Did you find some money?
The next morning, in the Oval Office of the White House, after listening to Truman’s report—
Roosevelt couldn’t help but feel delighted, the corners of his mouth lifting in a smile.
"Harry, I didn’t expect you to resolve this matter so quickly."
Having been tormented by Dewey’s relentless attacks, Roosevelt had been feeling miserable, but now, at last, he could breathe a sigh of relief.
With presidential foresight, he planned to use captured German materiel to strengthen China’s military power, orchestrating victory on the faraway Chinese battlefield!
Of course, this also helped distinguish himself from the Pentagon bureaucrats who only cared about Europe.
Marshall... let him worry about the main responsibilities!
Let General Marshall bear the brunt of the criticism.
Once this news got out, it would surely turn public opinion around. After all, Americans loved these kinds of stories with a touch of legend.
If that’s what they liked, then tell it to them.
"Mr. President, as I said before, Pierre is a very generous man."
As soon as Truman finished speaking, Harry Hopkins chimed in.
"Harry, he is indeed generous, but in return for his generosity, what does he want from us?"
As the President’s advisor, not only was he the chairman of the War Production Board, but he was also effectively the second most powerful man in the White House—sometimes even called the "Shadow President." He knew very well that there was no such thing as pure generosity in this world.
"Mr. Hopkins, the most important thing is that his help can get us through the current crisis."
Truman did not answer Hopkins’ question directly, but continued,
"Mr. President, right now we need to give everyone a perfect story."
Roosevelt nodded, signaling for Truman to go on.
"Mr. President, the core of this story is that we are doing everything possible to help China. Because the Chinese army imported a large number of German weapons before the war, we are now shipping captured German weapons from North Africa to China through Pierre, and thus the Chinese have achieved victory on the battlefield. The question is—what next?"
Truman looked at the President.
"Harry, are you saying we need to increase aid to China?"
"Senator, we’ve already planned to provide no less than $1.5 billion in aid to China this year."
As chairman of the War Production Board, responsible for allocating war materiel to Allied forces around the world, Hopkins’ tone was tinged with displeasure.
He too had come under fire during this controversy. Some even called him a "Soviet agent" because he allocated large amounts of supplies to "the Russians, who had not declared war on Japan and were still selling oil and minerals to them," instead of to China, which was actually fighting the Japanese.
What made him even more uncomfortable was that, in order to answer outside criticism, he had to divert supplies originally intended for the Soviets and allocate them to China instead. Every time he thought about this, it felt like his heart was bleeding!
Indeed, for Hopkins, nothing was more important than aiding the Soviet Union. He had even advised the President: "Not only do we need the Soviet Union as a powerful ally to defeat Germany, but we will ultimately need them as an ally to defeat Japan. And finally, we will need the Soviets as our true friends and clients in the postwar world."
Under his leadership, China received extremely limited supplies, partly due to his own selfish interests—he needed the Soviets as allies against Japan, not China. He didn’t want to fully support China and let them become the ones to defeat Japan.
In his plans... China was never really a consideration. Even in General Marshall’s plans, there was only one core idea: to use the least amount of supplies to tie down the Japanese in China, not to help China defeat Japan.
They never intended to truly aid China from the very beginning!
"Mr. Hopkins, plans are just plans. What the public needs to see is action."
Truman retorted directly.
"We need to take further action to show the world that we are sparing no effort in fighting Japan."
"Yes, Harry, the Senator is right. We need to take some action."
Compared to everything else, the election was most important. Roosevelt turned to Truman and said,
"Do you have any suggestions?"
"Continue handing over captured German weapons to the Chinese, just as we did before."
His suggestion made both Roosevelt and Hopkins pause in surprise, then begin to calculate in their minds.
The former understood that this was a "continuation of the plan"—telling Americans: we are still vigorously supporting China, just in a different way. As for the latter, he immediately realized this was a good thing—he wouldn’t have to divert supplies intended for the Soviets to China anymore.
"It seems this is a good option. After all, what China needs is weapons, not necessarily any particular kind of weapon..."
After nodding in agreement, Roosevelt frowned slightly and said,
"It seems we haven’t captured that many German weapons."
"Yes, Mr. President, we—
Only a few German weapons had been captured in North Africa. But this is just the beginning—this is our response to the outside world."
Truman looked at the President as he spoke. Although he was Roosevelt’s running mate, he had no idea that the "Operation Overlord" landings in France were already in the implementation stage. Roosevelt, however, was well aware that soon, with the Allied landings, they would capture large quantities of German weapons.
"With this response, the outside world will see our support for China, and we won’t even have to pay much—just a small amount for repairs and transportation," Truman said in a relaxed tone.
"Of course, that’s exactly what he wants. He hopes that when the Allies counterattack the European continent in the future, he can help the Allies gather up the captured weapons and use his ships to transport them to China."
This was just one part of Pierre’s overall plan.
What he needed was to be able to follow the Allied forces as they landed on the European continent, collecting materials along the way. But his goal was far more than just gathering captured German weapons and shipping them to China. He wanted to use this opportunity to reach into Germany and recruit as much talent as possible from various fields.
The so-called "assistance" was nothing more than a pretext.
Of course, he could have waited until the war was over to collect German talent, but by then, he would have faced competition from both the US and the Soviet Union. The US launched "Operation Paperclip" in 1946 to scoop up German talent, while the Soviets were even more direct and brutal, simply grabbing people and taking them to Russia, whether they were willing or not. The British and French were also secretly recruiting German experts.
In short, every country was doing everything possible to acquire Germany’s intellectual resources.
In this situation, if you wanted to recruit talent and make use of Germany’s intellectual resources, you had to act first—get ahead of the others before they moved. But how could you enter the war zone? And how could you get people out?
Collecting captured German weapons and sending them to China was the perfect cover.
With this disguise, his people could openly enter the war zone, wearing American military uniforms, riding in jeeps, accompanying the US Army all the way to Berlin, and then transporting both materials and personnel out of Europe.
This was Pierre’s own "Operation Paperclip." However, to carry out this plan, he absolutely needed cooperation from the American side. If he succeeded, he could absorb all of Germany’s talent for himself...