Chapter 86 The Demands of the United States

It was hard to imagine such a scene in the middle of the tri-national conference hall while the leaders of the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union were posing for cameras, but basic mathematical logic and the history of the three countries had proved the point that triangles had stability.

It’s hard to make breakthroughs when each is talking to itself.

“Our diplomats have had frank exchanges with the United States and the Soviet Union, and each country has come up with constructive ideas.” Alan Wilson turned his words around, keeping his hands clasped over his chest clutching his paper bag, and said to Foreign Minister Robert Aydin, “Our first proposal that was opposed by both the United States and the Soviet Union was the proposal to blackmail the Soviets by occupying the area of the Soviet-occupied zone.”

“It’s not surprising that the Soviets actually objected.” Foreign Secretary Robert Aiden let out a bitter laugh, he was not very agreeable in his heart to that kind of blatant blackmail by Prime Minister Churchill, but Churchill was the Prime Minister, and both men were in the Conservative Party, so they could only listen to what they were told.

“Er! It was the Americans who objected, to be precise. The Americans expressed their respect for the division program of the Yalta Conference and opposed the unilateral demands of the British Empire that were one-sided, lacked reason, and undermined the spirit of unity.” Alan Wilson repeated as he recalled the wording of what the Americans had said, as it was.

“I knew it, the Americans can’t be trusted, they are simply humiliating us.” Robert Aiden couldn’t help but sputter at the sound of it; he had thought that the first suggestion of opposition would surely come from the Soviet Union, but he hadn’t expected it to come from the U.S. Just yesterday, President Truman, who had arrived in Berlin, had been talking to Prime Minister Churchill.

Alan Wilson was silent, the United States and the Soviet Union, two young people do not speak of martial virtues, stealing the British Empire, an old comrade who ruled the world for more than three hundred years. But out of the perspective that heretics are more hateful than infidels, it is not incomprehensible.

There was nothing new under the sun, and Alan Wilson was just listening to the foreign minister’s spiel in front of him; Robert Aiden must have been just talking, because the Suez Canal War had proved that one could fall into the same hole twice.

“Minister, the topic most mentioned by the Americans is still the Soviet war against Japan.” Alan Wilson seemed to think that taking up a piece of Soviet-occupied territory was nothing more than a minor issue, and shouldn’t be the focus of talk at the Potsdam Conference at all, reminding, “I’ve heard that the just-concluded Battle of Okinawa resulted in great American losses, and Okinawa isn’t technically Japan proper, and the grievous casualties have already caused the Americans to have palpitations of fear, and if an attack on the mainland of Japan were to take place, the casualties of the American forces could not be estimated, and from the today’s first round of meetings, it is the United States that is begging the Soviet Union. So insisting on making the first move against the Soviet Union is not a good idea.”

The Battle of Okinawa had actually just ended a few days earlier, a landing battle that lasted eighty-two days, with American forces on the attacking side and Japanese forces on the defending side. Although in the end the U.S. forces completely annihilated the 100,000 Japanese troops defending the island, they suffered nearly 80,000 casualties themselves.

This was an appalling figure for the United States. It is important to realize that the previous battles of Guadao and Iwo Jima, though equally fierce, had a total of less than 20,000 U.S. casualties.

The most shocking to the U.S. military was actually the Kikusui campaign launched by the Japanese around the time of the Battle of Okinawa, which mobilized ten death squads and became the forerunner of the religion of peace. With a suicide attack in the form of the same death, the U.S. Army before and after the Battle of Okinawa was greatly shocked!

The battle was won in the end, but the Americans developed a deep fear of the insanity of the Japanese soldiers who lost their minds and the practice of going down with the enemy.

Traveling all over the world, the U.S. army had never encountered such an opponent, a small Okinawa was already like this, in case they really landed on the Japanese mainland, how many soldiers would the U.S., which had not suffered any major damages in the midst of the world wars, have to lose?

“Alan, the American representative would like us to attend a reception together.” Just then, a British diplomat pushed in the door and opened his mouth to invite, “The Americans are supposed to do some communication with us.”

“Eh!” Alan Wilson looked to Robert Aiden and received the latter’s approval, turning around and replying, “We certainly can’t refuse our close ally.”

When the door of the room was closed again, Robert Aiden said, “It should be expected that we give our support in the war against Japan.”

“Unsurprisingly, that should be the case.” Alan Wilson nodded with a smile, “The Soviet Union has mentioned mainly the issue of European rights and interests today, and seems to have little interest in the Far East. In terms of the mentality that the more you emphasize something, the more you lack it, it seems that the Soviet Union is paying more attention to Europe right now.”

“Just go ahead and see what the Americans have in mind and come back and let me know.” Robert Aiden sighed, as Foreign Secretary was actually a very awkward position for Robert Aiden right now.

It wasn’t a problem with Britain itself, the problem came from the United States, the United States now actually didn’t have a Secretary of State. Originally there was, but recently, I don’t know what the reason is, there happens to be a vacancy for the Secretary of State.

Prime Minister Churchill and the United States of America’s Truman, the Soviet Union’s Stalin together to show unity, Robert Aiden can only and Molotov equivalent, to start a one-on-one competition, if the United States now has a secretary of state and came to Germany, he is now faced with the situation will certainly be much better.

After all, it was still the honeymoon period of the Allies, and Potsdam had no shortage of receptions to symbolize the celebrations, and the three countries’ positions, while not exactly aligned, still had to get by on a grand scale.

Just compared to the downstairs hall belonging to the politicians, the representatives of the countries in the small hall on the second floor, the atmosphere is a little inferior. This can not be helped, Germany has almost no intact palace can not be found, Zetzlienhof Palace, although not grand enough, but also can only make do, small also has the advantage of small, can be some information exchange.

Bang! Clinking a glass with the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State’s staff, Allen Wilson asked, “James, why didn’t your U.S. Secretary of State come to Germany? This would give us in Britain one less extra booster during negotiations, adding some otherwise unnecessary obstacles.”

“Allen, I actually don’t know why, on June 27th, the Secretary of State, Edward Stackdinius, was dismissed by the President.” James Jones shrugged helplessly, “Now there is only an acting Secretary of State, Joseph Crewe, in fact, I have heard that James Burns as the Secretary of State is very popular, but President Truman did not wait for the Secretary of State to be appointed, and came directly to Germany.”

Alan Wilson nodded knowingly, he didn’t know if this sort of thing had come up before, but it was too much of a coincidence that it had come up at this time, but it was just a matter of stumbling upon such an event ten days earlier than it had historically been convened.

“Of course, we still hope that Britain will support the position of the United States, especially on the issue of fighting against Japan, we can solve other issues later, the most important issue right now is to end the World War, Allen, what do you think?” James Jones spoke with great sincerity.

“Uh-huh!” Allen Wilson took a sip from his wine glass and didn’t know what he was thinking in his heart. The United States was more eager than imagined about the issue of fighting against Japan.