Chapter 1179 – British and French Mediation
The Cuban sea is cold and windy, and the waves are turning over. Clouds sparse permitted air, may appear at any time, ready to start the United States bomber group, to the north of the wide ocean, the United States Navy fleet of hundreds of ships in a fan-shaped spread.
The United States and the Soviet Union put harsh words in each other’s mouths, so that the whole of Europe was agitated, and the war seemed to be rendered imminent.
Finally at this time, France took a stand, and the De Gaulle government fiercely blamed the U.S. for putting the world in danger by making a big move, but all the same, De Gaulle declared the French army to be on a state of war readiness.
Then the Federal Republic of Germany expressed the same views as France, but expressed more of a call for peace.
The move to first scold the United States before announcing that they stood with the U.S. can summarize the attitudes of both countries.
“It is clear that the further away from the Soviet Union the tougher it is, and France’s attitude is clearly tougher than Germany’s. And at the same time, France has deliberately blamed the United States, highlighting its independent and self-sufficient position.”
In a discussion with Foreign Minister Rab Butler, Alan Wilson commented on the German and French stances.
Rab Butler was just about to say something when Chief Private Secretary Dixon came in and reported, “France wishes to use its good offices with Great Britain on this crisis.”
“Good!” Rab Butler replied dryly, he was waiting for the French to take the initiative.
Alan Wilson stood by without making a sound, all glory to the minister, he just had to cheer and shout from the sidelines.
In fact, British citizens are still interested in the war in the former colonies, all the newspapers are reporting and commenting on it every day, and the first time a British newspaper paid attention to the distant Caribbean was Kennedy’s televised speech two days ago, at the same time as the countries around the world that received the news.
According to reports this morning, public opinion is discussing how people should live their lives in a nuclear winter.
A large group of people in the UK are unhappy with the drastic reaction of the United States, especially expressing doubts about the U.S. Navy’s blockade. Is Cuba an independent country or not? Not to mention the fact that the US had invaded Cuba a year earlier, but was thwarted by Cuba.
Many in the British keyway, believed it was caused by the US bases deployed near the Soviet Union.
It has to be said that each era has its own peculiarities, and in the latter days, one keystroke and three links to network control could silence dissenting voices, but at the cost of too many people expressing their voices, and the programmers had their work cut out for them.
It’s not as easy to silence dissenting voices now as it was in later times, in a sense.
That’s not to say that British citizens of this age are incredibly sane, mainly because the generation that went through the world wars understood very well what would happen if the US and the USSR fought over Cuba.
Just this morning, the Labor Party wrote an article in the Times, stating that the United States was engaging in double standards, and that the direction of Britain’s efforts should be to get the United States and the Soviet Union to talk as much as possible.
(narrator) There were voices that blamed the United States, and there were voices that understood the United States, voices that supported the United States, voices that argued that the free world was no match for the Soviet Union on land, that the missile bases around the Soviet Union were just barely maintaining the fragile balance of power in Europe.
The position of the key politicians was ultimately a minority one, in fact the majority of people didn’t believe that nuclear war was imminent at all, and I wondered if this was a threat-avoidance mentality at work.
But this mentality was exactly the same as Alan Wilson’s, and while the Foreign Secretary was talking to the French envoy about how to exert diplomatic influence, Alan Wilson, the permanent undersecretary, was making radio broadcasts, very influential broadcasts on the day, saying that he didn’t believe that a nuclear war was going to break out.
The Silent Majority loved it when the permanent secretary asserted that nuclear war would not break out, “Our policy is to stand firmly with the United States in resolving this nuclear crisis.”
In such a public forum, being the walking Anglo-American special relationship, Alan Wilson couldn’t have said anything about independence, even if he’d thought so.
Faced with a question about European security, Alan Wilson replied, in a tone of almost foolish bravery, “The Soviet Union should understand that Britain and France also have nuclear weapons, and if, in this crisis, the Soviet Union feels that it is not enough to challenge a single country, and that it has to add France and Britain as well, then I am very much shocked at Moscow’s courage.”
“The independent nuclear forces of the British Empire, like those of the United States and the Soviet Union, are in a state of readiness. Enough to keep any adventurer calm. The British position is not to allow at this time, any wavering or splitting of the Free World Alliance, while we do everything possible to see this crisis through.”
“Some voices have suggested that what happened in Cuba and the conflict in the Katanga region of the Congo, the war in Asia, are a source. If there is any truth to the speculation, the risks of the latter two are manageable, and we should be committed to considering Cuba as a priority problem to be solved.”
This last paragraph would be a huge sellout, if the Soviets heard today’s broadcast. Juxtaposing the Cuban Missile Crisis with the wars in the Congo and Asia, once the Cuban Missile Crisis has taken a step back, it is inevitably a matter of getting it back on other issues.
The Permanent Secretary’s broadcast carried out Britain’s usual diplomatic philosophy of flexibility, independent interests, not swayed by emotional favoritism, and at the same time, Prime Minister Aidan, in a statement to the British House of Commons, expressed the same central point.
Strong support for the United States, and at the same time to make this crisis as peaceful as possible.
Prime Minister Aidan’s statement, immediately recognized by Washington, extolled the indestructibility of the special Anglo-American relationship.
“Without my years of effort, would Washington think highly of London?” Alan Wilson, who returned to Charmaine’s apartment, was watching Prime Minister Aidan’s speech on television.
The original history, to 1962, the special relationship between Britain and the United States, has become a superpower and a small partner relationship, the United Kingdom has long been from the World War II triumvirate, into the United States of America one of the many small partners.
With the relative decline of Britain, advice in many areas was no longer of reference to the United States, and with this fact established, many people in the United States no longer regarded Britain as a mother country, and the two countries were not in the same relationship as Greece and Rome, and the United States simply didn’t need Britain to teach it anything.
Britain is diminishing in importance and naturally has little ability to play chess. The Britain of the original history was certainly not in a position to link several events in 1962 to shape the strength of the Soviet bloc’s general attack.
While the United States certainly valued Britain’s views, it would not have looked after Britain’s interests at all times.
But now it is different, the United States must also look after the interests of Britain, which has not yet fallen from its seat as a world power and is still a great power with the ability to mobilize globally, and likewise France, which is far stronger than it has ever been historically.
With the solidarity of Britain and France in this state of affairs, the Soviet Union faced a pressure that was much stronger than it had originally been historically.
“Will war break out?” Natsume inquired of the man on equal footing with her husband, “I’m a little scared.”
“If you believe me, you can rest assured.” Alan Wilson took Summer Dream into his arms and comforted her, “We’re all living well now, how much do you want to fight a nuclear war?”
Now the major countries do not have any major crisis, and do not need a war to divert their attention, let alone a nuclear war. With everyone living well, the situation is not as dangerous as it seems.
“Some people are making it look serious, while others aren’t worried at all.” Charmaine sighed quietly, wondering if she was being too timid.
“Isn’t this the real world?” Alan Wilson guffawed, people can’t all have the same attitude.
“I think you said that the purpose of Britain joining an organization was never to dismantle it from within.” Charmaine suddenly stared into the man’s eyes, “Is that true?”
“It also depends on what organization. If you’re mentioning NATO? The French have taken over our role.” Alan Wilson snorted, the current France was much stronger than the original France.
If this world’s France made a mess within NATO? It could be much harder to deal with than the original history, but this was not a good thing for the UK, the existence of such a France would make the US need the UK even more, and the two countries would be on a more equal footing.
Take this time for example, Britain is not the first to state the opportunity to France? The French envoy even came to London, saying that he wanted to join forces with Britain to mediate in this crisis.
Now the United Kingdom and France are still two countries that retain considerable strength, the successive statements are absolutely not the same.
In the evening of this day, French President Charles de Gaulle and British Prime Minister Aidan had a call, consulting on how to solve the crisis, Charles de Gaulle said that the United States and the Soviet Union now need a third party to come out to speak, at the same time to give the two countries a step down at this time to the United States and the Soviet Union step is the solution to the problem.
Aidan agreed with this, so the question arises, who visits Washington and who visits Moscow? Theoretically Britain should naturally be on the side of the United States, but now that the US Navy was blockading Cuba, it could be considered to have the upper hand.
What if the Americans think that the US can solve the problem, and what if the UK takes charge to fix the US and the US doesn’t appreciate it?
It seems like the Soviet Union needs this step even more, and it could be a big plus for Britain in the diplomatic arena.
But if it is the British visit to the Soviet Union, France visited the United States, and the previous statement is not quite the same, the British statement is more than France to pay more attention to the special relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States, and then for the sake of diplomatic clout to give the opportunity to visit Washington to France?
At this point, the British government is caught up in the greed of both wanting and wanting, wanting to maintain the Anglo-American special relationship, but also wanting to get influence from Moscow.
“A visit to Washington and a visit to Moscow will do. When the matter is settled, who has a greater role to play, Britain or France, and isn’t it still a matter of who has the stronger public opinion?” Alan Wilson looked like the invincible world with the Times in his left hand and the Daily Times in his right, and Britain was still afraid of France in the war of public opinion?