I ask you to build tractors, but you build rockets?

Before the "Agreement on Deepening Friendship and Cooperation" was officially signed, John happened to get a copy.

In his office, Alfred, the living fossil of the Cold War, picked up the fax, scanned it quickly, and then calmly placed it on the table.

"Sir, I don't think you invited me, an old antique, to come here to pray for witchcraft."

"Don't say that, ahem...it was an accident last time..."

The last time Alfred tried to find John, he was stopped by Pio, but the news about him and a group of wizards at the Presidential Palace was still spread to a small extent, which made Alfred particularly angry.

Fortunately, he has seen a lot of chaos this year, but now he still took the opportunity to express his dissatisfaction.

After the Artemis 2 accident, John felt that his past plans were completely disrupted, his staff team was not reliable enough, and McMaster was not around, so he thought about it and decided to hire some "strategists who have withstood the test of history." Come and help him analyze.

Among the most famous figures, the most regrettable was Brzezinski, an elite with long-term vision and resourcefulness. He passed away in May.

After much thought, only Alfred was still active, so the latter returned to the Presidential Palace with a few disciples.

"Alfred, I want to know why our spaceflight has become unreliable?"

John directly asked his biggest doubt. From the Dream Chaser at the beginning of the year to now, Aramco has had two manned safety missions in half a year, which can definitely be regarded as high risk.

"Obviously we have provided sufficient funds and given NACA any support it wants, but why has it become like this? The Chinese are more anxious than us but there are no safety incidents."

Alfred was already prepared for this and waved his hand to have someone come up with a report.

"I think you must still remember XAP's large-scale recall of overseas Chinese elites. The CIA spent a lot of energy on this, and later it even expelled or marginalized Chinese employees on a large scale."

John: "This is necessary. NACA has studied XAP. Their technology accumulation must be very strong, but it has no direct relationship with their space agency, so this can only come from the outside world and cannot be generated out of thin air."

"Yes, this is one of the reasons." Alfred opened the report and pointed to a graph above:

“America is a country of immigrants. We initially attracted scientific researchers and elites from Europe, and of course we still do so now.

But the Chinese are also an important part. They are smart, hard-working and creative. Lin Hua, who came to study with Qian back then, designed the 'Minuteman' series of ballistic missiles for us, which are still one of the supports of our missile system; Wang An's Computer companies also flourished in the last century, especially in semiconductors. The Chinese community is a quite powerful research force.

Since we have weakened them, we must make up for it from other parts, and that is the Indians. "

John: "I seem to understand something."

Alfred: "Boeing is outsourcing more and more software work to cheaper Indian engineers, and their university system is far less rigorous and serious than China's, and their industrial base is also weaker, so they reveal immaturity everywhere. Although they They look similar, but are actually completely different.

Look at the newly established SpecaX. Their spacecraft and rockets have also carried out many missions, and almost all of them have been successful except for experimental missions. The difference between it and Boeing is that it has almost eliminated inferior Indian talents.

We cannot rely on the Chinese because they are not loyal enough, nor can we rely on India because they are not strong enough to support the high-tech system. "

“So we need to cultivate local talent?”

Alfred had a cowardly expression and said firmly:

“I have participated in several think tank meetings, and we believe that the failure of the Artemis project can be seen that the consequences of allowing industrial outflows are already serious, and at least this trend must be curbed.

In the future, we must provide high subsidies to small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises and local students, so that sophisticated Aramco manufacturing and local elites can replace unreliable outsourcers. Only in this way can we reproduce the miracle of the last century.

Your Excellency, we are facing an unprecedented monster. Their industrial output is astonishingly large, their educated population is several times more than ours, and their steel production is more than the second to tenth countries in the world combined. There has never, never been such a formidable opponent. .

We need not only to re-strengthen ourselves, but also to regain control of Europe to maintain our advantage. "

Alfred's words made John think for a long time. He could understand the correctness of these suggestions and finally saw the inner meaning behind the appearance of failure.

It’s not that a certain company has a problem, it’s that the general environment needs to change!

But if you go according to what Alfred said, coupled with the huge expenditures of the Ares plan and the social security plan he is implementing, the financial pressure will be too great.

Seeing that John was still hesitating, Alfred unleashed his ultimate move:

“The Bretton Woods system has collapsed, and while the oil pricing power is still in our hands, it is actually not difficult for us to solve the funding problem.

I can accurately say that these plans that are good for industry are far more attractive than social security, and will be supported by many people. This is a long-term plan that cannot be completed if you only work for one term, so it is inevitable It takes two terms. "

"hiss……"

This sentence made John uneasy, and the hesitation just now was gradually fading away.

"I don't have anyone I can trust. I wonder if you can..."

"I'm old, but I know some young guys who are dynamic and can execute."

John looked at the list Alfred had prepared, and the first person made him frown.

"Jack Sullivan?"

"Yes, don't let go just because of little things. I hope you trust him."

"I will think about it."

Before leaving, Alfred made a final patch:

“According to statistics from Bloomberg, a total of 13 billion people around the world have watched the live broadcast of the Dawn-3 and Artemis-2 missions, which is an unprecedented and excellent publicity opportunity.

But you gave up this opportunity, and the Dawn Project gained great prestige, taking away all efforts including the Artemis Project, and all the results were harvested by them.

We can afford such a failure, but we cannot afford another one. "

After Alfred left, John carefully read through the reports he left behind. This was the most detailed and attentive report he had ever seen. The accuracy of analyzing problems was countless times better than that of his own staff. .

In fact, many of the above solutions are old routines. It is not that no one has thought of them. It just depends on whether they can meet the interests of more people after implementation.

Reason told him that there was no perfect plan, but the promise of re-election and the temporary disadvantage made him very excited.

One million words!