American Strategic Deception Bureau

　Author's words: PS: Why would the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, give up in the face of the future rise of Japan and Germany?

　Because Japan and West Germany were the United States' minions, the Soviet Union could not intervene. It was useless to keep an eye on East Germany, and the domestic institutional problems were even more unsolvable.

　The Kremlin's top brass has always been aware of its systemic problems. But after repeated attempts at reform, things only got worse, and they finally lost hope.

　The United States, on the other hand, had been obsessed with the issue for far too long. On the one hand, a powerful anti-Soviet and anti-Russian force had formed within the country, and any proposal for détente between the US and the Soviet Union would be met with strenuous opposition from vested interest groups within the country. On the other hand, its "heart of truth was shattered," and it had temporarily entered a state of decadence.

　In fact, the US military presence in Japan and Germany was increased, but what effect did this have on the changing situation more than 20 years later?

　Weaken Japan and Germany in advance? That's easy to say, but if this leads to a collapse of the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union, who would be held responsible?

　Therefore, we must first create public opinion and gradually deny the significance of the Cold War. Eventually, like the Russians in the late Soviet period, we must believe that those who engage in the Cold War are idiots and that losing sphere of influence is not a big deal. Only in this way can we take action against Japan and Germany - but Japan and Germany are not dead either, and they will also fight back with all their strength.

　What’s even more terrible is that other little brothers of the United States will also place their bets in advance. For example, Taiwan and the Philippines will begin to become more pro-Japanese.

　In addition, we mourn the passing of American President Jimmy Carter. This good man has finally passed away.

　Chapter 549: Strategic Deception Bureau's Year-End Work Report (Last Update of 2024)

　December 27, 1970, White House, Washington, D.C., USA

　The newly painted Oval Office was still filled with the scent of hemp and the odor of formaldehyde left over from the renovations.

　President Nixon, who had just finished his Christmas vacation, once again sat down at his "Resolute Desk" and immersed himself in dealing with a mountain of official business.

　——Many Chinese people have a misunderstanding that when Americans take holidays at the end of the year, they will take holidays from Christmas to New Year.

　But in reality, the legal holiday for Christmas in the United States is only one and a half days, that is, half a day in the afternoon of December 24th and the whole day of December 25th. During this day and a half, all government departments are closed. If private business owners are not too stingy, they may add an extra day.

　But if employees want to rest from Christmas Eve to New Year's Day, they can only use their paid annual leave.

　Neither government agencies nor private companies are usually so generous as to allow employees to take a full week off.

　Well, except for school - American universities generally start their winter break in mid-December and return to school in early January. But this is different from the Christmas break, just like the winter break in Chinese schools cannot be equated with the Spring Festival break in society.

　So, in the last few days of December, after Christmas and before the New Year, the White House and the entire federal government have to continue working.

　Moreover, for the US president, who has a tedious and busy administration, the so-called vacation is actually just a change of working environment.

　Especially for President Nixon, who had just fought a civil war, the current situation in the country was really overwhelming.

　So much so that he sighed while reviewing documents and complained that the current situation of this broken country was so bad that it made people want to commit suicide.

　——As expected, the economic situation in the United States this year has gone into an avalanche: GDP growth is negative 30%, the annual inflation rate is as high as 400%, and the unemployment rate is "only" 25%. From industrial and agricultural production to logistics and transportation, everything is in a mess. It can basically only be described as a "doomsday disaster."

　Although the overseas war and the civil war were over, the aftermath was still very serious. In order to save financial expenses, the next step after the armistice and withdrawal was inevitably a large-scale disarmament: four of the six divisions withdrawn from Southeast Asia were disbanded.

　The 20,000 American troops withdrawn from the 38th parallel were even given their layoff notices while on the plane. The influx of so many unemployed veterans into American society immediately became a huge destabilizing factor, exacerbating the already depressed economy and chaotic public order. The intensity of gang violence quickly escalated.

　Then, in the devastated United States, primarily New York, postwar reconstruction efforts also faltered. Funding was scarce, Congress dragged its feet on appropriations, and major companies scrambled for projects, only to receive the money without actually starting work. Jews who had fled Israel were aggressively acquiring land in New York, seemingly intent on further expelling other ethnic groups and turning the city into the world's largest Jewish settlement.

　A few days ago, a French reporter filmed the latest night view of Manhattan at the foot of the Statue of Liberty. New York was still dark on Christmas because the power system had not been repaired and the remaining citizens were generally too poor to light candles, let alone have their own home generators.

　So, this Christmas in New York, the lights were completely dark, and the hungry and cold citizens wandered like ghosts. Countless little girls and boys froze to death on the streets like the little match girl, while bounty hunters scoured the city, searching for scattered Federal Reserve gold bars...

　When this photo of "New York shrouded in darkness" was published in Le Figaro and reprinted by Pravda, The Times, People's Daily and Asahi Shimbun, the United States once again lost face in front of people all over the world.

　But President Nixon didn't care at all. After the White House was blown open by artillery shells, the Capitol was on fire, and the red flag and mushroom cloud were raised simultaneously in New York, his administration had already lost all its face.

　On the contrary, President Nixon has been in a relatively relaxed and happy mood recently.

　Because, as the "crackdown" campaign unfolded and deepened, and after tens of thousands of people were shot in one go on the banks of the Potomac River, the security situation in the capital Washington, D.C. finally improved significantly after December, and the military curfew was lifted, and tanks and armored vehicles were withdrawn from the streets.

　Nixon no longer had to squat in the White House bunker and breathe the foul air, but could sit in the Oval Office like previous presidents.

　Ah, what kind of President of the United States is he if he doesn't sit in the Oval Office?

　However, even after returning to the Oval Office, he still faces an overwhelming amount of trouble and criticism every day...

　It seems like I can’t feel comfortable at all!

　President Nixon, who was appointed in a time of crisis, understood that the United States no longer had the resources to maintain its global offensive, and that a strategic contraction was imperative. This was also the unanimous consensus of the new Congress: anyone who held a negative stance against the war would not be elected to this "abnormal" Congress.

　Next, since we have to carry out a strategic contraction, we must show goodwill to China and the Soviet Union and try our best to retreat in a decent manner.

　During this period, there would undoubtedly be many embarrassing and humiliating events, even those that would cause loss of sovereignty and humiliation to the nation. The news media would undoubtedly criticize the Nixon administration from every angle, denouncing it as a traitor and a criminal. But the Nixon administration had no choice but to endure.

　——As the loser of the Vietnam War, what else can you do except stand up, admit defeat and accept punishment?

　Therefore, when he previously instructed to support the return of New China to the United Nations and announced that he would visit China in January next year, the opposition he aroused at home was very small. Both Democratic congressmen and Republican conservatives responded to this matter very perfunctorily.

　Although the Democratic leader in Congress protested as usual, he later said in an interview with reporters: "Of course I know that blocking Red China's return to the United Nations is meaningless, and even the United Nations itself is meaningless. But due to my long-standing position, I still have to stand up and oppose it, otherwise people will say I am a fence-sitter..."

　Since the opposition leaders have said that they are only "opposing for the sake of opposing" and "pretending to oppose", others will be even less likely to oppose.

　But what gave President Nixon a headache was that, although there was little domestic opposition to his visit to China, the voices supporting the United States' continued hegemony were even smaller. The reason the public and the political circles did not oppose his visit to China was not because they understood and supported the "Great Triangle Diplomatic Strategy" he was about to launch, or understood the importance of winning over China to defeating the Soviet Union, but because they had fundamentally lost enthusiasm for the Cold War and the "free camp" cause.

　In other words, the American public today isn't thinking of lying down and conceding defeat, only to face a showdown with the Soviet Union later. Instead, a decadent and pessimistic mentality of lying low and letting things rot has become widespread, even heading towards the even more dangerous direction of disintegration.

　There was no way around it. The future world intelligence obtained from Britain made everyone realize how bleak America's future was.

　——GDP plummeted to a level similar to Myanmar, and the army was so defeated that it couldn't even defeat Honduras and Nicaragua.

　In the end, the Japanese broke into the mainland, and the Americans on the West Coast opened the door to the thieves and followed their Japanese boss to declare war on Washington!

　What kind of barbarian invasion and Roman Empire decline scenario is this?!

　Since the United States will not be able to protect its homeland in another thirty or forty years, more than half of Americans will no longer recognize themselves as Americans.

　Then,

　What's the point of overseas expansion now? What's the point of striving for global hegemony? Isn't this just a futile waste of money and lives?

　Next, another group of naked women returned from a "Polish-speaking magical world" and brought more information about the other world that seemed magical and interesting, but made Americans even more depressed.

　——Now everyone knows that the future belongs to Germany and Japan, and the other world belongs to the Poles.

　All that belongs to Americans is environmental collapse, disintegration, and the people's miserable lives, as well as capitalist exploitation that has exploited them to the point where they are neither human nor ghost!

　So, forget about all the grand narratives about the stars and the ocean! Let's just enjoy a few days of small, certain, and happy daily lives!

　In the future, when the entire country's environment is severely polluted, most of the United States becomes a desert, vegetables, fruits and meat become luxuries, and the poor can only eat synthetic food full of technology and hard work, and cannot even drink a sip of clean pure water, even this kind of life will be gone!

　Thinking of this, the general public's mentality of giving up quickly arose, and the entire United States, from top to bottom, was filled with a mentality of just getting by.

　If it were those mini-countries, it wouldn't be a big deal if everyone just lay low, because small countries themselves cannot tolerate too big ambitions.

　But President Nixon could not accept that the mentality of American citizens had become so decadent and negative, and was deeply troubled by it.

　If your entire team is composed of lazy people, you can still manage them. But if your subordinates are either lazy and lazy, or beggars, then no amount of motivation will work. So, can you still do your job as a leader?

　Faced with a country where everyone is living a life of luxury, no matter who comes from the sky, they won’t be able to move it forward!

　But how can we make the American people regain their confidence and restore their confidence in their country and the future?

　President Nixon's head throbbed with thought, but he still came up empty-handed. So he quickly grabbed his pipe, stuffed it with the finest purple-veined hemp a Californian had gifted him, lit it, took two puffs, and eased his headache. Then he flipped through the next report: "Huh? The Strategic Deception Bureau's year-end report? A feasibility study on creating an English-speaking alternate world belonging to the Anglo-Saxon people to boost the confidence of American citizens? Sounds interesting. Alternate worlds can't just belong to Poles..."

　But... the Strategic Deception Bureau? When did the federal government establish this department?

　Author's words: PS: After looking at a table of changes in per capita GDP around the world in 2023, I found that the economic fluctuations in some small places are really astonishing.

　For example, Norway's GDP fell by 19% in a single year, while Macau's GDP grew by 90%? Hungary and Poland also grew by 20%, Turkey and Mexico by 21%. Mainland China fell by 1%, and Japan only fell by 0.6%. Armenia, despite being so badly attacked, still saw a 23% increase.

　This number always feels a bit outrageous.

　Chapter 550: The marginalized Kissinger (Happy New Year!)

　Los Angeles, Pasadena, Federal Space Forces Headquarters and the US Strategic Deception Agency

　On the last day of 1970, Dr. Henry Kissinger, the National Security Advisor (Assistant for National Security Affairs), who had recently become famous for his secret visit to China that helped to break the thaw in Sino-US diplomatic relations, visited Fieri's current "workplace" with his wife Nancy.

　After receiving the call, Ferry quickly drove over with Marita to accompany her.

　Although Ferry and Marita had known Dr. Kissinger for a long time, this was their first meeting with Mrs. Nancy.

　Therefore, when Fili and Marita met for the first time, they were immediately shocked by this "heroine" who was like a basketball player.

　I don't know what's going on with Dr. Kissinger's aesthetic sense, but his wife, Nancy, has a pretty face, but she's a full two meters tall! She's incredibly tall, broad-shouldered, and built like a giantess, looking like a Valkyrie ready to wield a shield and go to war.

　So much so that Dr. Kissinger, who is 1.7 meters tall, has a vague feeling of being like a "little bird" when standing next to her.

　As for Fili and Marita, whether they were standing or sitting, they could only look up at Mrs. Nancy's face.

　Hmm, I wonder if this Mrs. Nancy is also German, like Dr. Kissinger? If so, then Fili can understand why Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor, proudly boasted that "our women are as swift as hussars."

　Hmm, wait, Marita seems to be from the Junker family of the German Navy, so why is her height so average?

　It seems that we can only say that "the same sausage feeds a hundred different Germans", right?

　Next, Dr. Kissinger and his wife sat down on the sofa, took a few sips of coffee, and then told him the purpose of his visit.

　In the Strategic Deception Office's annual report submitted to President Nixon, the proposal to "create a magical world in English to deceive the world and boost the confidence of the American people" piqued President Nixon's interest. He then asked Kissinger to come and discuss the proposal with him to understand and assess its feasibility, as well as the required funding and timeframe.

　But after listening to Kissinger's words, Firi did not get to the point immediately. Instead, he asked: "Dr. Kissinger, why do you have time to come here? Today is December 31st. According to the schedule announced by the White House, President Nixon will visit China on January 2nd. Shouldn't you be here now?

　Are you planning to go to Beijing with the President?

　Wait, could it be that you weren't part of the diplomatic team on President Nixon's visit to China this time?"

　He looked at Dr. Kissinger in front of him with surprise, who seemed to have gained weight and became even fatter and bigger, and said in disbelief.

　——As a half-party involved, Firi knew very well that in order to promote the thaw in Sino-US diplomacy and President Nixon's visit to China, Dr. Kissinger had traveled back and forth to Beijing countless times in the past six months. He had really worn out his lips and legs, and was caught in the middle of both sides.

　How come now that the mission has finally been accomplished and President Nixon is about to visit Beijing, Dr. Kissinger is sent to his cold office?

　This is so wrong no matter how you think about it!

　There must be a demon in the abnormal situation!

　"Ahem, about this question... well, President Nixon really doesn't plan to take me to Beijing this time. Because if he doesn't put me on ice for a while, Secretary of State Rogers will go crazy - he openly yelled at the President in the White House, "Who is in charge of foreign affairs?"

　Initially, Dr. Kissinger wanted to offer a few polite words in a reserved manner. But a glare from Mrs. Nancy next to him softened his tone, and he sighed and complained, "In the end, I was the one who negotiated the President's visit to China, but when it came time to depart, there was no seat for me on the special plane—because Secretary Rogers said he didn't want to see me on the trip with the President! If I went, he wouldn't go!"

　As a result, in order to appease the Secretary of State, President Nixon had to exclude me from the list of the delegation visiting China.

　Hey, I originally wanted to try the mutton hotpot at Donglaishun and the roast duck at Quanjude, and see the pandas!

　Now it’s all gone to waste…”

　After listening to Dr. Kissinger's complaints, Ferry suddenly realized - isn't this the dispute between eunuchs and court officials in ancient China?

　Well, although the United States does not have a eunuch system, Kissinger really occupies the eunuch's niche in the American power arena.

　After all, no matter which country's supreme ruler is, he will encounter the same problem, that is, the disobedient bureaucracy.

　Just as the civil service group in the Ming Dynasty always opposed the emperor, the American bureaucracy always opposes the president.

　This is normal and is a chronic disease in management. Those who work always despise those who give orders and hope that their leaders will do things according to the wishes of "professionals" like them, and not make any trouble. It is best not to make any trouble and maintain the status quo. As for whether this will cause the country to commit chronic suicide, no one cares.

　But President Nixon didn't want to be a maintenance chairman - the mess he took over had already reached a point where it was no longer sustainable!

　Since the bureaucrats wouldn't let him do anything he wanted to do, or made excuses for it, in order to break the deadlock, he had to form a small circle and find a group of professionals to do the work for him - just like the Chinese emperors bypassed the court and made use of eunuchs.

　When it came to breaking the ice in Sino-US diplomatic relations, President Nixon bypassed Secretary of State Rogers, who held the true diplomatic responsibilities, and secretly appointed Dr. Kissinger to Beijing for secret negotiations. He knew that if the Secretary of State were to negotiate, it would undoubtedly turn into a protracted diplomatic dispute. The two sides engaged in a back-and-forth negotiation, refusing to yield an inch on issues ranging from Taiwan to espionage to historical Sino-US loans.

　Since the founding of New China, the two sides have held more than 140 meetings, but the situation has always been deadlocked with no progress at all.

　There is no way. Since the United States implemented McCarthyism, the federal government civil servants have long since unified their thoughts. All diplomats who sympathized with New China were kicked out, such as Comrade John Service, an old friend of the Chinese people. The rest are all granite heads with Cold War thinking in their heads.

　On the other hand, Taiwan’s Chairman Chiang Kai-shek spent a lot of money on "outside lobbying" in the United States, spending huge sums of money year after year to lobby the American upper class to oppose Red China. This was quite effective. Anyone in the United States who dared to say a word in support of New China would immediately be attacked by the media.

　As a result, the US diplomatic department naturally refused to make any concessions during the negotiations and insisted that New China surrender. Moreover, it especially liked to increase the pressure layer by layer, competing to see who could shout louder - but how could it be possible to get something at the negotiating table that could not be obtained on the battlefield?

　Successive Secretaries of State were completely unfazed by this. It wasn't their responsibility if the talks failed, so they simply maintained a tough stance.

　Therefore, President Nixon simply sidelined the Secretary of State and appointed Dr. Kissinger as the President's special envoy to have direct talks with the Chinese top leaders. After the talks, he stood up and announced the results directly. The matter was already settled. At this point, even if the bureaucrats still wanted to object, it was too late.

　For example, Nixon's visit to China was finalized without the knowledge of Secretary of State Rogers.

　Just like the South Korean generals on the night of December 3, 2024, many of them only learned that they would participate in the mutiny and martial law after watching TV. Secretary of State Rogers also watched President Nixon’s live TV broadcast and heard him announce that he would go to Beijing next month before he learned of this matter.

　Secretary Rogers was immediately furious: "Isn't this a deliberate attempt to harass me? President, do you really have so little trust in me?"

　They actually completely skipped the U.S. State Department, which is responsible for foreign affairs, and sent an assistant to handle such a major event as the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States?

　Although President Nixon did not trust the Secretary of State's loyalty and ability, the face-saving appeasement work

　I still had to do it, so I quickly explained to Secretary Rogers that it wasn't that I didn't trust you, I was just busy at the time. I forgot to tell you, so don't take it personally, I didn't mean to skip you (this is like Bill Clinton saying he didn't intentionally cheat on Hillary).

　Secretary of State Rogers certainly did not believe this, but facing the fact that the matter was already settled, he had no way to force the president to retract his declaration of visiting China.

　Just to maintain the dignity of the diplomatic system, even if we cannot punish the president, we must punish the instigator as a warning.

　Therefore, at the insistence of the Secretary of State, Dr. Kissinger was kicked out of Nixon's entourage on his visit to China. When the President went to Beijing, he was sent to Los Angeles to do an unimportant and unpopular job.

　Author's Note: PS: South Korea impeached the president, then the acting president, and now is impeaching the acting president, while the president remains entrenched in the Yongsan presidential palace, refusing to accept the arrest warrant. How can one explain this? It's too far back in history to be clear, but at least since World War II, this is the first time I've seen someone flip a table, then put it back up, and then hide under it and not get out. Yin Kaka's governing style is truly abstract.

　Chapter 551: Anxious Koreans (New Year's Day extra update, please vote)