De Gaulle had only taken the first step, and this step was quite embarrassing for the United States and Great Britain. www.biquge.info Although the French have not yet said that they want to withdraw from NATO, the posture of the United States is very scary, and if this goods continues to convuls, then NATO will lose an important fulcrum on the European continent. Without this big rear of France, what Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg can hold out for a few days?

The British, in particular, were terrified, and their original wishful thinking was to let the countries on the European continent consume the Soviet Union's sharp spirit, so as to prevent the Soviet Union from targeting themselves as soon as it came up. And once France withdraws, the European continent will almost surrender without a fight, and then Russia will directly aim at Britain and open heavy fire. With Britain's current armament capabilities, can it really support the American GIs to come to the rescue?

And that's just a strategic situation, and France's withdrawal could have more ripple effects. First of all, the Netherlands, Belgium and other Low Countries will be frightened, right? Without the support of France, how could they carry the torrent of Soviet ironclad armor, which only took a few days for the Nazis to cut them? Nowadays, science and technology have developed greatly, and the speed and power of military equipment are getting bigger and bigger, which means that the Low Countries will have less time to react, and they won't even have time for the government to flee.

And the withdrawal of France means the loss of hundreds of thousands of troops, and this vacancy can naturally only be filled by Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, and to call up so many standing armies, do you think it will cost money?

None of the planes, artillery, tanks, or warships of these years are not gold-swallowing monsters, and taxpayers are not as foolish as they were a few decades ago, and they are more concerned about their welfare and medical care than they were about national defense investment. If you want to increase military spending, you must increase taxes, you see how the common people will vote if they do this!

All in all, for the politicians of those countries in NATO other than France, the French are simply so bad that they will die. And for de Gaulle, they hated it even more.

However, the issue of hatred and hatred still had to be resolved, so Churchill immediately made an urgent visit to the Netherlands and Belgium, and the political leaders of the two countries had in-depth exchanges and reached a preliminary agreement. Immediately after that, he had another telephone conversation with Eisenhower, and once again exchanged views and opinions. After all this was done, he left for a state visit to Paris.

Some comrades may wonder if the situation is so bad, you Churchill should go to Paris immediately to talk to De Gaulle, at least to test De Gaulle's tone! But you old smoker didn't do this, but walked around France, and then belatedly went to find de Gaulle, what kind of fuss is this?

It should be said that Churchill's approach was more sensible, because he knew De Gaulle's temper too well, and this thing was really a stone in the pit that smelled and hard, and was very difficult to deal with. And what de Gaulle made up his mind to do, it is difficult to undo.

Churchill knew that if he went straight to Paris, it wouldn't have any effect at all. The correct way is to communicate with the NATO allies first, and come up with a specific plan for France and de Gaulle, that is, everyone will form a united front against France first, so that the French can see the pressure of the NATO allies, and then go to negotiate not only with the bottom of their minds, but also once the worst situation appears, there is no need to hold a meeting to discuss it urgently, in that state politicians will not be able to discuss anything!

After getting his allies done, Churchill went to Paris with confidence, believing that de Gaulle should have been a smart man who knew how serious the consequences of public anger could be. It's just that the result of the meeting between the two sides was completely unexpected by Churchill, and de Gaulle's behavior was strange.

"France's withdrawal from NATO? With all due respect, where did you hear this rumor, Your Excellency Prime Minister? France has no intention of withdrawing from NATO, and if France or I had meant it, we would have brought it up in advance...... Oust the NATO Command? No, no, no, Your Excellency, Prime Minister, that's not to drive away, but the French people feel that there is not much point in this command staying in France, and wouldn't it be nice to relocate to Brussels? Expulsion of U.S. troops? No, it's not an expulsion either, it's that the French people have the confidence to protect themselves, so why bother with American friends breaking the bank? Everything I do is in the interests of France and NATO allies, France will always belong to the free world! ”

Churchill really couldn't stand this shameless performance, he couldn't believe a word De Gaulle said, and what made him hurt was that he had no way to refute it, after all, De Gaulle swore that he was very sure. If Churchill had questioned, there would have been only one result, and de Gaulle would have been furious and would have talked to him about nothing.

So Churchill had to be careful about his temptation: "But lately I have heard that you have spoken very well with Moscow!" ”

De Gaulle replied solemnly: "This is a political strategy, Mr. Prime Minister, you should know very well what a political strategy is." As far as the European allies are concerned, we are all within the range of the Soviet Union. No one dares to guarantee whether the United States' nuclear protection will take effect, so at present we are at an all-round disadvantage, and it is undoubtedly extremely unwise to touch the tiger's ass of the Soviet Union under such circumstances. We should exercise restraint and not provoke the Soviet Union too much in order to buy time. ”

Churchill asked, "Buying time?" ”

De Gaulle nodded and replied, "Yes, just buy time." Only by stabilizing the USSR will we have time to develop our own nuclear forces. If we also have nuclear weapons, we will ensure our own security, which is the next priority of the French government. After a slight pause, de Gaulle added: "Actually, I am preparing to propose to you, Your Excellency the Prime Minister, the idea that our two countries will jointly develop nuclear weapons, and if we jointly develop nuclear weapons, we can concentrate our efforts and save military spending, and we can also deepen the all-weather alliance between the two countries. ”

Churchill was stunned, he did not expect de Gaulle to propose such a clause at all, and to be honest he was a little tempted. It is hard to say whether France and Britain will be able to concentrate their forces and save money if they jointly develop nuclear weapons, but they will indeed deepen the relationship between the two countries. If the two countries advance and retreat together in terms of nuclear strategy, it is unlikely that France will withdraw from NATO and the Soviet Union, right?

However, Churchill did not agree immediately, but promised to think carefully before replying. In response to Churchill's statement, de Gaulle showed a meaningful expression. Why is de Gaulle's expression so substantial? The reason is simple, the last one is actually the smoke bomb he threw to stabilize Churchill.

Yes, de Gaulle never wanted to work with Britain to develop nuclear weapons, and this was never on his radar. Having always insisted that France would be independent, he would never allow such an important strategic tool as nuclear weapons to have a British shadow, and de Gaulle hoped that France would be able to develop its own nuclear forces independently, instead of pretending to be others.

De Gaulle's main purpose in throwing this smoke bomb was to stabilize the British and make them think that France only wanted to win limited autonomy, or that he wanted to blackmail the United States into more aid. Thereby concealing his purpose of getting rid of the United States and NATO.

So was Churchill fooled? Yes For a moment he was quite interested in de Gaulle's proposal. Don't look at it before, he bowed his head to the United States and admitted that the United States is in a dominant position in the special relationship between Britain and the United States, but the Americans did not let up on Britain in terms of nuclear weapons, but only promised to give some help, but the Americans were silent about how much help they gave specifically.

Churchill could see that the Americans did not really want to help Britain, and that the verbal promises were just words, not serious. And now Britain's thirst for nuclear weapons is so desperate that if it can cooperate with France, it may be able to make a breakthrough sooner by pooling the forces of the two countries.

It's just that the idea comes and goes quickly. The first reason is that Churchill also knew that the cooperation plan between countries is not so easy to carry out, and there should not be too many things to fight for the sake of interests, and sometimes the cooperation between the two countries is not as fast as they can do alone. The second reason is that Churchill did not trust France's technological capabilities, according to his understanding, France's technological capabilities were still in the late thirties due to the influence of World War II and the inaction of politicians after the war, and the gap with Britain had widened to about ten years. In other words, in terms of cutting-edge technology, France is simply a drag oil bottle, not only does it not bring much help, but it also takes the opportunity to steal British technology. From this point of view, cooperation with France is simply a matter of whether the enemy is good or not!

One of the most crucial factors in dispelling Churchill's thoughts was the assurances given to him by the relevant domestic technical departments that they would be able to conduct the first nuclear test by the end of the year at the latest. In other words, Britain is likely to become a nuclear power in 1952. In this case, there is no possibility of letting the French take advantage of them in vain!

So soon after, Churchill rejected de Gaulle's proposal under various pretexts. As mentioned earlier, de Gaulle was not surprised by this. Because a certain immortal had told him this information before, he told de Gaulle that if he wanted to stabilize the British, he might as well propose nuclear cooperation between the two countries. And Britain will absolutely refuse, because the British will soon have their first nuclear test.

When de Gaulle was rejected by Churchill, he was both happy and disappointed, and happy that Britain and the United States had temporarily stabilized, which meant that he had bought time to deal with the little mess at home. Disappointingly, this also proves that the intelligence of a certain immortal is correct, and the British are indeed going to become a nuclear power soon. I think that Britain and France were basically at the same level at the beginning, and now France's nuclear program has just begun, there is not much progress at all, and the British are about to have nuclear weapons, which means that Britain has left France far behind.

Undoubtedly, de Gaulle felt a great deal of pressure, but it also brought greater motivation, and the backwardness made him a little more determined to overthrow the Fourth Republic, which had been inactive for seven years after the war, and if it continued like this, France would really be finished!

De Gaulle was determined not only to catch up with nuclear weapons, but also to catch up with conventional weapons. Yes, after the Second World War, France was already lagging behind the Great Powers in general. Look at what the French have achieved in conventional weapons after World War II, the tank has been working hard since 1946, and it took 6 years to make an AMX-13 miracle.

This strange thing is not to mention wrestling with the Soviet Union's ironclad torrent, even with the tanks of Britain and the United States at the same time, and it is even inferior to Germany, which was defeated in World War II. At that time, France also wanted to engage in more advanced tanks, but the industrial technology was not strong, whether it was a tank gun or an engine, it could not keep up with the situation, and even was ridiculed by the Germans later (France's heavy tank engines and related overall arrangements were copied from the Panthers, and when France and Germany jointly developed tanks, the Germans looked down on France).

Think about it, in the fifties and sixties, France was still eating the old book of the German engine of World War II, how backward is this technology? All in all, after World War II, France has completely fallen behind in the first group of the world's big hooligans, and if you don't redouble your efforts, the consequences will be unimaginable.

In order to revive the French military industry, de Gaulle was also willing to spend money, and constantly tried to introduce advanced technology from the East and the West. For example, electroslag remelting furnace, this thing is related to the quality of tank gun steel, at the beginning when the French were preparing to develop advanced high-pressure tank guns, they were ready to introduce technology from NATO allies, but the results were not ideal, the United States and Britain did have electroslag remelting furnaces, but the asking price was very high, and West Germany did not actually play electroslag remelting technology, their tank gun steel did not take this technical route, West Germany took the vacuum self-consumable electric arc furnace line.

In terms of technical principle, the German approach is more technically level, and the electrodes (ingots) produced are theoretically purer (because they handle the electrodes in a vacuum). It's just that judging from the development of later generations, the electroslag remelting furnace is actually no worse than the vacuum self-consuming electric arc furnace. Moreover, vacuum self-consumable electric arc furnaces are relatively more expensive.

However, for France at this time, both electroslag remelting furnaces and vacuum self-consumable electric arc furnaces were blank. Moreover, it is relatively difficult to make a breakthrough with its own technical strength, and the only way is to introduce technology.

As mentioned earlier, the asking price of Britain and the United States is very high, and it is clear that they want to slaughter the French. What kind of temper was de Gaulle, who would endure being stabbed? So without saying a word, he immediately switched to the Soviet Union and imported three 1.5-ton electroslag remelting furnaces from the Soviet Union.

This deal was a big surprise to the United States and Britain, because it meant that France and the Soviet Union were one step closer, and if this continued, the two would probably really be brothers. So Churchill made another trip to Paris to stop the deal before France and the Soviet Union formally signed a technology agreement...... (To be continued.) )