Roosevelt did not answer William directly. Leahie's question, instead turned his attention to Treasury Secretary Henry. Morgenthau. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

"Admiral," Morgenthau took over, "I think the Germans are likely to reject our offer of peace. ”

William. Leahy frowned, and he said in his heart: How can it be your turn to answer military questions as a finance minister? Whether the Germans will fight or not, I, the chief of staff of the president, have the right to speak!

Morgenthau saw William. Leahy had a puzzled expression, just smiled and said, "Why do you think the Germans are fighting this war?" And why the European Community? ”

“……”

William. Leahy looked at the banker-looking Jewish finance minister, as if waiting for the other to answer his own questions.

Morgenthau smiled and said: "In fact, the culprit who started this war, the Chief of the General Staff of the German Wehrmacht, Marshal Hersmann, had already made this issue very clear before the war. Germany waged war and promoted the formation of the European Community in order to maintain its financial and economic hegemony in Europe.

In the view of the Hirsman Empire, who was also an economist, the last world war brought down the financial and monetary systems of European countries, and shifted the world's financial hegemony from Europe to the United States. The two financial crises that Germany experienced in the 20s were ultimately due to the loss of financial sovereignty. And if Europe wants to become great again, it must take back financial hegemony from the United States. It is impossible to achieve this by a single European country. The only way to do this is to unite the European powers of Germany, Great Britain, and France into a tariff and monetary union.

And this is the main purpose of Hersmann's support for the Hitler regime and the unleashing of a world war! ”

"Isn't his goal almost accomplished now?" William. Leahy had certainly read Hersmann's books—every single one! Therefore, he was fully aware of Hersmann's claims.

"No," Morgenthau shook his head, "not yet!" ”

"Didn't you?" William. Leahy looked at Morgenthau in bewilderment.

"Of course not," Morgenthau said, "and while the Germans were winning on the battlefield, their Euromark was not victorious, and the European Community was not really united." In the countries conquered by Germany, people were simply forced to accept the Euromark, and did not really have faith in such banknotes. Even the central banks of Rome and Japan, allies of the Germans, did not reserve European marks, they stockpiled gold and silver. As far as I know, many of the big banks in France and England are now buying gold and silver at every opportunity, which shows that they have little confidence in the German-controlled European mark. ”

"Why is this happening?" William. Leahy doesn't know much about economics, so it seems strange to him that people don't believe in the Euromark. The German devils are so able to fight, how can their money not be strong?

"The reason is very simple," Morgenthau smiled faintly, "although Germany's military power is very strong, the economy of Germany and the European Community cannot be compared with that of the United States. Germany and France are slightly better, Britain has not yet come out of collapse, and Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and Russia are littered with the ruins left by the war. ”

Morgenthaut paused, then added: "On paper, the economic power of the European Community seems to be very strong, as if it were no less powerful than that of the United States. But the European Community is a big unified market that has just been forcibly pinched together, and it is not the same as our big market in the United States, which has developed naturally.

There is still a lot of duplication and completely incompatible standards, and without 10-20 years of integration, there will simply not be an economically unified European community. And because of the lack of integration and the scarcity of many important raw materials and the destruction of the long war, the production capacity of Europe on paper has not been fully utilized, although there is no shortage of military supplies, but civilian supplies can only be strictly rationed.

In fact, the Euromark is of little use to a person or a country with a large Euromark if they do not want German-made arms. ”

Morgenthau is indeed not wrong, now the countries of the European Community are engaged in rationing supply, and everything has to be bought with tickets and cards. If anyone only has Euromark in their pocket, they can only buy things on the black market or in openly "high-spending" places. Then the ticket in your hand will become "hairy".

And because of the great boom and depression that the United States experienced before World War II, there was a lot of excess capacity in all walks of life in the United States. The demands of the world war allowed this excess capacity to be exploited, so the world war brought prosperity to the American economy, and all kinds of supplies were abundant.

Rationing was only introduced for a period after 1942 and was limited to gasoline and rubber products. However, with the submission of the British mainland and the commissioning of domestic synthetic rubber factories in the United States, rationing was abolished in the second half of 1943.

Therefore, countries and people who are holding dollars in their hands now do not have to worry about not being able to buy things.

"The second reason why the Euromark is not strong is that there are no gold reserves." Morgenthau went on to say, "It's no secret that after the end of the last world war, most of the world's gold went to the United States. The Federal Reserve Bank controls most of the world's gold and silver reserves, and this trend has not changed since the World War, with the Fed now holding more gold and silver than it did in 1939.

And the UEB coffers only bonds issued by the countries of the European Community that no one wants! ”

In this era, the "gold standard" and the "silver standard" are still deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. And "unsecured money" will always be linked to "depreciation" in people's minds. So the dollar, which is backed by a lot of gold and silver, is certainly stronger than the unsecured Euromark.

What's more, the current economy of the European Community is really not comparable to that of the United States. So in the battle between the dollar and the mark, it is still the dollar that has an overwhelming advantage.

Roosevelt laughed, then looked at William with blazing eyes. Leahy, "Admiral, do you understand why I am making peace with the Japanese?" ”

William. Raisi nodded and said, "Mr. President, you think that Germany is unlikely to make peace under the present circumstances. ”

"Yes." Roosevelt nodded his head and said, "Once peace is restored on both sides of the Atlantic, the Germans will find themselves simply unable to sustain the world empire they have worked so hard to build." For the Italians are our friends, and the French will be our friends, and the British, having lost most of their colonies, and even India is in disarray, have to turn to us for help. And if the ruined Russian Empire wants to survive, it also needs to borrow money and buy supplies from the United States.

As for Japan...... Hmph, the Germans will soon find out that the entire market of the East is closed to Europe. They would have to pay high prices to purchase rubber, silk, tea and certain raw materials from Japan that were only produced in the East. At the same time, both the Euromark and consumer goods produced in Europe will be shut out!

Therefore, Germany will most likely stick to the line of war, in order to attack our economy and prestige through war, and take away Venezuelan oil and Brazilian grain by military means. At the same time, the state of war can be used to prevent the penetration of our capital into Britain, France and Russia, and to buy time for Germany to further consolidate the European Community. ”

"But are we really going to let Japan go so easily?" William. Leahy was still a little tangled.

Roosevelt's face also became gloomy, and he gritted his teeth and said, "No! Of course, they can't be spared! As a matter of fact, our peace talks with Japan have pushed Japan to the brink of a rupture with Germany. Most of the Germans would not agree to make peace, and if Japan were to make peace alone, it would mean a complete breakdown of the Japanese-German alliance. At that time, we will have the initiative in the war and peace, and we can implement such tactics as armistices, negotiations, and breakdown of negotiations according to the needs of the Atlantic theater. As long as we don't sign the peace treaty, we can end the negotiations and resume the war at any time! ”

Negotiation does not mean peace, and a temporary truce does not mean that there can be no resumption of fighting! In history, it is not uncommon to talk about fighting, talking while fighting. As long as Japan goes against Germany's will and goes to the United States for an "armistice and peace talks" (temporary armistice) on its own, the Japan-Germany alliance will be immediately suspended.

……

"Your Excellency, the war in the Pacific has caused great damage and pressure on our country. The bloody battle in the Hawaiian Islands dragged on, and the naval and army air forces suffered heavy losses, with the total number of aircraft lost already exceeding 4,000, and this figure did not include the loss of suicide aircraft. U.S. submarines and mines have also caused great losses to our country, with as many as 160,000 tons of merchant ships sunk in April and an estimated loss of more than 180,000 tons in May. It's a huge loss, and if it continues like this, the Japanese Empire will be defeated......"

Talking to Hirschmann, who is on vacation in a luxury villa in the fairytale town of Berchtesgaden, is Hiroshi Oshima, the Japanese ambassador to Germany, who has just returned from Tokyo, Japan.

Hersman looked at the Japanese devil with a sad face in front of him, and of course he understood in his heart what the other party meant: Japan must have thought that the price offered by the Americans for peace talks was good, and if it wanted to see a good deal, it would not accept it.

In fact, after the United States has truly demonstrated a little sincerity for peace, the countries that want to accept it are not only Japan that has been beaten down by the United States in the Axis camp. Even the Caesar Mussolini of the Roman Empire would have come to Berchtesgaden today, probably in the Eagle's Nest to lobby Hitler to agree to peace, right?

It is a pity that Japan and Rome can make peace with the United States, but Germany and the European Community must persist in fighting.