The $100 billion offer was not made by Horiyoshi, but directly from within Japan, and the initial offer was the same as Hoffman had envisioned: Japan promised to abandon the siege of Hawaii, but demanded that all the islands in the western Pacific be given to Japan, including New Zealand and the Solomon Islands, except for Australia.

Dulles absolutely did not dare to agree to this kind of condition, so he hoped that Japan would put forward economic trading conditions, so it became a condition of "paying off all debts to Germany and delivering $100 billion in materials." At present, Japan owes nearly $30 billion to Germany, which is equivalent to Japan needing the United States to pay more than $130 billion, which is basically equivalent to one year's US military spending, and the military expenditure in fiscal year 1944 was $148.7 billion, and before the reparations were delivered, Japan occupied Hawaii as a guarantee.

If the U.S. is not willing to deliver supplies, it can also deliver gold at $35 per ounce. 130 billion US dollars is equivalent to 1.4 billion ounces of gold, which is equivalent to more than 110,000 tons of gold in metric units, and the total amount of gold mined so far on the entire earth is not as much as this number, not to mention that the United States cannot take it out, even if it is willing, it cannot find gold that can be delivered, which is simply impossible.

This kind of lion's big mouth request even Horiyoshi was stunned, because what Japan asked for was not just money, but the materials behind the money, even if these materials existed, they would start to ship without stopping, and it would take at least half a year to complete the delivery, and he thought that it was absolutely impossible for the Americans to agree, and once they agreed to this condition, Japan's national strength would directly more than double on the existing basis, and would they obediently fulfill their promises at that time?

Dulles' psychological expectation is 2 billion, and the maximum is not more than 3 billion US dollars, and the gap between the two sides is too big. So he had to retreat and "ransom" the soldiers on the island of Hawaii. Although the ransom is detrimental to the honor of the army, the military bosses without exception believe that the ransom is of positive significance at this stage, and it is better to collect the country and continue to play its value than to let the 100,000 troops be easily squandered on the Jedi Hawaii Island.

Of course, they would not come forward to say such things, and the high-pitched singing of "resist to the end, fight to the last man" was more active than anyone else, and Dulles saw through this group of politicians with different hearts at a glance, and took the risk to put forward suggestions, which made them give the secretary of state a thumbs up in their hearts.

"In addition, in view of the large losses of British, French, and Italian ships in this campaign, I also contacted them through secret channels, hoping that they would withdraw from the combined European fleet, but with little success," Dulles said with a wry smile, "The British and French warships could not be drawn, and the Italians were compensated by Germany in other areas." ”

"As long as it does not damage the honor and morale of the army, and does not damage the image and cohesion of the United States, I think you can try it." Dewey waved his hand weakly, his eyes fluttering, "The battle has been fought so far, it is us, the people in this room who are incompetent, and we don't blame the grassroots officers and soldiers." ”

Dewey scolded everyone, including himself, and everyone was silent, and the audience fell into an embarrassing and continuous dullness.

After a full 10 minutes of silence, Clark stiffened his head and spoke to break the deadlock: "At present, we have adjusted our strategic deployment and adopted a full-front defense in the Caribbean and Central America to prevent further German attacks, while the three armed forces continue to focus on reorganizing their ranks and restoring their strength, and the army has come forward to preside over the homeland defense plan."

Hearing "homeland defense", Dewey felt that his brain was about to explode, why was he so stupid to take this position? This is going to be "remembered in history" for the rest of his life, will the White House be burned again? I'm only in my 40s

But no matter how reluctant I am in my heart, I have to admit that such an opinion is reliable, and now that the two oceanic fleets have been completely annihilated, the strength of the air force has plummeted, and the doors of the east and west coasts have been wide open, the enemy may come at any time, and if we do not arrange territorial defense, I am afraid that it will be too late.

"I intend to engage the German side again this week to discuss peace terms." Dulles added, "But it is possible that the Germans will increase their weight, after all, the Japanese are already increasing their weight, and the German occupation of Bermuda is a very dangerous signal that the German attack has a bridgehead, and my opinion is that if we are temporarily unable to take it militarily, we can only make concessions in exchange for other interests." ”

"How?"

"The Central American sphere of influence is based on the existing Line of Actual Control, our troops are withdrawn from Venezuela and Recife, the independence of Haiti and Dominica is respected, Jamaica is returned to Britain, and Puerto Rico and Germany are exchanged for Bermuda," Dulles said to the map, "We keep Cuba and the Bahamas as a strong barrier to the southern frontier." ”

Dewey sighed, didn't know how to express his position, and after hesitating for a long time, he could only say: "Go talk about it, I don't have too many opinions in principle." ”

The rest of the crowd secretly breathed a sigh of relief, Dewey actually wanted to complain about Turner's idea of attracting that night, but he knew that the other party would definitely complain more about him fighting now instead of delaying it until May as he had promised, so he wisely chose not to speak.

After discussing for a long time, everyone found that there were no other countermeasures except for the three principles of army redemption, re-opening peace talks, and territorial defense, and they all sighed and sighed.

In the end, Dewey issued a personnel order: Mitchell, who was posthumously promoted to the martyrdom, was appointed as admiral, and Ingram was appointed commander-in-chief of the naval fleet, Halsey was appointed deputy commander, and Hewitt was appointed chief of staff.

While Dewey was doing his best to find a way out of the leaky ship of the United States, other political groups were not idle, and the war hero, the young and promising Kennedy representative, Truman, and the Democratic Party were in close contact with the congressional groups and neutrals.

"Anything that turns the tide and looks for a way out is fake." Kennedy said, "Under the leadership of President Dewey, the American front is shrinking step by step, and soon we will have to fight a war to defend our homeland." I don't know where his confidence in attacking Mr. Truman came from, it's war, it's a living war, and it's not something that can be dealt with by grandstanding or singing a few high-pitched lines. ”

The public, especially the press, nodded that Dewey was not only a mess in the military, but also severely strengthened the control over the news media and practitioners, and the FBI invited people to "drink coffee" at every turn, so that now news reports are becoming more and more difficult to write, and although the Truman administration authorities were also lackluster in military and diplomatic terms, at least the suppression of the media was not so tight, but after Dewey came to power, Hoover, who everyone thought was going to be unlucky, not only did not have any, but on the contrary, his power became greater and greater, and his means became more and more excessive.

Remembering the past when Dewey used the news media to criticize Truman and lash out at the Democrats over the Wallace incident, they are now becoming more and more strict in their prevention and control, and they are completely different on and off the stage.

"What do you think should be done now?"

"It is no longer possible to completely defeat the Axis militarily, so my suggestion is to take as many roundabout means as possible to achieve peace, which includes not only Germany but also Japan." Kennedy said, "We need to learn from the spirit of Germany's resurgence, and if there are no politicians willing to shoulder the burden at this historical juncture, we should not think about the future." ”

This attitude was completely different from the radicalism he had when he helped Truman campaign, but Kennedy switched naturally and calmly, and after a few months of bouncing in the big dye vat in Washington, he quickly learned to get rid of it. Not only does he have the ability to see people and talk about people, but he also has the flexibility to change his position and use a lot of specious and beautiful words to reconcile the concepts of the past and the present, which sounds very reasonable He was right at the beginning, and he is still right now.

Truman was interested in this energetic young man, intending to train him well as his deputy and successor, and some of the words came out of the mouth of Kennedy, the "war hero," less disobedient and unpleasant.

The reporters recorded his words and printed them in the newspaper, which was eventually seen by Skorzny, and he could not help sneering at the talk of the Americans in the newspaper, and then at the secret telegram received in his hand: "Brothers, the Führer is ready to work, the Führer has prepared his cigarettes."

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