.

Just a few days after John returned to Paris, he suddenly received a call from Stimson's uncle asking him to go to the U.S. Embassy. There, the ambassador to France, Pride, handed over to John a letter from F.D.R. (Franklin Delano Roosevelt).

The "personal letter" was very brief, and Roosevelt first recalled their meeting at the White House in March, applauding John's "international vision" at the time. He then offered to invite Johann as his personal observer to give him an idea of the present attitude of the European community towards the German Nazis, and especially towards the territorial dispute between Germany and Czechoslovakia.

In the letter, Roosevelt said that it would be a "little secret" between him and John, and that an officer from the White House Secret Service would personally go to Paris to assist John in completing the expedition. All of John's reports were to be forwarded through this Secret Service officer to Miss Lehand, Roosevelt's personal secretary.

Finally, Roosevelt wished John all the best on his "tour" to Europe and invited him to visit the White House again after returning to the United States.

John was somewhat flattered by this invitation from Roosevelt himself. He had never known that he was so "appreciated" by the president. John later learned that it was Stimson (Secretary of State Hull's special adviser) and FBI Director Hoover who recommended him to President Roosevelt. He was joined by Donovan, who was in the United Kingdom, William Shailer, CBS's chief correspondent for Europe, and Giana, an American banker with whom Mussolini had a close personal relationship.

Although this "secret mission" came relatively suddenly, John gladly accepted it. As a U.S. citizen, no matter what party you come from, you have an obligation to serve the White House. And John originally planned to join the Strategic Intelligence Bureau led by Donovan and become an intelligence officer after the United States entered the war. This visit was a rehearsal, and he was not ignorant of the impending "Munich conspiracy" anyway, so he should not mislead the White House.

John knew that President Roosevelt had historically preferred to obtain foreign intelligence through various private channels. His personal secretary, Hopkins, played a pivotal role in the history of World War II. Before forming the Strategic Intelligence Agency, Donovan also made several visits to Europe as the president's secretary. Even his son, James Roosevelt, served as his father's "observer" in the Middle and Far East on several occasions.

Last year, Roosevelt sent his bodyguard, Carlson, a U.S. Marine Corps captain and head of the White House Secret Service's security team in Hot Springs, to China for an inspection. This Carlson not only went to the front line of the Battle of Taierzhuang, but also secretly visited Yan'an and made contact with Zhu, Mao and others.

Of course, not every observer Roosevelt was "told" with was a qualified intelligence officer. A biologist once received a special grant of $25,000 from Roosevelt to go to central Africa to study the dynamics of the French colonies after the defeat of France. As a result, this guy really had no talent for intelligence, and he was busy for a long time, except for a documentary about African wildlife, and brought back nothing for Roosevelt.

But even so, Roosevelt enjoyed it. On the one hand, because he is a natural person who likes "gossip". Everyone around him knew what kind of personal sensual private reports President Roosevelt preferred over dry professional intelligence reports. While these reports are often filled with personal assumptions and hearsay that are neither true nor accurate, the president just loves to read them.

At that time, when Donovan was competing with Hoover for the position of the boss of the US intelligence community, one of the most beautiful things he did was to buy off the White House press secretary and deliver the Strategic Intelligence Agency briefings to President Roosevelt's bedside every morning. Roosevelt loved to have breakfast while watching the "gossip news" from around the world. That's how many of the operations of the Strategic Intelligence Agency are supported by the president.

On the other hand, Roosevelt had no choice but to do so. At a time when isolationism is rife, only the U.S. diplomatic system and the Admiralty have intelligence networks abroad. Moreover, this country, which in the past even the leaders of the allied countries had to eavesdrop on and monitor, now pursues the ancient moral code of "a gentleman does not read other people's letters". There is very little information coming back from official sources.

Official intelligence is inefficient and lagging, and privately collected information is often contradictory and fraught with loopholes. If you weren't in this era, you wouldn't be able to tell the extent of the lack of foreign intelligence in the United States before World War II. After the U.S. entered the war, intelligence services even had to issue announcements through the Photographic Society, soliciting photographs taken by citizens while traveling abroad in order to gather much-needed geographic information.

It was precisely because of this situation that Roosevelt finally made up his mind and ordered the formation of the predecessor of the CIA, the US Strategic Intelligence Agency, in 1942.

However, these are not the same as the present. John has little to do with it. Anyway, now, he is a presidential "secret agent" with a one-line connection with the White House. Although the Secret Service officers who were working with him had not yet arrived, John had dutifully carried out his intelligence gathering efforts. With John's current status, it is impossible to obtain the core confidential information, and he is not Mr. Bond, who is omnipotent.

But John also had his own way of gathering intelligence. Through his brother-in-law, he soon learned that the Balesson family's military clothing factory had not received additional orders from the military in recent times. That is, the French military has no plans for large-scale mobilization in the near future.

John also hosted a banquet for General Giraud in Paris as a token of gratitude. The fact that the commander of the French 6th Military Region had left the military district on the northern border at least was not on alert.

John also inquired carefully about the prices of food, medicine, and gasoline in the market in recent years, and found that there had been no abnormal fluctuations recently, indicating that the government had not begun to stockpile strategic goods on a large scale.

John's previous entrustment of Cousin Consuelo's sale of the Foundation's French property was also going well. Whether it was real estate in Paris and Marseille, or farmsteads in Provence, including the small winery that the Duvière family had just paid him for, they all sold for good prices.

This is at least a reflection of the fact that the rich French do not want to go to war yet. Otherwise, even if they don't transfer assets abroad, they won't add real estate at home at this time.

As for the attitude of the people, just look at the pages of the major newspapers in Paris and the crowds queuing at the entrance of the Moulin Rouge. No one wanted to go to war, and there were more newspapers about the Spanish Civil War than about Germany's territorial dispute with Czechoslovakia. Parisian men also care far more about beautiful women than they do about their northern neighbors.

Even among those who are concerned about the situation in Europe, the majority support appeasement. Public opinion was generally inclined to properly meet the demands of Germany in order to avoid war. The last world war really scared the French, and no one wanted to take the initiative to provoke a war. Even the most hard-line military figures only advocate sanctions against Germany, and the overall strategy against Germany is still mainly defensive.

While attending the party, John even heard some ridiculous opinions. For example, the German army vigorously developed mechanized equipment because it had been hungry for decades, the physical fitness of the soldiers was too poor, and the physical strength was not enough to carry out long-distance marches, and there was not enough food to raise horses in the country. Even some high-ranking military officials are still immersed in the glory of the victory in the last war, and their tactical thinking is extremely conservative.

The French military hierarchy had always been convinced that the Germans would be bloodied in front of the Maginot Line. Although they had more tanks than the Germans, they were scattered in battalion and company formations in various infantry divisions. De Gaulle's idea of creating an armored division has not been echoed by the top brass of the military.

John compiled all the information he had learned from France into a memo that he was going to pass on to the White House as soon as the Secret Service officer arrived. In the memo, John made no mention of the dangers of appeasement. The Americans themselves are not ready to deal with the situation in Europe, so appeasement is at least beneficial to the United States. It's a little longer to be able to delay, anyway, it's the French who are unlucky in the end, aren't they?