Chapter 45 The Disappointed Patton

The little commissioner’s tirade did not delay the united, triumphant, and amicable surrender ceremony in which all the Allied bigwigs had their fun and enjoyed their victory, and it was only a minor issue that the celebration was in Berlin, the capital of Germany.

Eisenhower also brought a gift for Marshal Zhukov of the Red Army of the Soviet Union, a truck full of Coca-Cola, and Eisenhower, who had Coca-Cola directly in his hand, got up in front of Zhukov and handed it to the other side, “Honorable Marshal, on such a special occasion, we wish you good health from the bottom of our hearts, and that friendship between the United States and the Soviet Union can be sustained for as long as the heavens shall last , that the war is not yet over, that the Japanese in the Far East are still resigned to this great victory, and that the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, will have to fight on.”

“General Eisenhower, thank you.” Marshal Zhukov very cheerfully took the Coca-Cola handed over by the other party, and directly drank it in one gulp, with a very soothing look. Obviously it was not the first time he had tasted this drink.

In fact, Coca-Cola had made another adjustment to its personalized product. The company created a colorless white cola at the request of a very special consumer, who happened to be a well-known Soviet general.

That man was Marshal Zhukov, and one of Coke’s other biggest fans was Eisenhower. Not only was he responsible for supplying the U.S. Army, but he first recommended Coke to the famous Soviet Field Marshal Zhukov.

This time Eisenhower came to Berlin with exactly fifty cases of Coca-Cola to give to Marshal Zhukov. Because the Soviet Union had a ban on Coca-Cola, no one could buy more than fifty cases for the first time. Eisenhower’s move was also a way to comply with the ban and at the same time establish a friendly personal relationship with Marshal Zhukov.

Others who were present at the surrender ceremony likewise took advantage of Marshal Zhukov’s light and shared in the American beverage.

“Look how happy the Soviets are drinking.” Ivor said, likewise holding a bottle of Coke, “It doesn’t seem to be untouchable.”

It wasn’t the people’s Coke! Alan Wilson could barely hold back a laugh; the People’s Coke was a Soviet-era stunt. PepsiCo couldn’t hold their heads up because they were being suppressed by Coca-Cola, so they thought of opening up a market where no Coca-Cola existed.

Was there such a market? Of course there is, it’s the Soviet Union and the Eastern European countries that were influenced by the Soviet Union, so every year at the time of the October Revolution, Pepsi promoted in the Soviet Union, denouncing Coca-Cola as a spokesman for imperialism, and Pepsi as the Coke that belongs to the proletariat, the Coke that belongs to the people.

“Let’s see we can hold a military parade in Berlin, and when Berlin is initially cleared, the four of us will hold a military parade in Berlin to show our unity.” Marshal Zhukov suggested at the generals, including Eisenhower, “I wonder how you all feel about that.”

“Hmm! I agree with that.” Eisenhower heard Zhukov’s words and thought a lot at once but didn’t reject it.

The other British and French generals present, including Montgomery and General Delancey, also did not object, in fact, they were not without thought, if it was a joint parade of the four countries of the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain and France in Berlin, the protagonist of course, is the Soviet Union’s Red Army, which is heavily armed in the vicinity of Berlin, and the armies of the United States, Britain and France are doomed to be a supporting role.

But this is another opportunity to directly observe the Soviet Red Army, on the surface we can also parade together to show unity. For a number of reasons, Field Marshal Zhukov’s proposal was unanimously approved, as it allowed him to assess the combat effectiveness of his hypothetical enemy.

In the streets of Berlin, American soldiers shook hands with soldiers of the Soviet Red Army to express friendship, British soldiers crossed the street under the command of Soviet women soldiers, soldiers of various countries stood together to take pictures, at least at this time, most people’s mind is that the war is finally over, in the middle of this unforgettable war, they survived, and to make a final remembrance will be able to go home to their loved ones at home, to forget about the bloody cruelty of the battlefield.

“It’s a Soviet demonstration against us!” Of course, not everyone thought so. In Munich, in the center of Bavaria, a city known worldwide for its Munich intrigue, and only a few days after becoming Bavarian administrator, Patton, a four-star general and commander of the U.S. Third Army, was ranting and raving, with vulgarities that could not be tolerated.

“We should attack the Soviet Union right now so that the world will be in the hands of the United States and America’s friends, a feat never before seen in history, I don’t know what Eisenhower is hesitating to do right now, and to give the Soviets coke, it’s a joke.”

“Commander, the war is over and peace is hard won.” General Patton’s chief of staff was full of helplessness, the generals who hated the Soviet Union were not the United States, on the contrary most of the generals were more or less hostile to the Soviet Union. Even five-star general Eisenhower was not as friendly to the Soviet Union as he appeared to be, but senior generals like General Patton, who did not hide it at all, were indeed very rare.

To the position of five-star generals, how to learn to hide their true intentions, right? But there were exceptions to everything, and General Patton happened to be a senior general who was not willing to do so.

“In my eyes, this is only a halfway war, and the real enemy has yet to be eliminated.” Patton sighed indignantly, “Well, maybe I’m being pessimistic, hasn’t Japan surrendered yet? I could go to the Far East.”

This lingering disenchantment with the war was simply ignored by the Chief of Staff, who believed that Patton would eventually figure it out.

The joint military parade of the four nations, scheduled for next month, was under lights as Allen Wilson was writing a report for London in which he analyzed the current situation in Europe and asserted that hostility between the United States and the Soviet Union would not be so pronounced until Japan surrendered.

He knew that this report would surely pass through MI6, and that it was a probable event that it would be seen by Philby. To the forces opposing Tito in Yugoslavia, he brushed it off with ambiguous language, emphatically stating that the joint parade would be the home of the Soviet Red Army, but that there was such an opportunity to assess the combat power of the Soviet Red Army at close quarters that it could not be missed.

Putting down his pen, Allen Wilson put the report away, and now he was trying to think of a suitable reason to travel to Munich. It would be best not to go of his own accord, but to wait until local matters had to be taken care of, and to go over in a million different ways.

It seemed like a difficult thing to do, but it wasn’t really that difficult, the refugees from the Yugoslavian Fatherland Army were already pouring over the border, and while waiting for the next report to come in, he could go along for the ride and be sent there in a million different ways.