Go back in time and be a chaebol

Chapter 1526 The rhythm of taking off from the spot (Second update, please subscribe)
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that just came to me!"

While expressing this emotion, Li Yian couldn't help but take another look at the report in front of him.

This report is an analysis of the situation in Saigon. The content of the report is not complicated, but the situation is very complicated.

It has to be said that the United States did its best in Saigon.

In other words, Da Piaoliang tried too hard in Saigon.

From the moment they planned the military operation and killed the Wu brothers, they paid the price for their excessive efforts. Although the United States has repeatedly increased its aid to Saigon, sent a large number of military advisers and even tens of thousands of special forces to Saigon, the situation does not seem to be improving.

40% of the countryside is controlled by the opposition! Saigon is in turmoil and attacks every day.

Since they replaced Wu Diem Dinh, the situation in Saigon did not stabilize as quickly as the United States had imagined. It even became more chaotic.

"You're using too much force!..."

What kind of state will Saigon fall into next?
The government changes like a revolving door, but no one can lead a stable government.

This is the Saigon of the future.

At the same time, the situation in Saigon worsened: North Vietnam was preparing for war and was ready to send regular troops south to fight. The Saigon government was in chaos due to internal and external troubles and had no fighting power. The US special operations had failed completely and planned to provide large-scale aid to Vietnam.

With the help of the United States, Saigon held out for more than a decade.

In the future, Saigon will become a "country with an army but no government". The so-called army is an army trained, commanded and assisted by the US military.

and then?
Just send it!

"$5500 billion!"

Looking at the report in front of him and thinking about the number, Li Yian said to himself:
“This is a period of strategic opportunity!”

5500 billion US dollars is the investment of the United States during the Vietnam War, of which military expenditure was about 2000 billion US dollars. However, this figure may not be the most accurate, because during the Vietnam War, the United States also provided a lot of aid to Saigon, and at the same time, in order to stabilize the allies and win the support of the allies, it also provided a lot of aid to Thailand, the Philippines and other countries, and the estimated amount could reach hundreds of billions of dollars.

5500 billion is just an official figure. There is another figure - 10000 trillion US dollars!
This is the era of US dollars!

Such a tempting piece of fat meat, even just taking a bite will make your mouth full of oil.

"If we seize this opportunity, we'll be able to take off right away!"

While expressing his emotion, Li Yian felt even more emotion in his heart.

After all, there are not many people who can be so "generous"!

From ancient times to the present, there are really few countries that are willing to "sacrifice themselves for others" and cut off their own flesh.

Listening to his father's words, Li Yixuan said:
"Dad, are we going to get involved in Saigon affairs too?"

At the same time, he said with some doubt:
"Haven't you rejected them before?" The "rejection" Li Yixuan mentioned was that on May 5, US President Johnson sent an invitation letter to 9 friendly countries to "consider supporting the Saigon plan" in the hope of "letting more flags of free world countries fly in Saigon."

However, these allies were not very tactful and either refused or gave a perfunctory response.

Only South Korea is the most active in striving to become a staunch ally of the United States.

After Park Chung-woong received the invitation letter from the United States, he immediately instructed the cabinet to investigate sending troops to Vietnam. After that, the government listed the budget for sending troops and organized the troops. After making all preparations, the South Vietnamese government submitted a formal diplomatic letter requesting South Korea to send troops, and soon the South Korean National Assembly approved it, making the sending troops to Vietnam reasonable and legal.

Unlike South Korea, which "eagerly contributes to the free world", Lee Yi-an directly rejected Johnson's invitation.

"Not intervening militarily does not mean we will not intervene in other ways,"

As Li Yian spoke, he picked up the teacup and took a sip of tea, then said:

“For example, in economics.”

"Economically?"

Li Yixuan thought for a moment and said:
"Is it to provide logistics for the US military?"

"It's not about logistics, it's about being a supply center for the free world! When we encounter a war, our supply of materials is the greatest help to the free world!"

While joking, Li Yian said seriously:

"And we also need orders from the United States. This war bonus means a lot to us!"

Li Yixuan said with some doubt:
"War dividend? Is it important? During the Peninsula War, the company didn't seem to care about military orders."

Li Yian, holding a teacup, looked at his son who looked a little puzzled, and explained:
"It's different now. During the Korean War, orders from the United States were dispensable to us because we were more concerned about the European and American markets at the time. The civilian markets in Europe and the United States were the most important,"

What is the passage of time? This is the passage of time.

At that time, the demand from the European and American private markets had forced the factories here to work overtime. After all, Europe's industry had not yet fully recovered. The demand for supplies from tens of millions of newlyweds and newborns in the United States led to a rapid expansion of the consumer market.

Under such circumstances, exports to Europe and the United States are the most important, and military orders are naturally put behind.

But now the situation has changed.

"To some extent, the economy of SEA is now at a bottleneck of development. After all, the new productivity has not yet started to really take off and has not yet become a real economic pillar.

Now is the critical period for new productivity to replace old productivity and complete this industrial upgrading. During this critical period, military orders from the United States will further boost our economic development and help us break through the bottleneck of development.

At the same time, we can also take this opportunity to complete industrial upgrading, complete the replacement of old and new productive forces, and make new productive forces the mainstay of our economy. "

"The alternation between old and new productive forces..."

When his father emphasized the "new productivity", Li Yixuan thought for a moment and said:

"Father, the new productive forces you are talking about are electronic computers and integrated circuits?" "Yes!"

Li Yian nodded and said:
"Electronic computers and integrated circuits, as well as optical fibers and the Internet, will surely become the new pillars of the industry as technology develops."

In fact, from any perspective, the traditional manufacturing industry had already shown signs of decline as early as the 60s and 70s. Later, many economists liked to use outdated equipment and welfare burdens as reasons for the decline of traditional manufacturing. Even the complicated management system was a reason for its decline.

These reasons may explain the decline of traditional manufacturing in the United States, but they cannot explain the decline of traditional manufacturing in Europe, which began in the 80s. Even traditional manufacturing in Japan began to decline after entering the new century. Some people attributed it to the product competition of the University of Tokyo, but the problem is that the traditional manufacturing industry of the University of Tokyo also ran into trouble later.

In fact, when it comes down to it, the bottleneck of traditional manufacturing is there - the total market demand for many products is there.

“Traditional manufacturing…”

Holding a teacup in his hand, Li Yian explained to his son:

"It has its bottlenecks, just like infrastructure projects. Society's demand for infrastructure is there. For the simplest example, it only takes two or three years to build a bridge. We can't just use ten years to blow it up and rebuild it. The life of a bridge can be decades or even hundreds of years. After the bridge is completed, the demand for it will disappear for a long time in the future.

Similarly, the products provided by the traditional manufacturing industry are also there. The service life of a car, if there are no problems, is at least 20 years. As long as the user is willing, he can use it for ten or twenty years without considering replacing it.

The same is true for household appliances. Televisions and air conditioners can be used for ten years without any problems. This means that after a family purchases an appliance, they may not need it for the next decade or so.”

After taking a sip of tea, Li Yian thought about another world where some entrepreneurs were worried about the safety of home appliances in people's homes and had proposed countless times to introduce a mandatory scrapping system for home appliances.

Well, just like they care about people’s travel safety, they have introduced a mandatory car scrapping system.

Of course, this is all from a safety perspective. It is definitely a blessing for ordinary people that they care about them like this.

We should appreciate the blessings we have.

But on the other hand, this is the biggest problem of traditional manufacturing - many products are one-time investments and long-term use.

Li Yixuan thought about it and retorted.

"Dad, I understand all this, but our current market is not saturated, whether it is the internal or external market, the market space is still very large."

After thinking for a while, he added:
"Many products are constantly being updated and the market demand for various products is also constantly changing,"

Nodding, Li Yian said.

“You are right. I do not deny this, but if you do not plan ahead, you will have immediate worries. We must take into account that the traditional manufacturing industry has reached a bottleneck in its development, or is about to reach a bottleneck in its development.

In this case, it is extremely necessary to complete the replacement of old and new industries. After all, when emerging industries replace old industries, it sometimes comes very suddenly and even catches you off guard. "

The reason why Li Yian said this is because in another world, the Soviet Union was an example of being eliminated by emerging industries. When the Soviet Union continued to use their traditional thinking to pile up various heavy industrial products such as steel and automobiles, the world had changed. In this change, the Soviet Union was heading towards its doomsday.

In the competition between major powers, failure is often not complicated, it is just clicking on the wrong technology tree or choosing the wrong development direction.

When a large amount of financial resources and funds are used for duplicate construction or wasted on things that have no meaning, failure is inevitable.

Feeling that the Soviet Union did not have a happy ending, Li Yian said:

"Therefore, we must prepare in advance and complete the transition from old to new productivity in advance, so as to ensure that we can be in a truly leading position in the near future."

What is really far ahead?
Just like the current technological development in electronic computers, integrated circuits and other related fields, SEA is far ahead.

But can this lead last forever?

Li Yian is not sure, but what he needs to do is to ensure this, for example, by promoting the industrialization of electronic computers and integrated circuits and promoting the comprehensive development of related fields.

Why in another world did the United States eventually gain a huge lead over the Soviet Union in electronic computers and integrated circuits?
Ultimately, it is because the United States has opened up an extremely mature civilian market in this field that private capital is willing to invest in this field, thus promoting the development of this field.

Technological advances in the civilian market are used to feed back into applications in military, aerospace and other fields, while forward-looking and cutting-edge research in military, aerospace and other fields promotes the development of the civilian market.

It is the market that drives all of this, and it is also under the impetus of the market that electronic computers, integrated circuits, and the Internet have become the core of the new productivity.

Perhaps the future path is uncertain, but Li Yian has found the simplest solution, which is to cross the river by feeling the way.

Since we have the successful experience of the United States to learn from, we can just copy it.

It was precisely because of the United States' trial and error that Li Yian saw new opportunities.

“At present, the traditional manufacturing industry has reached its bottleneck period. Instead of struggling in this bottleneck period, it is better to constantly embrace new productivity. However, this does not mean that we have to give up the traditional manufacturing industry.

After all, traditional manufacturing is also part of the foundation when new productive forces have not yet fully developed and matured.

We need to conduct forward-looking research to promote the maturity of new productivity.

On the other hand, the goal is to tap into traditional manufacturing and use the sudden increase in demand after the United States intervened in Vietnam to promote the development of traditional manufacturing and reap rich war dividends.

At the same time, through this market, traditional manufacturing can obtain more funds to complete future transformation.”

Nodding his head, Li Yian suddenly felt that all these years, he only owed the United States a thank you. After all, SEA basically relied on the United States to rise to its position.

The early development was based on the post-war marriage and baby boom in the United States. When the economy entered a bottleneck period, the Americans began to intervene in Southeast Asia. In the next decade or so, a steady stream of orders will pour into SEA.

Ultimately, the protracted Vietnam War would have plunged the U.S. economy into recession. If it were not for the country's strong financial resources, then the collapse of the United States would have been inevitable.

But this is not important. What is important is that the sea will gain further development in this war with the United States. It will not only get rid of the period of calm, but also enter a new era.

Looking at his father, Li Yixuan thought for a moment and then asked.

"But, father, I understand what you mean. You want to use this war to further develop our economy. But...don't we need to consider security issues?"

(End of this chapter)