American Strategic Deception Bureau

　"Then, since the United Nations has already imposed sanctions on the Dominican Republic, I suggest that we mobilize our country's diplomatic power to try to get the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, to try Rafael Trujillo, declare his crimes to the world, and thus put the nail in the coffin for this guy."

　Firi continued, "In this way, our country's special military operation against the Dominican Republic stands on the moral high ground of the entire international community. It is a just act of judging sinners on behalf of the Earth and is absolutely free from any criticism or accusation!

　President Kennedy and the new administration will undoubtedly receive praise and compliments from the whole world for this undoubtedly just act.

　On the contrary, the Republican government that allowed Trujillo to run amok over the past few years will be accused of dereliction of duty and negligence because it neither prevented Cuba's defection against the United States nor discovered and curbed Trujillo's evil crimes.

　After hearing this, Attorney General Robert Kennedy immediately smiled with satisfaction.

　"Finally, the United Fruit Company and other American corporations who generously contributed to the formation of the 2506th Brigade will also be satisfied.

　Although they originally paid for the recruitment of Cuban mercenaries in order to retake the plantations confiscated by Castro in Cuba.

　But there shouldn't be any difference if we replace the Cuban sugarcane plantations with Dominican sugarcane plantations, right?

　The island of Cuba had been plagued by years of war and was impoverished and weak. Even if Castro was defeated, there would be nothing to gain except some wasteland.

　In contrast, Trujillo has been plundering the Dominican Republic for thirty years, and his family is very wealthy!

　Fili counted on his fingers with shining eyes, "According to incomplete statistics from the CIA, he owns three yachts, five palaces, 35 luxury cars, and 110 companies. The entire Trujillo family owns at least half of the country's land, with total assets exceeding $800 million!

　In addition, the Dominican navy ships and air force aircraft, if sold as trophies, can also be exchanged for a lot of money..."

　Well, in the 1960s, the US dollar was much more valuable than it would be half a century later, and $800 million was enough to build two heavy aircraft carriers!

　At this moment, Marilyn Monroe's salary is only $10!

　Therefore, even for a wealthy American family like the Kennedy family, $800 million is definitely not a small sum.

　If we can use military action to get the Trujillo family for free, that would definitely be a good thing that would make everyone happy!

　——Perhaps only Trujillo, who has already made himself a dead man in futures trading, would feel unhappy?

　The Anglo-Saxon people have had a tradition of piracy since ancient times, so it is natural for us Irish people to learn from these advanced examples!

　"Great! What a perfect plan! I will definitely recommend it to my brother!"

　Robert Kennedy reached out and patted Fieri's shoulder affectionately, and said to Bernard, "Bernard, you have a good brother! No matter how difficult the situation is, he always comes up with some brilliant ideas!"

　"Great! This way, the military won't be led into a trap by the CIA!"

　Future Secretary of Defense McNamara also praised Fieri and made a request, "I hope that the young Marines can also participate in the special military operations in the Dominican Republic! Of course, it would be even better if the Navy and Air Force could have the opportunity to show up."

　Among all the people present, only Dr. Brzezinski still frowned and raised his doubts;

　"Everyone, I don't mean to dampen the fun, but there are still three weeks until Mr. John F. Kennedy becomes President of the United States. If we want to launch a military operation against the Dominican Republic, it will take at least two months to prepare for it."

　Brzezinski said with great concern, "What if during this period Trujillo really led the Dominican Republic to the Soviet Union and received diplomatic support from the Kremlin, or even Soviet weapons assistance and military advisory groups? What would we do then?"

　Trujillo wanted to be a Bolshevik? Haha, I hope he found a good streetlight before he defected to the Soviet Union!

　Otherwise, if you end up in a room in the Lubyanka, you might as well end up hanging from a streetlight!" Bernard laughed.

　——After spending so many years with Ferry, the eldest brother Bernard also used the "capitalists hanging street lamps" joke in his speech.

　"If the Kremlin really dares to risk the world's condemnation and forcibly protect Trujillo, the public enemy of the Americas, then it would be a wonderful thing for the United States! The people of all Latin America will completely despair of Soviet ideology!"

　Fili also laughed and said, "If Trujillo of the Dominican Republic, such a wicked man, is willing to bow to the Soviet Union, he will be qualified to become an ally of the Soviet Union, and even be certified by the Kremlin and be labeled as the "leader of a socialist country."

　So, what will the revolutionary youth of Latin America think? They must be very, very disappointed, right?

　"Yes, if Trujillo's Dominican Republic can be called socialist, then why should the weak nations around the world listen to Moscow's nonsense?

　"Having a teammate like this, who's completely detached from the world, join the enemy camp is definitely something worth celebrating with champagne!"

　Robert Kennedy nodded and said, "I'll contact the newspapers and radio stations right away and spread the news that Trujillo announced his intention to defect to the Soviet Union! Let's hype it up as soon as possible! Well, just to be serious, my brother happened to have recorded the phone conversation with Trujillo!

　Then, Fili, please write a few more analytical essays on the consequences of communism in the Dominican Republic, and I will give them as samples to those who write editorials!

　Speaking of which, I'm really curious: if Khrushchev had truly gone mad and, in order to win over Rafael Trujillo, had actually allowed him to join and lead the Red Communist Movement in the Americas... then, what would the expression on Fidel Castro's face on the island of Cuba be when he learned that Trujillo, his "benefactor of the motherland," was about to become a comrade and ally in his revolutionary cause?

　He rubbed his hands excitedly and said this jokingly with a smirk on his face.

　A bloodletting trough that ruins your reputation.

　But the problem is that even if there is no attack, the Soviet Union’s social structure problems cannot be solved and it will only lead to a dead end.

　After Nixon's triangular diplomacy successfully reversed the Cold War situation, the Soviet Union's defeat was doomed and it was only a matter of time.

　At most, you will fail less and leave more behind.

　Chapter 35: The Kennedy Era

　In late January 1961, the week President Eisenhower left Washington, a cold snap hit the East Coast of the United States.

　On January 19, the day before President Kennedy's inauguration, heavy snow fell in Washington.

　In the long winter twilight, gusts of wind whistled in from the Potomac River, carrying snowflakes and spreading white silver sand along with the biting cold. The roads and parks turned white, and thick snow and ice covered Capitol Hill.

　The Pentagon was so forced to deploy troops, sending soldiers to use flamethrowers to melt the ice and snow around the presidential inauguration stage.

　By dawn the next day, January 20, the snow had finally stopped, but the severe cold continued to rage.

　Even at noon, the outdoor temperature in Washington was still only minus seven degrees Celsius, and the wind was still strong.

　When the new president appeared on the stage, the shivering crowd immediately cheered, hoping to hear Kennedy's speech.

　But like the tumultuous course of President Kennedy's career, his inauguration was shrouded in chaos.

　——Before the new president began his speech, a short circuit in the electrical wires caused a cloud of blue smoke to rise from under the podium, frightening many people into panic, thinking that the entire ceremonial platform was on fire.

　After waiting for the smoke to finally stop, people were lulled to sleep by Cardinal Richard Cushing's seemingly endless blessings.

　Finally, under the auspices of Chief Justice Warren, President Kennedy completed the swearing-in ceremony.

　Then, with his head bare and no coat on, his voice trembling slightly in the cold, and a stiff Boston accent, the energetic young president delivered his inaugural address, uttering his most popular and even world-famous quote:

　Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country!

　-

　The 1950s was the golden age of the United States and the "best era" in the minds of many traditional Americans.

　However, when the 1950s ended, the actual situation of American society was not as good as many people later recalled.

　To be precise, the golden age of the 1950s in the strict sense began with the Korean War in 1954 and ended in 1957.

　Next, from 1957 to 1958, the United States experienced the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, with industrial production plummeting by 13.5% and the unemployment rate rising to 7.5%.

　What's even more serious is that during this crisis, the United States experienced "stagflation" for the first time, a new situation in which economic crisis and inflation coexisted, leaving economists around the world puzzled and unable to come up with a solution for a while.

　To make matters worse, the trauma caused by the 1958 economic crisis had not yet healed in the United States, and a new round of economic crisis came again in 1960. The three pillars of the US economy at the time, the steel industry, the automobile industry and the construction industry, were all halved, and automobile production plummeted by more than half.

　Such successive economic crises also caused the United States' international balance of payments to fall into trouble, a large amount of gold outflow, and a sharp depreciation of the US dollar.

　For a time, domestic strikes were relentless, and the dollar's hegemony abroad was shaky. The Eisenhower administration was at a loss as to what to do. It could only use empty rhetoric like "spending one dollar to get two dollars in return," "endless cycles of readjustment," and "painful revaluation" to fool the public.

　Many older Americans can't help but recall the various ominous signs on the eve of the Great Depression thirty years ago.

　Meanwhile, starting in the late 1950s, African Americans launched a vigorous civil rights movement, gaining widespread support from other communities of color. However, conservative forces in the Southern United States, still clinging to the slave-owning mindset of a century ago, continued to forcibly suppress Blacks, people of color, and "inferior whites," completely disregarding the law. This resulted in escalating conflicts and a dilemma for the federal government.

　In addition to domestic socio-economic problems, the United States also lost its dominant position overseas and began to face challenges from the Soviet Union.

　More than ten years after the end of World War II, the Soviet Union had initially healed the devastation caused by the war and began to gradually expand its external strength.

　Although the disparity in strength between the United States and the Soviet Union remained, Russia, with its vast territory spanning both Europe and Asia and its unique geographical location, could still easily exert its influence in all directions across the entire Eurasian continent, even if it simply stayed put.

　For a time, the shadow of the Soviet Union was everywhere, from the fjords of Norway to the Black Forest of Germany, the deserts of the Middle East and the Sea of ​​Japan in the Far East.

　Especially on October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite. The "beep" sound it emitted from space greatly stung the fragile self-esteem and sensitive nerves of Americans. They wondered how even the New World could be threatened by the Soviet Union?

　Although Khrushchev's visit to the United States shortly afterwards seemed to ease the Cold War tensions slightly.

　但紧

　Then, Castro's change of course on the island of Cuba and his surrender to the Communist Party once again made Americans nervous and indignant.

　——The red flags are now flying in the Caribbean Sea!

　In January 1961, another shocking news arrived: Dominican dictator Trujillo, in a desperate attempt to surrender to the Soviet Union and the Communist Party, had been sacked and cut off from the United States, despite joint sanctions imposed by all American nations.

　While this may sound a bit absurd, it's not a fabricated rumor; it's based on solid evidence. Even a recording of a phone call in which Trujillo declared his intention to defect to the Soviet Union was released. There were also rumors that Trujillo had sent someone to Cuba to try to contact the Soviet Union through Castro, thereby pressuring the United States to lift sanctions on the Dominican Republic.

　Although Soviet leader Khrushchev had not yet made any statement on the matter, the American media was soon in an uproar.

　Right-wing media lamented that it was Cuba's Castro who started this bad precedent, which led to small Latin American countries often resorting to pulling the Soviet Union to pressure the United States.

　While the left-wing media ridiculed Trujillo, the "benefactor of the motherland," for seeking his own death by joining the Communist Party, they also accused the federal government of failing to do its most basic work.

　Although President Eisenhower had less than two weeks left in his term, under pressure from public opinion, he imposed new and severe sanctions on the Dominican Republic, freezing all deposits and assets of the Trujillo regime in the United States and blocking the Dominican Republic's foreign trade.

　But the result not only failed to boost people's morale, but instead triggered even more serious market panic in the United States.

　——Because, of course, the Dominican economy would collapse, but Dominican sugar would also no longer be able to enter the US market!

　In fact, as soon as Eisenhower issued the sanctions order, a group of "people concerned about the country and the people" in the American media began to loudly call for action:

　It's terrible! There's going to be another sugar shortage!

　All the sugar produced in Cuba, the "Sugar Island," has now been taken away by the Soviets. Following the trade blockade, Dominican sugar can no longer enter the US market. And Haiti's sugar plantations have been abandoned for over a century.

　How can the remaining sugar production in the Hawaiian Islands and the Philippine Islands be enough to satisfy the American appetite?

　We can't all just drink corn syrup made from starch, right? That would be too cheap!

　So, just like everyone stockpiled their houses with alcohol before Prohibition, hurry up and buy some sugar to fill your attics and cellars!

　As a result, the price of sugar in the Chicago futures market soared rapidly, and the stock prices of many candy companies and sweet beverage companies plummeted.

　Sugar was sold out in supermarkets and grocery stores, and pastry shops took the opportunity to raise the prices of cakes while claiming that they used pure natural cane sugar.

　Americans are complaining about this: On the one hand, they have to dig shelters in the backyard to store canned food, and on the other hand, there is no sugar on the table. How are they going to live like this?

　In this atmosphere filled with complaints, restlessness and boredom, the United States welcomed its 35th president: John F. Kennedy.

　As the youngest president in American history, Kennedy, who was 43 years old at the time, looked a little too greasy and not steady enough.

　When he won the election and entered the White House, many old-school conservatives expressed concerns about Kennedy's governing experience.

　However, Kennedy himself was full of confidence and had everything planned out.

　In his words, as long as an excellent leadership team is formed, the country will be governed well.

　Because "the government is the only ship that often leaks from the top" - in other words, as long as there is no problem at the top, the government will definitely get better.

　It has to be said that even throughout American history, John Kennedy was a very charismatic and even legendary president.

　When he was elected, he only received 49.7% of the vote, defeating Republican Nixon by a very narrow margin. But three years later, Kennedy's approval rating rose to 65%.

　This was no accident: Kennedy's inauguration showcased his energy, observation, and egalitarian and progressive ideals.

　During the inauguration parade, he noticed that there were no Black people among the Coast Guard cadets and immediately launched a formal investigation.

　The next morning, after sitting in the Oval Office, President Kennedy signed and issued Executive Order No. 1, which doubled the free food rations for four million poor Americans, winning cheers from countless poor people - life is really not that easy in the United States during the economic crisis.

　On the same day, Khrushchev sent a congratulatory telegram to Kennedy on his inauguration, and also released the pilot of a U-2 spy plane that had been shot down and captured by the Soviet Union. In return, Kennedy lifted the ban on the import of Soviet crab meat and relaxed censorship on Soviet cultural works entering the United States.

　—How should I put it? There seems to be a hint of goodwill, but it's barely there at best.

　Meanwhile, Kennedy's cabinet was working with astonishing efficiency.

　According to reporters' comments, President Truman liked generals, President Eisenhower liked business tycoons, and President Kennedy liked bachelors.

　In Kennedy's cabinet, headed by the Secretary of State, there were 15 Rhodes Scholars, many of whom had taught at universities.

　In the past, these intellectuals could only criticize current social ills and express their frustrations in the classroom and in their articles.

　The boredom of being frustrated.

　I never thought that nowadays it is possible to "study hard and become an official", this is simply as beautiful as a dream!

　Therefore, because they had the opportunity to show what they had learned throughout their lives, all the professors were like having mania. They showed extraordinary energy and vitality in their respective jobs and exerted 200% work efficiency.

　For example, Robert McNamara, a member of the Secretary of Defense's cabinet, would arrive at work at 7:30 a.m. every day, much to the consternation of Pentagon guards.

　Attorney General Robert Kennedy signed documents while listening to the phone and conveying his instructions to his assistants with his eyes and gestures.

　Although Secretary of State Rusk was a bit old, he still only slept six hours a day and worked at least twelve to fourteen hours a day.

　But despite being impeccable in terms of knowledge and diligence, these smart people have, after all, stayed in the ivory tower on campus for too long, and are somewhat out of touch with politics and officialdom, making them easily manipulated and toyed with by senior bureaucrats... At least many veteran bureaucrats in Washington are very confident about this.

　——Well, that’s if there’s no time traveler secretly patching up Kennedy’s cabinet.

　-

　On the third day of the new president's inauguration, CIA Director Dulles and General Lyman Lanitzer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, came to the White House together to report on their work to the three main members of Kennedy's cabinet - Rusk, McNamara and Robert Kennedy.

　The focus of his report was the "Pluto Plan" to invade Cuba and the mercenaries of the 2506th Brigade prepared for this purpose.