Among everyone, what surprised Zhou Nan the most was that Eisenhower, who took over as his army chief of staff, was also in the queue, and he was also the person Zhou Nan wanted to meet most in the United States.

The presence of the Secretary of State and the Chief of Army Staff at the same time in such an informal meeting also represents the importance they attach to Zhou Nan, which is a good opportunity.

If there is anyone who will have a decisive influence on the relationship between China and the United States in the coming decades, it is Eisenhower who will bear the brunt of it. Because of his decision, the United States implemented the **** policy, and until 2017, the end of Zhou Nan's memory, the entire Sino-US situation was still implemented around this core idea, and it never changed.

But in reality, he was not hostile to the Red Party from the beginning. Even in the beginning, he tried to reverse the hostilities between China and the United States and wanted to end the Korean War with dignity.

However, this effort was thwarted by the Soviet Union, and he returned in vain. Coupled with the influence of an extremist Dulles, he completely stood in the opposite position.

But this man was never actually an extremist, on the contrary, he was a good old man with a very peaceful personality who could get along with anyone.

He was born in poverty, tasted the warmth and coldness of life, from a soldier to the president of a country, he could get along with each other very happily.

In his forty years in the army, he hardly had a real opponent. Neither his colleagues nor competitors can find fault with him.

He set the record for the fastest promotion to a general in the U.S. Army, and ousted his former boss, MacArthur, and successfully became the president of the United States.

This is mainly due to his peaceful personality and his ability to maintain a very good relationship with all sectors of society, and he has received strong support from the American consortium.

Never before have America's big business groups been so united, and big business groups such as Rockefeller, Morgan, DuPont, and Mellon have all taken a fancy to him and put him on the presidency.

When he became president, seven of the eight cabinet members were millionaires, and only one labor minister was a plumber. In the end, Labor Minister Dugin resigned, and his cabinet members became all millionaires.

The most admirable thing is that although he was hated by the poor at first, he thought that he had betrayed his origins and became the spokesman of the capitalists. But later, relying on his generous character and pragmatic governing style, even the poor began to appreciate him and support him.

Now, six years are left before he moves into the White House. Zhou Nan believes that if he can exert some subtle influence on him at this stage, then he will be able to show less sharpness in Sino-US relations in the future.

Of course, it is impossible to count on complete influence, and in the context of the Soviet-American confrontation, anyone's influence on the whole is very limited, and it is not subject to individual will.

Eisenhower's pragmatic style is unlikely to bring him close to Red, but as long as he is not entirely on the side of Blue, everything can turn around.

What's more, there is now another Chinese country in Southeast Asia, and these changes can affect the future Asian policy of the United States.

Because of his presence, Zhou Nan was even more full of expectations for today's meeting.

This small building is the VIP room in this club, although it is only three floors, but the area is not small, and it can accommodate 30 people without being too crowded. In addition, on the first floor, there is a conference room with an area of dozens of square meters, an oval conference table, which can accommodate 20 people for talks, and dozens of auditors during the week of the room.

However, Zhou Nan and the others were not directly invited into the conference room, but were first taken to their respective rooms by the waiters, settled down, and had something to eat.

Zhou Nan's room should be the largest in this villa, with a separate bedroom, study, small meeting room, and reception room. Standing at the window, you can see the lights under the hillside outside, and the scenery is charming.

The dinner they prepared was also very rich, but no one paid attention to the food.

Everything Zhou Nan wrote yesterday was about some additions to the European revival plan, and today on the plane has been translated by two English translators.

While Zhou Nan was having dinner, they were busy communicating with the US side, printed out the contents, and then made nearly 20 copies according to the number of people attending today's talks.

When Zhou Nan finished eating and came to the conference room, these manuscripts had already been delivered to everyone.

Everyone was looking at the manuscript written by Zhou Nan, and it wasn't until he walked in that everyone paused for a moment, invited Zhou Nan to sit down, and poured him fragrant coffee.

Only Marshall and Zhou Nan were chatting about the current problems in Europe, and everyone else was looking at what Zhou Nan had written, and the talks began in earnest when the clock was about to strike midnight.

For a project as vast as the European Renaissance Plan, the complexity goes far beyond normal commercial cooperation. It can be said that if the number of people participating in this plan exceeds tens or even hundreds of thousands, and the number of people benefiting more than hundreds of millions of people is officially implemented, it is not too much to fill this villa with the documents of various specific measures.

Of course, they don't discuss a specific measure, but they want to set the framework for the whole plan. And Zhou Nan's role is to discuss and set the tone rationally around some of the contents of his plan.

They also want to judge the impact and results of a certain policy through discussions with Zhou Nan, so as to decide whether it will be implemented according to Zhou Nan's plan.

In fact, after World War II, the United States has invested a lot of money in the reconstruction of Europe. According to the statistics of relevant departments in the United States, in the past two years, the United States has invested $9 billion in this area.

However, most of this assistance is in the form of indirect means, such as leasing military facilities in European countries, building military camps in Europe, leasing ports in European countries, or the US military intervening to rebuild local infrastructure and help refugees.

In addition, most of the humanitarian efforts undertaken by the United Nations, which were still in its infancy, such as relief and debt relief, also came from the United States.

These efforts have paid off, but they have neglected many of the most basic needs for the reconstruction of Europe because they lack a systematic organization and a sound plan.

Therefore, the rate at which the American capitalists suck blood from Europe still exceeds the rate of hematopoiesis, coupled with the current famine in Europe, has seriously affected the economic recovery of the whole of Europe.

The biggest problem here is that the entire European economic system, the agricultural system, the industrial system has almost collapsed. For Europe's economy to recover, these problems must be addressed at their roots.

Zhou Nan's European Reconstruction Plan expounds Europe's current problems from this perspective, arguing that US aid should not only stand on its own standpoint, but need to help Europe rebuild its entire economic and industrial system, as well as food aid.

A good example of this is Volkswagen.

Originally, this company also had no raw materials, no processing tools, no sales channels, although they had the technology and skilled workers, but they were also on the verge of bankruptcy.

However, after receiving the most basic assistance from the Anglo-American side, they resumed production.

The resumption of production by Volkswagen is not the resurrection of one enterprise, but the resurrection of multiple enterprises. For example, steel factories, such as Continental tires, such as glass factories, such as hardware factories and so on.

The supply channels of an automobile manufacturer can lead to the recovery of as many related factories as there are industries, and this kind of fundamental assistance is what Europe really needs.

However, if we look back at the plan itself, in addition to determining the nature of the aid, what is more important is the scope of the aid, the funds and materials that the United States can provide, and the more important issue of the distribution ratio.

Because Europe is not a whole, in addition to the countries of Western Europe, there are also Northern Europe, as well as Middle Eastern Europe. Which countries need aid, what kind of aid is needed, and what proportion is allocated?

Identifying these elements is far more complex than the aid itself.

Post-war Europe was poor and white, which led to a very common phenomenon, that is, the prosperity of communist parties in various countries.

Take France as an example, the current French Communist Party is the largest party in France and controls the political situation in France. With the exception of France, the situation in other countries is less pronounced, although it is not as prominent as in France, but it is similar.

If the United States does not act to help, it is very likely that all of Europe will be controlled by the Communist Party.

Those who have constant production have perseverance, and the most terrible thing is the proletariat, because they have nothing, they don't even care about their lives, what else can scare them?

Aid Europe, help them develop their economies, and make them all "rich". With hope in life, a stable family, and children, it is natural for them to think twice about what they do.

Moreover, through this kind of help, the United States can control their economy, and their economic recovery, the United States will naturally follow the dividends. With this kind of assistance, the United States can control not only their economy, but also their politics.

So now the question arises, aid to Western Europe, what about Northern Europe? And what about the USSR and their satellites?

Historically, the United States considered giving the same assistance to the Soviet Union and its satellites in Eastern Europe, on the condition that the Soviet Union carry out political reforms and allow Western powers to enter the Soviet sphere of influence.

But in fact, the United States feared that the Soviet Union would use the program to restore and develop its own strength, so the United States proposed a number of harsh terms that were unacceptable to the Soviet Union, and eventually excluded it and its Eastern European satellite states from the scope of assistance.

These are the general directions, as well as the proportion of aid with other countries, which is a very complex issue.

The United States does not have mountains of gold and silver, the resources are inexhaustible, and the landlords have no surplus grain!

Europe is eager to provide as much aid as possible, but the United States hopes to obtain the maximum return at the lowest cost.

Focusing on these problems, Zhou Nan took out all his skills and carefully analyzed the forward-looking and feasibility of each policy. His English skills were not good enough for such talks, and he often discussed them in German, which also seriously slowed down the progress of the talks.

(I feel pretty good about this chapter, hehe...... ）