Chapter 1351 – Chaotic Neutrality

Two days later, George Black returned to London to enter Seventy Whitehall, “Assessing the political state of France? The Secretary General is going to ask about it?”

“What else, I ask you how many people went to the Rolling Stones concert?” Alan Wilson pulled a long face, his tone was a little nonchalant, he had nothing to comment on the most famous band currently in the UK, no more than a cultural export, changing the state of the UK being dominated by American music for years.

It wasn’t just France that was coming out of the effects of the war, and those born after the war were beginning to seek their own voice, but the UK as well, just not as visibly as France.

The center of world fashion at this time belonged to Britain! Not only fashion, but also art, culture and industry, the British machine was revved up again, and the young people of Britain began to enjoy new freedoms and a new air. As Time magazine described it, “London has gone into high gear. He is strutting towards us in a great flourish.”

Jaguar had introduced a new saloon, which was very close to the latter-day look from the outside, and it was such a hit that if it hadn’t been on a different track from Land Rover, Pamela Mountbatten might now have her hands full getting ready to talk to everyone at Jaguar Cars.

It laughs at everything about old rules and old constraints; it draws on history, studies the future and travels across the entire globe to give mankind a whole new level of travel enjoyment. Jaguar is lauded in all circles in the UK, and with Land Rover’s off-road and pick-up trucks, it seems to hold up the British automotive system for decades to come.

These good things could not hide the spillover effects of the Vietnam War. Why was Allen Wilson willing to facilitate the Paris peace talks between the US and Vietnam? That’s because Britain was beginning to be affected by the Vietnam War as well, and there were protests against the American Embassy in March.

There were solemn scenes and people kept their heads cool. Demonstrators were still worried about the horses the police were riding – rumor had it that a group of anarchists were plotting to put tumblers under the horses’ hooves, and many condemned against this dastardly tactic. The police were also very restrained, and many seemed to wish only to avoid confrontation. A group of demonstrators, led by a communist, broke through the cordon around the American Embassy and stormed Grosvenor Square.

This followed another march in which police clashed with demonstrators, but after a struggle lasting several hours, a number of arrests were made and that struggle collapsed.

Another group of demonstrators handed in their petition to the Prime Minister’s residence at 10 Downing Street and moved on again, to Hyde Park to deliver a speech demanding that the government call an immediate halt to the war in Vietnam.

It was only after Brexit, the former Private Secretary to the Prime Minister and now Permanent Secretary of the Home Office, firmly committed Britain’s anti-war stance on behalf of Whitehall and stated that Britain had been facilitating peace talks between the United States and North Vietnam, that Alan Wilson, the Secretary General of None of My Business, reluctantly traveled to Washington.

He certainly did not like the Vietnam War to end earlier, but making some efforts to hope that the Vietnam War would end, and ultimately failing to do so was still doable.

George Black nodded, the spillover effects of the Vietnam War were also seen in the UK, and after a moment’s preparation opened his mouth to describe the situation in France, which was undoubtedly more serious.

This point Alan Wilson expressed a different opinion, more serious is clearly the United States, on the contrary, the Asian side of the silence, whether it is South Korea or Malaya are very calm, South Korea are killed in action more than 10,000, and now also as quiet as a chicken, Park Chung-hee’s iron-fisted rule of the country is worthy of the name.

“Then why isn’t there so much opposition in Asia?” George Blake couldn’t help but be a little curious, seemingly very interested in this issue.

“The systems are different, and the national tolerance is different. It’s not like they’re an elective nation, they won’t protest over some chicken scratch, and the scale of the Vietnam War, it wasn’t too big.” Alan Wilson said to himself, a certain big country’s change of dynasty is based on the bottom line of fifty percent of the population reduction, Vietnam’s thing is a gross misery?

From Alan Wilson’s tone can be heard, he is now because of the Vietnam War led to Europe and the United States countries of varying sizes of the wave of protests, in fact, the heart is not a cold, and what do you have to do with it? What does it have to do with you? Do you have to show a ridiculous sense of justice at this time? But the free world has its own national conditions here.

“It cannot be ruled out that the wave of protests in various countries has a Soviet-inspired element to it. I’ve heard of protesters in France carrying sickle and hammer flags.” Alan Wilson grimaced, “That’s proof. It’s proof enough that it was the Soviet bloc that launched an attack on the free world.”

“Uh, that’s something I don’t really understand.” George Black said with an ignorant expression, “Actually, the protesters don’t always understand what their claims are, most of them are ignorant.”

Not even forgetting to put in a good word for the Soviet Union at this time? Alan Wilson thought this in his mind but didn’t dwell on the issue, “Then you should know about France’s attack on the British pound, although de Gaulle’s main target was the US dollar, and the UK wasn’t like the US that had over-issued a large amount of US dollars on the international market because of the war, but the pound did come under attack half a year ago. It was only resisted by us.”

This run on gold initiated by France was a messy one, and the Bretton Woods system was a dollar-based system supplemented by the pound.

In history de Gaulle belonged to the simultaneous attack on Britain and the United States. Of course that’s because Britain was slow to make progress in its original historical economy, and was getting dusted off by France.

But this world Britain did not over-issue pounds, and economically far better than the same period in history, did not give France the opportunity to take advantage of, naturally, it is impossible for de Gaulle to replicate the history of forcing the British gold trading market to give up pounds to settle the gold, and use the dollar instead of the brilliant battle.

“We will not pretend that nothing has happened.” Alan Wilson’s fingers gently tapped the desktop and lowered his voice, “Are the French never this confident? Attacking two international currencies at once? They’re bound to pay, we’re just looking for the right moment.”

George Blake raised an eyebrow, hearing an unusual meaning in the Secretary General’s voice, “Actually, it’s not an unforgivable contradiction.”

“Is it?” Alan Wilson was noncommittal, “An average of ten tons of gold a day flowed out of London when the attack was at its height, and that’s not unforgivable? What is pardonable? A world war?”

This is why Britain is tugging at the Gold Coast, if the Gold Coast was still under control and the Australian gold mines were in the hands of Pamela Mountbatten, where would the British government have gotten its airs and graces from this short but intense attack?

Britain’s loss in gold was equal to what Pamela Mountbatten had gained in this mess, of course compared to the thousands of tons of gold being exchanged in the United States it was indeed nothing, but it wasn’t like George Blake said it was forgivable.

“Be ready, everyone; the time is not far distant when we shall teach the French a lesson.” Almost simultaneously, on another occasion, Pamela Mountbatten, Britain’s Loser My Gainer, in the tone of the patron saint of England, pontificated to the representatives of the bankers in front of her, “The high level of the franc won’t last long, and it will inevitably fall back to its own value.”

The Warsaw Pact’s big maneuvers announced to the public finally began in April, with the armies of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and the GDR, along with the Polish army, totaling 400,000 men, 5,000 tanks on the ground, and thousands of fighter planes and helicopter gunships in the sky, opening up what could be described as a grand-scale exercise.

This scale of maneuvers, naturally also caused the NATO side of the alert, in the United States deep into the Vietnam battlefield, the U.S. Army in Germany under the situation of insufficient troops, the opposite side of the wind will cause the NATO side of the importance of the Rheinland Army directly in front of the Warsaw Pact naturally bear the brunt of, do not dare to have a hint of laxity.

Alan Wilson, however, is not concerned about this kind of explicit show of muscle, after meeting with the ambassador, he focused on the wave of protests in France, targeting these student organizations that have appeared in March.

“Find out what the composition of these people is, and whether they’ve been subjected to dangerous red ideas.” Alan Wilson had to call Richard White over to put the other man on his last watch, “Richard, at this time when you’re about to retire, you’re actually going to be freer in your activities. This is sort of a co-lead department to deal with this operation before you and John Rennie hand over, there is a difference between England and France, he will be in charge of the domestic situation along with the Five’s people, and you can act with confidence and boldness in France. There is one principle.”

“I’ll try to pull as many of these organizations towards the Soviet Union as I can.” Richard White understood in a second, and at this time when he was about to leave Intelligence, he knew that the Supreme Authority wanted him to have a grand farewell concert.

“Good, I’ll wait for the good news.” Allenwell smiled and got up, he still had to go to 10 Downing Street to talk to the Prime Minister about this military exercise, as well as to report back on the evaluated intelligence of the Warsaw Pact military exercise that had started first.

The Warsaw Pact is a military organization established by the Soviet Union, the style of military exercises is naturally an extension of the Soviet Union’s military exercises, and the military exercises of the Cold War are not of a defensive nature like those of the twenty-first century, and it is clear to see that the Warsaw Pact’s successive military exercises are all about how to attack, and the NATO side is the only one that exercises how to defend.

This year’s Warsaw Pact military exercises can be said to be the largest ever, naturally caused by the Western European side of the tension, but it, there is a not nervous secretary general in this.

“The British are much more alert than the Americans.” Andropov commented after reporting the intelligence, “But we’ve also made it clear that the Trotskyists have been developing rapidly over the years.”

“Let’s use them a little.” Brezhnev put down the intel and expressed a position of chaotic neutrality, “They have their agenda and we have ours. Some days allies and enemies aren’t very clear.”