Chapter 1139 President Wallace

On October 14, 1944, in the morning, outside the U.S. Capitol.

With a heavy heart, Henry Agard Wallace placed his left hand on a Bible, then raised his right hand and said in a tone as if he was reading a eulogy: "I solemnly swear that I will faithfully perform the duties of the President of the United States and do my best to abide by, maintain and defend the Constitution of the United States..."

This idealist who was considered too radical and extreme by the backbones of the Democratic New Deal has finally become the President of the United States! Although his term of office is destined to be only a few months. But these few months are more important than the 4-year or 8-year term of office of many American presidents.

Because the United States is now fighting a world war, and the war situation is unfavorable and facing failure - at least in the eyes of Wallace's predecessor, President Roosevelt, who was recognized as one of the greatest leaders of the United States until 1943, the United States is facing failure and disaster!

When Wallace took the oath, the square in front of the Capitol and around Wallace were crowded with people and bigwigs who came to watch the ceremony. Unlike previous presidential inaugurations, when the faces of the spectators were always full of smiles, now these Americans who came to witness history all looked solemn and frowned.

When Wallace finished his oath and officially became the President of the United States of America, the thunderous applause did not sound as expected. Everyone stretched their necks, waiting for President Wallace's inaugural speech, hoping to hear some useful content from it.

The scene was a bit awkward. Wallace took a breath and began to deliver his inaugural speech without a script (improvised speeches are the basic skills of American politicians, and those who can stand out can do this). He said: "For all of you who are here today, this moment is solemn and exciting; however, in the history of our country, this scene has long been commonplace. According to the provisions of the US Constitution, for more than a century, the orderly transfer of power according to the will of the people has become a common practice. But in the world, scenes like today have become extremely rare. One democratic country after another is falling into the hands of Nazism and fascism. 's iron hoof. If we still cherish the freedom and democracy we have now, then we must be prepared to fight and sacrifice. This is the price of freedom and democracy!

As President Jefferson, the drafter of our Declaration of Independence, said: The tree of freedom must often be irrigated with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is the natural fertilizer of the tree of freedom! Now is the time for us to practice this truth! "

After listening to President Wallace's inaugural speech, most of the people in the square opened their tightly knit brows-this is not a "surrender president", but a president who will lead the United States to fight!

The people around Wallace had different expressions. Several Democrats, including presidential candidate Truman and Democratic leader Barkley, all showed some joy.

But Republicans and generals in military uniforms all looked worried. Because Wallace's speech showed that he turned his father President Roosevelt's "peace route" to continue fighting Germany.

For the Republican Party, this means that the blame left by President Roosevelt can only be borne by Republican Dewey himself - if he can be elected president!

For the generals, President Wallace is likely to give them a lot of problems during his short term.

Warm applause rang out at this time. No matter what opinions everyone had about Wallace's speech, they could only applaud to express their blessings to President Wallace and the United States.

...

"Mr. President, do you need us to introduce the current war situation in detail?"

In the Oval Office of the White House, Wallace, who was already the president, sat in the chair that Roosevelt had sat in. The president's chief of staff, Admiral William Leahy, the Army Chief of Staff Marshall, and the Chief of Naval Operations, Ernest King, were sitting opposite him.

This was not the first time that the three highest-ranking generals of the US military reported the war situation to Wallace. Roosevelt had been in a coma and recuperated for a few days before, and Wallace had also served as acting president for a time.

"William," Wallace took a breath and began to play the role of the President of the United States. He said to Admiral Leahy, "Tell me something I don't know."

"Okay." Admiral William Leahy nodded and handed a document that had been prepared long ago to Wallace. "Mr. President, this is a summary report on the development of secret weapons in the United States, including important projects of the Army and Navy."

"Is there any progress in the atomic bomb project?" Wallace asked.

"Yes," said William Leahy, "on the third page. Our atomic bomb project is code-named the Manhattan Project. After two years of hard work, we have solved the bottleneck of uranium ore supply and conducted several reactor experiments, which were successful."

Because Hersman's intelligence agency controlled the uranium mines in the Belgian Congo in advance, they bought all of them and shipped them back to Europe. So the biggest difficulty encountered by the Manhattan Project in the United States was that there was not enough uranium mines for experiments. This problem was not solved until a uranium mine in Canada (discovered before the war) was expanded and put into production.

With a sufficient supply of metallic uranium, Manhattan Project experts were finally able to conduct reactor experiments. The experimental reactor was not complicated. In theory, it was just a matter of piling up enough metallic uranium together, and then using graphite or heavy water to slow down neutrons to prevent the chain reaction from getting out of control.

However, the experimental reactor can only prove that the chain reaction exists and is controllable, and provide relevant data on the critical value. It cannot solve the problem of isotope extraction or plutonium-239 production.

The extraction of isotopes is currently a serious problem for the Manhattan Project. Although American scientists have come up with two methods, electromagnetic separation and gas separation, the equipment for the more efficient gas separation method has not yet been designed. As for the plutonium-239 production reactor, the technicians of the Manhattan Project have not yet overcome the difficulties. Due to the lack of many smart brains from Europe, the Manhattan Project always has to spend several times more time and investment than in history when overcoming difficulties. Therefore, the progress has been greatly slowed down.

"How long will it take to succeed?" President Wallace found that there was no timetable given in the report.

"I don't know," William Leahy shook his head, "No one knows."

"So how can we counter the German atomic bomb?"

"Currently, we are considering biological weapons," William Leahy said, "We have stored a large number of anthrax weapons and plague weapons, and we can use B-29 for one-way air strikes."

"One-way air strike?"

Army Chief of Staff Marshall took over the question, "Mr. President, a one-way air strike means that after the B-29 completes the task of dropping biological weapons, it will not fly back to the American continent, but will make an emergency landing in the Atlantic Ocean, and the pilot will be taken back to the United States by a submarine."

This is using the B-29 as a disposable weapon! Because there is no need to consider the return fuel, the B-29 can penetrate deep into the heart of France and even the Rhine region of Germany. And it can also carry more than one ton of biological bombs! If all of the more than 500 B-29s equipped by the US Army Air Force are used for one-time bacterial bomb delivery, it will definitely cause huge casualties in Europe.

Wallace had heard a lot about bacterial weapons and knew that the United States had many advantages over Germany in this regard - the United States' advantage mainly came from plague weapons. Since the Japanese had released the plague they had been studying for many years in the United States, the United States also obtained samples and multiplied the same bacteria in large quantities!

In addition, in the process of looking for a specific drug to treat the plague, American scientists Waxman, Woodruff and Albert Satz also discovered that the streptomycin they were testing was a specific drug for all types of plague! After having a specific drug, the United States' mastery of plague weapons has actually surpassed Japan.

He nodded and asked again: "So what can we do to counter German missiles?"

The Chief of Naval Operations said: "We are developing an anti-ship radar-guided glide bomb... Now it has entered the final trial stage."

Ernest King was talking about the ASM-N-2 Bat anti-ship radar-guided glide bomb. Although this weapon is not satisfactory, before the United States can overcome the problem of wireless communication being susceptible to interference, the "over-advanced" design of using active radar guidance is the only option.

And there is another advantage to doing so, that is, the American bombers carrying the "Bat" do not have to be dispatched during the day. They can completely rely on radar guidance to drop the "Bat" at night, and then rely on the "Bat"'s own radar to search for targets and attack - that is, forget it after it happens!

Although the accuracy of this "fire and forget" gliding guided bomb is worrying, it is also particularly susceptible to interference and its power is insufficient. However, the advantage of being able to attack at night still makes it quite valued by the US Navy.

"That's great!" President Wallace nodded, "This weapon should be put into actual combat as soon as possible!"

He looked at the three American soldiers in front of him who seemed to be a little sad, and said: "Generals, now we have weapons that can counter German atomic weapons and missiles, which means we have enough power to fight the Nazis. I think the war can be prolonged because we have enough resources and productivity to fight the enemy until the enemy is exhausted! This is my strategy. As long as I am the President of the United States, I will not have any peace talks with the Germans. We must fight hard until we win!"

Is this going to stop the peace talks?

The three admirals looked at each other, all with helpless faces. Now that Roosevelt is dead, peace seems a long way off, but does the United States really have the ability to continue fighting?