American Strategic Deception Bureau

　Next, John Kennedy, feeling ashamed of having to repeat a grade, transferred to Harvard University, hoping to join the school football team.

　So, he ran long distances, swam, and performed various physical exercises crazily at Harvard University, without considering his body's endurance. In his sophomore year, he developed a back disease due to excessive exercise and almost died.

　After the outbreak of World War II, John Kennedy wanted to join the military to gain experience, but because of his poor health, he could not pass the physical examinations of both the navy and the army. In the end, his father used family connections to cheat and finally allowed him to enter the US Navy and command a torpedo boat.

　Later, he drove a torpedo boat into a Japanese destroyer and, after the shipwreck, led his men on a legendary adventure of drifting at sea and surviving on a deserted island. Although this did bring him great fame and brought him great benefits in his future political career, it also further damaged his health.

　In 1954, newly elected Senator John F. Kennedy suffered another back ailment, and doctors predicted he would likely be confined to crutches for the rest of his life. To avoid becoming the next wheelchair-bound Roosevelt, he took the enormous risk of undergoing two surgeries, each with a low probability of success. Fortunately, both surgeries were surprisingly successful, and he recovered well.

　Next, Senator John Kennedy rested at home for about a year before he barely recovered.

　But even so, he still needs regular injections of large amounts of antibiotics and various other drugs to maintain his health.

　To make matters worse, although his physical condition was no better than that of President Roosevelt, who was in a wheelchair, President Kennedy was obviously more lustful and romantic than Roosevelt. He had eleven well-known lovers, and he often hired prostitutes for pleasure.

　Perhaps because he knew from a young age that he might not live long, John Kennedy always believed in "Life is short, enjoy it while you can."

　As a result, he kept stumbling over women throughout his life.

　While serving in the Navy, John F. Kennedy had a long and intense relationship with a Danish journalist named Madame Awad. Little did he know that Madame Awad was not only married, but also a Nazi German spy, seeking intelligence from JFK.

　After the female spy was arrested, if John Kennedy did not have a strong family background, he would have been kicked out of the Navy even if he did not go to jail!

　This is why John Kennedy was assigned to the Pacific battlefield to drive a torpedo boat to fight the Japanese devils, instead of escorting convoys and hunting German submarines in the Atlantic - because this guy was suspected of colluding with Nazi Germany! Who would dare to let him fight against the German army?

　When John Kennedy was running for president in 1960, the mafia boss who supported him presented a beautiful woman named Judith to him. He happily accepted the gift and even brought Judith to the White House for sex. Someone once saw her coming out from under the solid desk in the Oval Office.

　Well, if it was just about being romantic, it would be fine. The upper classes in Europe and the United States don’t care much about this, and even the Soviets don’t care much about it.

　On the contrary, if a political leader is surrounded by beautiful women, it will be seen as a sign of charm.

　But the problem is that lust is a double-edged sword. President Kennedy's body was already very weak, so how could he withstand the abuse of so many women?

　As a result, after being elected president, President Kennedy's health continued to deteriorate due to heavy official duties and inappropriate indulgence in picking up girls. In 1962, his body was so weak that it was difficult for him to stand for a long time. He even had to install a hidden brace on his back when going out.

　It is all thanks to the makeup artist's beauty magic and the photographer's filters and lighting that he can maintain his energetic and handsome appearance in front of the public.

　But no matter how much he puts on makeup on the outside, when the real pressure comes, his frail body will inevitably hold him back.

　The more critical the moment, the easier it is to fail.

　As a result, at the most tense moment of the Cuban nuclear crisis, President Kennedy's frail body finally collapsed!

　--At 7:30 a.m. on January 13, 1962, after a nuclear mine and two nuclear torpedoes exploded in succession on the Cuban battlefield, the USS Shangri-La and the 1st Marine Division were reduced to ashes, and the U.S. military base in Guantanamo was also hit by missiles, President Kennedy, who had been staying up all night in meetings for 48 hours and was seriously overworked, finally walked out of the Oval Office and delivered a televised speech to the world from the South Lawn of the White House.

　In front of the camera, President Kennedy looked serious and condemned in a tough tone that the Soviet Union had established a medium-range missile base in Cuba and deployed nuclear weapons. Soviet submarines even launched a nuclear attack on the US fleet in the Caribbean Sea: This is absolutely unacceptable to the United States!

　He exaggeratedly claimed that the Soviet medium-range missiles deployed in Cuba, loaded with nuclear warheads, could reach almost all major cities in the United States. If unchecked and undefended, 8 to 1 million Americans could die in a nuclear war.

　To this end, President Kennedy declared a state of emergency in the United States, put all troops on alert, and sent the Secretary of State to Europe to seek support from allies. Next, he would use "all necessary means", including strategic nuclear weapons strikes, to resolve the crisis.

　Resolve this crisis!

　The goal was to force the Soviet Union to withdraw its missiles and nuclear weapons from Cuba and to eliminate the "Soviet-backed" Castro red regime in Cuba.

　In his speech, he warned Khrushchev: From now on, any missile launched by Cuba towards US territory will be regarded as an attack by the Soviet Union against the United States and will inevitably lead to full retaliation from the United States. Any Soviet ship entering the Western Hemisphere will be sunk by the US Navy.

　——However, here, President Kennedy still left some room and did not explicitly declare whether the Guantanamo base is considered part of the US mainland.

　Otherwise, while the R-14 medium-range missiles were still bombarding the Guantanamo base, the United States would have to immediately launch a fierce attack on the Soviet mainland.

　As Kennedy's speech was translated into 38 languages ​​and broadcast around the world, public opinion around the world exploded. Up to this point, it was still the normal process for the United States to deal with the nuclear crisis. Although tense and depressing, it was also carried out step by step.

　But the problem was that just as Kennedy was about to end his speech on the South Lawn of the White House, an accident happened!

　Well, it was very cold in Washington in January, and the temperature that day dropped to -9 degrees Celsius. President Kennedy was not only overworked and in poor health, but an hour before his speech, in order to relieve his stress, he also took the time to have sex with a female White House intern...

　As a result, in front of the live TV cameras and in full view of a large number of reporters, President Kennedy suddenly fainted without a word and fell straight down from behind the podium - because the incident happened so suddenly, no one even thought of helping the president!

　Next, a group of people panicked and carried President Kennedy into a car and took him to the Naval Hospital in Bethesda.

　Vice President Johnson naturally moved into the Oval Office, facing the most tense moment in the United States since World War II with a confused look on his face.

　The author's words:

　Besides, given his tendency to commit suicide, it would be difficult for him to live to the age where he gets cancer.

　The Sino-Indian War took place in the summer and autumn of 1962.

　This book was written in January, when the Himalayas were covered in snow. Both sides were unable to move and could only engage in verbal battles.

　Chapter 116: Kissinger, the Defeatist Adviser

　The situation in the White House is very interesting now. President Kennedy is ill and hospitalized, and Secretary Rusk is visiting France and Britain to seek support from European allies.

　Vice President Johnson and other cabinet members held a cabinet meeting in the White House, while a group of academic advisors found a conference room to hold a small meeting.

　At this moment, Ferry was led by his elder brother Bernard and was sitting in a small conference room in the White House, holding a small meeting with a group of experts and professors.

　But whether it was a large meeting or a small meeting, the overall situation was mostly empty talk. No one could come up with a solution, and no one dared to make a decision.

　Of course, there were still various brainstorming sessions. After all, these American experts and scholars are generally very good at chatting and exploring their ideas.

　Well, why is the White House filled with a bunch of empty talkers? Because that's what Kennedy did on purpose!

　——Just like the "King of Understanding" Trump sixty years later, since he became president, he has been shouting that "there are villains in the government who want to harm me", saying that there is a deep government in the United States that does not listen to him and is shameless in all kinds of ways, making the Golden Haired King of Understanding angry all the time.

　President Kennedy in the early 1960s had already noticed this problem and clearly pointed out what this "deep government" is: the bureaucratic group of the federal government!

　As we all know, the system of the United States since its founding has been the "separation of powers." These "three powers" refer to: the courts responsible for litigation, Congress responsible for making laws, and the government led by the president. These three powers remain separate and do not belong to each other.

　But President Kennedy said that the United States actually has a "separation of four powers"!

　Why? Because in reality, there's a small circle within the government where bureaucrats decide for themselves which orders to follow from the president. If the president's orders offend them, they pretend to obey but secretly disobey, diligently messing up the president's ideas, and then the people will criticize the president.

　In fact, this problem is the same everywhere. Whether it is the president or the emperor, any of their ideas need to be implemented by bureaucrats.

　If the highest will wants to do something that does not satisfy the bureaucracy, then the bureaucracy will have ten thousand ways to mess things up.

　That is why Kennedy said that the United States has a separation of three powers on the surface, but in fact it has a separation of four powers: judiciary, legislation, president and bureaucracy.

　In order to avoid being sidelined by bureaucrats, President Kennedy's approach was to recruit many outsiders from academia and business circles into the government.

　These people have no roots within the government and are not in the same group as the bureaucrats. The only person they can rely on is the president, so they can only be loyal to the president.

　Does this look familiar? Yes, this was also true in ancient Chinese history. Many emperors, finding it difficult to control their ministers, would employ eunuchs and relatives of the emperor's wife to balance power. And in the United States, academic professors are essentially the same as those ancient Chinese eunuchs and relatives of the emperor's wife: they have no foundation, are dependent on the president, and are inherently incompatible with bureaucrats.

　——However, in China

　The Confucian scholars in schools were the reserve force for the bureaucracy. However, the United States did not have an imperial examination system, so the "American Confucian scholars," unable to enter officialdom through normal channels, ended up replacing the eunuchs and relatives of the emperor's wife, becoming the mortal enemy of the bureaucracy.

　Among the professors and scholars who entered Kennedy's cabinet, those with strong abilities and great reputations have risen to cabinet ministerial positions and are now attending White House cabinet meetings with Vice President Johnson; while those who are younger and less experienced are holding small meetings elsewhere with the titles of consultants or assistants.

　In fact, when President Washington founded the United States, there were no such positions as ministers. Later cabinet members were actually secretaries to the president. Therefore, the US Secretary of Defense is called the Secretary of National Defense in English, and the Secretary of State is called the Secretary of State.

　But the problem is that as the power and size of the federal government increased, the first group of secretaries became ministers, began to become increasingly bureaucratic, and became less obedient. In order to suppress the disobedient cabinet, the president had to hire new secretaries and recruit a group of advisers and assistants to fill the void.

　Similar to the emperors of the Ming Dynasty in China who could not control the bureaucratic groups of the three provinces and six ministries, they empowered the small team in their own study and set up the cabinet; when the power of the cabinet began to get out of control, the emperors of the Qing Dynasty established the Grand Council, pushing the secretariat to the forefront time and time again.

　In short, the president promoted his own personal subordinates and asked them to compete for power with the overpowering state bureaucracy.

　Ten years later, during the Nixon era, the White House Cabinet had become almost a decorative piece. Nixon disdained rules and lacked operational skills, requiring professionals to do the work for him. However, the bureaucrats were always unwilling to work, only knowing how to make excuses.

　Therefore, in order to break the deadlock, President Nixon began to form a small circle and let his secretaries and assistants take charge of the power. No matter what happened, he would not discuss it with the ministers, but would talk privately with a group of advisers. After the discussion, he would let the secretaries bypass the government and do the work privately.

　As a result, the top leaders of the US government became like the nobles of ancient Japan, and the president's advisers became powerful samurai of the shogunate.

　In this context, becoming a presidential advisor has become the fastest way for American experts and scholars to ascend to a high position in government. Dr. Brzezinski, who had previously met Fieri, gained a White House advisory position through this "fortunate" path.

　However, although President Kennedy admired these scholars and professors, he did not immediately allow them into his inner circle.

　After all, although these professors can talk a lot about international strategic thinking, it is hard to say what the results will be when they are put into practice.

　Those who were truly entrusted with important tasks by President Kennedy and received important cabinet posts were either his close associates or talented individuals who had already proven their abilities in business or other fields, such as former Ford Motor Company president and Secretary of Defense McNamara.

　As for those experts and professors who are only known for their empty talk, they are only given the title of consultant or assistant to enhance their influence in the White House.

　Now, Brzezinski was in this small conference room, speaking freely as an "Eastern Europe expert" and speculating on Khrushchev's reaction.

　Naturally, as an anti-Soviet and anti-Russian Polish expert on Eastern European issues, all his views tend to be hard-line.

　"I believe that any concessions made by the government to the Soviet Union on the Cuban issue are completely unacceptable!"

　Brzezinski pointed a stick at Moscow on a globe and declared decisively, "We must prepare for an all-out war and say 'no' to the Kremlin in the strongest terms possible! Give that greedy polar bear a hard slap in the face!"

　According to Brzezinski, neither the Soviet nuclear bomb detonated in Trinidad Harbor nor the nuclear torpedo fired at the US aircraft carrier in the Caribbean Sea seemed like a carefully planned operation, but rather an uncoordinated, hastily launched emergency response.

　The United States was certainly unprepared for this and was caught off guard by the bombing, but the Soviets also had no carefully planned strategic plan.

　While President Kennedy fell ill and was hospitalized due to staying up late in meetings, Khrushchev must have been scared out of his wits.

　After all, no matter what signs we have, the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact were not prepared for a world war.

　Therefore, Dr. Brzezinski believed that as long as the United States fully demonstrated its toughness, the Soviets would definitely retreat in disgrace!

　Even if a full-scale war really breaks out, with the absolute advantage of the United States in its nuclear arsenal, NATO will definitely be the ultimate winner!

　The war to invade Cuba must continue! And the bigger the better. We can even drop a few nuclear bombs on East Germany or North Vietnam as retaliation!

　Grandpa Ho Chi Minh of North Vietnam:? ? ! !

　However, although the "anti-Soviet madman" Brzezinski seemed to speak coherently and confidently, the other assistant advisors and mid- and low-level officials in the meeting room did not share his bellicosity, nor were they mentally prepared for World War III.

　Indeed, based on the fragmented information coming back from Moscow, the Soviet side might not have intended to start a large-scale war immediately.

　After President Kennedy declared a national emergency and the US military around the world began to be on high alert, seven or eight hours had passed. However, Moscow still did not respond, leaving people confused.

　What exactly is Khrushchev up to?

　However, according to the information conveyed by the White House Director of Intelligence, the Soviet Ministry of Defense has also ordered the Soviet army to enter a state of combat readiness. All officers and soldiers' leave has been canceled, and the demobilization and transfer of veterans has been stopped. It seems that they are tit-for-tat and will not give in!

　If we continue to apply extreme pressure regardless of the consequences at this time, will it really ignite the fuse and turn the Cold War into a hot war?

　The Soviet Red Empire was undoubtedly known for its outward appearance of power and its inner weakness, but isn't the American ruling class also known for its outward appearance of power and its inner weakness?

　—Why not be a "world noble" and go to a radioactive wasteland? Isn't that crazy?

　So, after everyone looked at each other for a while, Firi saw another "familiar face" wearing black-framed glasses, "an old friend of the Chinese people", Dr. Henry Alfred Kissinger, who stood out from the crowd, walked to the podium, coughed dryly, and spoke loudly.

　"I'm sorry, but I cannot agree with Professor Brzezinski. Continuing to put pressure on the Soviets is really too radical!

　Now that human civilization is on the brink of nuclear destruction, it is best not to hastily cut off the bridge to the Kremlin..."

　——I don’t know if it was an illusion, but when Kissinger said the above “weak” words, everyone present seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

　-

　In later generations' memories, they were two of the two geopolitical masters who manipulated the world during the Cold War. Kissinger first dominated the world in the early 1970s, even becoming Secretary of State. He overturned the Cold War by promoting the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States. He maintained a huge influence until his death.

　Next, Brzezinski took over Kissinger's team and became a famous prophet-type figure by predicting the collapse of the Soviet Union.

　Many of his later books, such as "The Grand Choice: America at the Crossroads", "The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Values", "The Great Disruption and the Great Chaos: Global Chaos on the Eve of the 21st Century", etc., became popular after the end of the Cold War and sold well all over the world.

　In other words, it seems that Kissinger was the one who dominated the world first, while Brzezinski was the one who achieved success later?

　But in fact, in terms of the start of his personal career, Brzezinski entered politics earlier than Kissinger.

　Both men entered politics during the Kennedy era, with Dr. Brzezinski being the first to gain favor and join the White House advisory team. Then, with Brzezinski's recommendation and endorsement, Kissinger was recruited and hired by the president, gaining a foothold in the White House.

　——Brzezinski and Kissinger were both European Jews who fled to the United States on the eve of World War II and later became professors at Harvard University.

　During World War II and the early Cold War, Harvard University was a gathering place of elites. Numerous future political figures taught there. These professors and scholars enjoyed chatting freely, much like the authors of later WeChat public accounts. Not only did they write articles criticizing current affairs, they also frequently appeared on the radio, explaining the news to the general public and promoting their ideas. These radio broadcasts were the equivalent of later live broadcasts, and they easily attracted followers.

　Both Brzezinski and Dr. Kissinger made their names in this way and were promoted and hired by Kennedy.

　However, although these two international strategic masters have gained some fame, they are still small figures overall.

　Furthermore, although Brzezinski and Kissinger were Harvard colleagues and old friends, and their friendship was good, with Brzezinski even helping Kissinger at this time, their worldviews and international strategic thinking were, if not diametrically opposed, at least quite different.

　If we say that Brzezinski from Poland was an extremely tough anti-Soviet fanatic who was a little bit crazy.

　Then, Kissinger from Germany is an out-and-out pessimist, or a typical "defeatist counselor."

　Even when the United States won the Cold War and was at its peak, Kissinger was still worried about the future of the United States.

　Therefore, at this moment, Kissinger certainly would not advocate letting the Cuban nuclear crisis develop into World War III, but would insist on extinguishing it as soon as possible.

　As for the reason, it was also very sufficient: "Professor Brzezinski, if we go to war with the Soviet Union now, with the strength of the US troops stationed in Europe and the Western European allies, can we defeat the more than 400,000 Soviet troops stationed in Germany with conventional weapons without using nuclear weapons?

　If that's not possible, we'll have to use nuclear weapons first. Even if we can destroy the 400,000 Soviet troops stationed in Germany, the consequence will inevitably be that the entire heartland of Europe, from Poland to Belgium, will be reduced to a radioactive wasteland by nuclear bombs. Is that the outcome you want to see?"

　Sharp troops.

　The nine armies initially deployed in Germany were all Guards Armies and Assault Armies, and their first commander was Comrade Zhukov.

　Throughout the Cold War, more than half of the Soviet Army's Guards were deployed in the German group.

　In most cases, the Soviet troops stationed in Germany generally maintained a size of 400,000 to 500,000, and possessed the largest number and most advanced technical weapons in the entire Soviet army.