Go back in time and be a chaebol

Chapter 1588 The thundering SEA is a good friend (first update, please subscribe)
Washington in November has already entered winter. Although the snow will not fall until December, the chilly wind shows the chill of winter.

As usual, Tom drove to the White House. When he got out of the car, he was holding a cup of coffee in his hand. In the past few years, Luckin Coffee and this kind of paper cup coffee have become popular in the United States, just like McDonald's and KFC, and have even become a symbol of the United States.

As a professional bureaucrat in the White House, Tom has been working in the White House since the Eisenhower era. His position has never changed due to the change of the owner of the White House. Even the president needs these professional bureaucrats to provide career advice.

As soon as they entered the White House, Tom asked:
"Is Donald Ho-ning here?"

Donald Hoening is the president's science advisor and chairs the President's Science Council, or PSAC.

"He is on his way and is expected to arrive at the White House at 9:15."

"Okay, tell Jones the news."

Jones is the White House Chief of Staff James Robert Jones. They are both the president's core members and follow the president's progress, but Tom... he is a local resident of the White House.

Soon, Tom Smith, deputy director of the White House Office who had served three presidents, led Donald Hoening into the Oval Office.

"Donald, I asked you to come here because I want to consult you about something."

As soon as he saw Donald, Johnson got straight to the point:

"We received news that the SEA has increased its military budget by 50% this year, which is about $30 billion. After the Pentagon expressed its concerns, they revealed the specific expenditure details, and we found something very curious."

Johnson turned his gaze to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and said:
"Robert, please explain the situation."

"Yes, Mr. President."

Robert McNamara explained it carefully. As the former president of Ford Motor Company, he found it easy to explain the allocation of military budget:

“…From the perspective of military budget allocation, the increase in their budget for armaments and other aspects is no more than 10% compared to last year, which can basically be regarded as a normal increase, but their scientific research funding has increased by more than 15 billion US dollars.

More than one-third of their military expenditure is spent on various scientific research, although the amount is only 1 billion US dollars.

But it's still very substantial for them. Their total military spending is only $80 billion."

Donald asked, listening to Robert's explanation.

"So what is it that you want to know?"

"We are very curious about what kind of thinking makes them spend more than one-third of their military budget on scientific research."

Johnson said, looking at his scientific advisor.

“It’s a very confusing thing.”

In response to the president's question, Donald replied.

"It is indeed very puzzling, but it is understandable for them."

Donald was previously a member of the PSAC during President Kennedy's administration and currently serves as the head of the committee.

"They took 20 years to become the second largest economy in the Western world from scratch. What did they rely on? It was never cheap labor, but technology.

In the past two decades, they have achieved economic breakthroughs with transistors, integrated circuits, and new home appliances. It is safe to say that the foundation of the equatorial miracle is science.

That’s why they are happy to increase their investment in scientific research.”

McNamara agreed with Donald's point of view.

"That's true. They also made breakthroughs in the aviation field. They were the first to launch jet airliners. While our Boeing and Douglas were still arguing over it, their white swans had already flown all over the world.

And in the war, they also used a lot of extremely advanced technologies, such as Tomahawk missiles, TV-guided glide bombs, and the current global positioning system.

All of this is the result of their continued investment over the past 20 years.”

In expressing his agreement, McNamara added:

"But the proportion of their current investment in scientific research is far beyond our imagination, which is why we are curious."

“There is no need to be curious, this is exactly the characteristic of all people, that is, path dependence, just like the Soviets defeated the Nazis with tanks.

Then they spent a lot of military spending on tanks.

This is just like our pursuit of air superiority, our investment in air power is also extremely huge, and in essence, all of this is path-dependent. "

Donald then added:
“They have path dependence now because of their past success, but how much return can this dependence bring?

I personally think the rate of return is very low and the risk is very high. After all, they put a lot of money into research, which means that their investment in production is far less than that in research.

Mr. Minister, you were once the president of Ford. If Ford spent 30% of its profits on research, could the company continue to operate?"

As a presidential adviser, Donald was not opposed to scientific research, but he would calculate some research from an economic perspective, just like he once suggested to Kennedy in the name of the Presidential Science Advisory Committee to abandon the moon landing due to the huge economic costs.

"Indeed, no company would do this, because research expenses should be proportional to the update of production equipment, and if they do this..." McNamara said, looking at the president.

"Obviously it's not sustainable and there will be problems in the next five to ten years, which may affect their economy and other aspects."

"I think so, Mr. President."

After Donald agreed, President Johnson said:

"So what should we do? Should we remind them? After all, they are our allies."

"Mr. President, I don't think we should do that."

Secretary of State Dick said:
"Although they are our allies, to a certain extent, they are likely to become our competitors in the future. In fact, they are competing with us in many areas. In this case, I think that their going down this wrong path is beneficial to our friendship. After all, we can't always ignore the existence of competitors."

McNamara also echoed:

"Yes, Mr. President, what the Secretary of State said is absolutely right. Their economy has been growing rapidly for 20 years. Under such circumstances, it is not a bad thing to suffer a certain blow."

All in is a kind of wisdom!
This kind of wisdom is not possessed by everyone. After all, not everyone can stand on the shoulders of historical giants and choose to go all-in at the right time and in the right field.

From a traditional perspective, SEA is indeed going all-in on technology.

But who would dare to go all in like this?
Even desperately, to a certain extent, it sacrificed armaments construction.

They discussed this and that and came to a conclusion - Sea was on the wrong path.

And they believe that in the near future, they will definitely pay the price for their choice.

After discussing the issue, Donald looked at President Johnson and said.

"Mr. President, compared to them, I think the White House should be concerned about something else right now."

"Another thing?"

President Johnson looked at the scientific advisor in front of him and asked curiously:

"what's up?"

"Moon!"

Looking at Mr. President, Donald, the chief scientific adviser who once opposed the moon landing plan, spoke bluntly.

"We all know that a few months ago, the Soviets had completed several of the most important test phases of their moon landing plan. If nothing unexpected happens, they will most likely launch a rocket to the moon in the near future."

Donald reminded solemnly:
"Although I don't know when the Russians will launch their moon rocket and achieve their goal of landing on the moon. But Mr. President, I believe they will achieve this mission goal in the near future."

In fact, the reason why the Presidential Science Advisory Committee was established was because of the impact that the artificial satellites launched by the Russians had on the Western world. In order to better promote the development of science and technology, this science advisory committee composed of professionals was established.

Over the past decade, the committee has made a lot of contributions to promoting American scientific research. The reason why Donald mentioned the Soviet Union’s moon landing program is that the United States’ progress lags behind that of the Russians.

In this case, once the Russians launched a moon rocket before the United States and completed the moon landing mission.

Then, the impact on Americans is even greater than that of the artificial satellite launched by the Russians that year.

It would certainly be another "Sputnik moment" at that time. In this case, the White House would certainly be criticized by the outside world, and he, as the presidential science adviser, would naturally be troubled by the outside world.

So he has to remind the president what is most important now?
Of course, this reminder can also allow him to get rid of some responsibilities. When facing external difficulties in the future, he can shirk it - I have fulfilled my duty to remind the president, but the Kennedy Space Center is not living up to the expectations.

In this case, what use is there for me as a scientific advisor?
"Yes."

Listening to Donald's reminder, President Johnson nodded and said:
"This matter is indeed very important. I will send someone to contact von Braun and urge them to achieve this mission goal as soon as possible and send our people to the moon before the Russians do."

Finally, they talked about the Russians and their moon landing plan. As for the sea, they just forgot about it. After all, they were doing stupid things over there and they would soon shoot themselves in the foot.

In comparison, the Russian moon landing plan is the most threatening. Perhaps the moon landing plan cannot drop Russian nuclear weapons on the United States, but if the United States loses this competition, it will deal a very serious blow to the morale and public sentiment of the United States.

So the United States must win this competition no matter what, especially for President Johnson, who did not want to give the glory of landing on the moon to the Russians or his successors.

"Mr. President, the Russian Revolution Day is coming up in a few days. According to their tradition, they will definitely try to launch a lunar spacecraft before the arrival of such a festival, if possible, as a gift to the festival."

McNamara said on the side.

"In order to make sure they are prepared, I think we should use reconnaissance satellites to conduct a reconnaissance of their rocket launch sites. This way, at least we won't be caught off guard."

After hearing his suggestion, Johnson immediately agreed:

"Robert, we should definitely do this and figure out whether the Russians will launch their moon landing spacecraft."

(End of this chapter)