Chapter 556 – No Army Sent
It must be said that India had seized a good opportunity, for who had time to pay attention to India when war broke out in the Far East?
Allen Wilson can only give his good friend Ali Khan heart, other than that can not do anything.
Returned to London, he is now more focused on the situation in Europe, to the current U.S. total military strength, want to go to war is far from enough, 1945 eleven million troops have long gone up in smoke.
Erased nearly ten million troops of the United States, with the current military strength can not carry out a major war, the expansion of the army is certainly imperative.
The U.S. Army, including its logistics personnel, is now probably more than one-third the strength of the entire British Army. At present the total strength of the British army is eight hundred thousand, and that of the American army is one million three hundred thousand.
The United States, like the United Kingdom, has a large proportion of naval and air forces because of the nature of the country. Excluding the navy and air force, the U.S. Army has only 600,000 to 700,000 men. The proportion in Britain is similar!
Such a distribution of forces, the most important thing is not what the Far East, but close at hand, mobilization of troops is very convenient to the Soviet Union, once the Soviet Union to increase the strength of the troops stationed in Germany, no matter whether the heart is willing or not, the United States and Europe must follow.
To confront the Soviet Union’s most powerful army with its own not-so-powerful army.
Europe was far more important than the rest of the world, both to the U.S. and to the Soviet Union, and Allen Wilson’s report indicated among other things that the Soviet Union would certainly increase its forces in Germany, and that this was an excuse for Britain to defend Europe and try not to send large numbers of ground troops to the Korean Peninsula.
The Cabinet would certainly not have wanted Allen Wilson’s report to become a reality if it had been an option, and London would have preferred the Korean Peninsula to be bombed into oblivion than to have even one more Soviet soldier on this side of Europe.
But there was no way around it, Allen Wilson simply informed the Foreign Secretary of the possibility, and it was up to Herbert Morrison, the middle-class Stalin, as he was known in the British community, to communicate with Moscow.
Anyway, Alan Wilson was very pessimistic; the Korean peninsula was a painless place for Britain.
Europe was different, he didn’t have that ability to make London turn a blind eye to a Soviet troop surge unless the Soviets didn’t, but that couldn’t be done either, so it was a dead end.
War breaks out in the Far East, and the Soviet Union increases its forces to deter Europe, leaving the European nations without the ability to help the United States. But the European countries had to defend themselves, and even NATO as an organization came along at a determined pace as soon as the confrontation in Europe intensified.
The efforts of several consecutive years ended up just making NATO come so late in the year. It still doesn’t have much of an impact on the overall picture; the impact only exists in some localized areas and localized events.
For example, probably next year and the year after, two Malta-class carriers will be ready for service. For example, two hundred Comet airliners have already been sold, whereas historically they have not even been ordered in the same year and have only just been test-flown.
The biggest change was in the UK’s finances, historically the UK was in debt to the US and was always taken to task by the US, currently the most favorable thing about London was that the short term debt had all been cleared, and as far as the Marshall Plan was concerned, ninety percent of it was a gratuitous gift.
Cranial inventory of the results of five years of work, Alan Wilson can only sigh, the future of the work or to work harder to do.
The United States entered the Korean War is a good opportunity, if the United Kingdom is not affected, you can hide on the side of the breath to rest and rest.
The most important thing is that if Britain has no financial problems, it will have the courage to talk to the Americans face to face. This is the same as having food in the house and not panicking in the heart.
“Things are universally connected!” Alan Wilson thought of Lenin’s words, if the European side then play music then dance, Britain does not enter the war is not past. But if the Soviet Union increased its troops in Europe, it would be difficult for Britain.
These two results is must choose one, the Soviet Union does not increase troops in Europe confrontation, Britain has no reason to stall the United States. But the Soviet Union’s reinforcement of troops in Europe must make it very difficult for Britain.
Although the current government accepts the fact that the Soviet Union was hit hard by the World War, but this thing can not be undefended.
In the end, Allen Wilson can only sigh, in the final analysis, or the problem of national strength, national strength is strong, the emergence of hand-to-hand can also be able to cope with things, the national strength is not strong enough, even if it is not related to your country, the impact caused by the country than the countries involved in the big.
Things have come to this point, Allen Wilson can only use the Korean situation bitter-sweet, this war broke out, I believe that the Federal Republic of Germany will not be delayed, NATO will also appear soon.
“I just can’t believe it, nuclear bombs in hand, the economy is so much better than the same period in history, the three occupied territories have not yet been merged, and even a condition not to send out the land forces can not be negotiated?” Finally completed the European part of the report Allen Wilson broken, he looked at the end of who is negotiating on behalf of the United Kingdom, so many favorable conditions in hand, if you can not negotiate more favorable conditions than history, he went to find Philby, investigate the person responsible for the negotiations is reliable.
Britain’s request for U.S. assistance began to be discussed in the Cabinet, and the first official action was the opening of the Queen Elizabeth and Warrior battleships, two battleships will be rushed to the Far East to strengthen the Royal Navy’s military power in Asia.
Alan Wilson was totally in favor of this, and told the Honorable Secretary of State for the Sea, Mountbatten, that even if we don’t talk about the Korean War, now that India is attacking Hyderabad, it would be good to go over there and brush up on the presence.
“Alan, you don’t still think you’re the assistant commissioner of British India, do you.” General Mountbatten sighed, this son-in-law it, he basically has no dissatisfaction, is will India overzealous a little.
This Alan Wilson did not deny, he had ten thousand reasons to express concern for the future super-diseased power.
“Portuguese Goa to New Delhi’s warning was ignored, this trend is very worrying, in Southeast Asia five countries in the joint defense there is also the role of Portugal, if the future of New Delhi took care of Ali Khan, to Portuguese Goa threat, we do ah, in Southeast Asia we still need Portugal’s support it.”
Allen Wilson stifled a sigh of concern for the current situation to express the feelings of worry about the country.
“The current situation is unstable, I believe the Portuguese can also understand.” General Mountbatten mused, “Explain it to Portugal with the war in the Far East and act as if we are busy.”
“That’s what the Foreign Office does!” Alan Wilson nodded, indicating that all was not as General Mountbatten expected.
He had just sent a telegram at the Foreign Office before coming to see the two battleships unsealed, talking about the things that were of most concern to the United States, such as the establishment of NATO, the merger of the three occupied territories, and then turned the tables and told the one in Washington, the British Ambassador to the United States, Sir Oliver Franks, that in principle all of the above issues were open to negotiation, and that at the present time of the war, with the Soviet bloc raging, the United Kingdom could give up some of its previous conditions, but on the matter of sending troops, it is best not to go out of the Army.
“Sir Oliver Franks, colleagues in Whitehall agree that you are an extremely reliable gentleman.”
Sir Oliver Franks of the British Embassy in Washington took this telegram and shook his head with a bitter smile, it was surprising that the question of reliability was involved, and it seemed that the Cabinet had all made up its mind that ground troops must be avoided.
This is after the Cabinet as well as the Whitehall head of the study, made a prudent decision. After all, the U.S. military are now being beaten to dust, the Americans always say they are invincible, but the European countries see are constantly retreating.
In the middle of the telegram even said that the European countries generally believe that this is the Soviet Union’s sound east to attack the west, in the Far East to start a conflict to divert attention, is to let the European countries to relax their vigilance.
Things have come to this point, Sir Oliver Franks can only reluctantly, Alan Wilson himself also added some personal contacts in the telegram, said Sir Oliver Franks can go to Senator McCarthy, there may be unexpected gains.
Alan Wilson was an extremely nostalgic man, and McCarthy of course kept in touch.
As a friend at a time when the other was down and out, the current situation regarding the current Korean War, and whether or not American soldiers were worth relying on to fight, appeared in the midst of recent letters to and from him.
He also expressed in the midst of his personal correspondence that he hoped McCarthy would not reveal Europe’s skepticism of America’s knuckle-dragging. This is not conducive to a cohesive relationship between Europe and the nation.
Be a friend Allen Wilson is absolutely enough meaning, he knows that McCarthy history is because and the military has a conflict failed miserably, so to help his friend to fill this loophole.
Because with Allen Wilson’s understanding of McCarthy, McCarthy will definitely take the opportunity to attack the Truman administration’s weakness. This actually played right into the military’s hands.
The fact that Sir Oliver Franks conferred with the U.S. government and mentioned the misgivings of the European countries about the retreat of the U.S. Army should have been kept very secret, but McCarthy knew about it anyway.
At the hearing, McCarthy, with the support and solidarity of the Republican Party, launched into a scathing attack on the situation in Asia, which was rotten to the core, arguing that a domino effect was already occurring, all because of Truman’s weakness in the first place.
“The blame for an America under Democratic leadership that made the Soviet Union contemptuous and its allies skeptical, and now the frustration of the soldiers who keep falling back, and the Americans who have already lost their lives, should fall on the Democrats.”
McCarthy hissed and shouted at his supporters, “The soldiers who don’t know where to retreat to now, their uncertainty and helplessness, and their panicked faces are not without cause. Even our European allies, at this point, are questioning America’s leadership, and we should give the enemies who challenge America a head start, right now, right now.”
Across the Atlantic in London, aerial photographs of the Soviet Union’s reinforcement of Soviet-occupied territories were laid out in front of Cabinet ministers.
“Our first priority is to preserve the prosperity and stability of Europe.” Prime Minister Adderley was silent for a long time, a kind of final conclusion for this matter, the ground forces or stay in Europe, send the navy and air force to support the United States.