The Rise of the Third Reich

Roosevelt did not answer William Leahy's question directly, but turned his attention to Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau.

"Admiral," Morgenthau took the question, "I think the Germans are likely to reject our peace offer."

William Leahy frowned and thought to himself: Why is it your turn as the Minister of Finance to answer military questions? Whether the Germans will continue to fight or not, only I, the presidential chief of staff, have the right to say!

Seeing Wilhelm Leahy's confused expression, Morgenthau just smiled and said, "Why do you think the Germans want to fight this war? And why do they want to form the European Community?"

"..."

William Leahy looked at the Jewish finance minister who looked like a banker, as if waiting for the other party to answer his own question.

Morgenthau smiled and said: "In fact, the culprit who started this war, Marshal Hessmann, Chief of the General Staff of the German Wehrmacht, made this issue very clear before the war. Germany is to maintain Europe's financial and economic hegemony, and launched wars and promoted the formation of the European Community.

In the view of Marshal Hirschmann, who is also an economist, the last world war caused the financial and monetary systems of European countries to collapse, and the world's financial hegemony shifted from Europe to the United States. The two financial crises that Germany encountered in the 1920s were ultimately caused by the loss of financial sovereignty. If Europe wants to become great again, it must regain its financial hegemony from the United States. It is impossible for a single European country to achieve this goal. The only way is to unite European powers such as Germany, Britain, and France to form a customs and monetary union.

And this was Hessmann’s main purpose in supporting Hitler’s regime and launching a world war! "

"Isn't his goal almost achieved now?" Of course William Leahy has read Hirschman's works - every one of them! He was therefore fully aware of Hirschman's claims.

"No," Morgenthau shook his head, "Not yet!"

"No?" William Leahy looked at Morgenthau in confusion.

"Of course not," Morgenthau said. "Although the Germans were victorious on the battlefield, their Euromark was not victorious, and the European Community was not truly united. In the countries conquered by Germany, people were just forced to Having accepted the Euromark, one does not really have confidence in this paper currency. Even the central banks of Rome and Japan, allies of the Germans, do not reserve Euromarks. As far as I know, the French and British do. Many big banks now buy gold and silver whenever they have the opportunity, which shows that they have little confidence in the German-controlled European mark.”

"Why is this happening?" William Leahy didn't know much about economics, so in his opinion it was strange that people didn't believe in the European mark. The German devils are so capable of fighting, how come their money is not strong?

"The reason is very simple," Morgenthau said with a faint smile. "Although Germany's military power is very powerful, the economy of Germany and the European Community cannot be compared with that of the United States. Germany and France are slightly better, and the United Kingdom has not yet recovered from collapse. , while Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and Russia are full of ruins left by the war.”

Morgenthau paused and then said: "On paper, the European Community's economic strength seems to be very strong, as if it is no less than that of the United States. But the European Community is a unified market that has just been forcibly kneaded together, and it is different from ours." The United States, a naturally developed large market, is different.

There are still many duplications of construction and completely incompatible standards. Without integration in 10-20 years, there will simply be no economically unified European Community. Moreover, due to poor integration, lack of many important raw materials, and the destruction of long-term wars, Europe's production capacity on paper has not been fully utilized. Although there is no shortage of military supplies, civilian supplies can only be strictly rationed.

In fact, for people or countries with large amounts of Euromarks, the Euromarks are not of much use if they do not want the arms produced in Germany. "

Morgenthau was indeed right. Countries in the European Community are now rationing supplies, and you have to use a ticket or card to buy anything. If you only have European marks in your pocket, you can only buy things on the black market or in public "high-consumption" places. Then the money in your hand becomes "gross".

Due to the great prosperity and depression that the United States experienced before World War II, there was a large amount of excess production capacity in all walks of life in the United States. The demand of the world war just made use of these excess production capacities, so the world war brought prosperity to the US economy, and all kinds of supplies were abundant.

The rationing system was only implemented for a period after 1942, and the content was limited to gasoline and rubber products. However, with the surrender of the British mainland and the commissioning of domestic synthetic rubber factories in the United States, the rationing system was abolished in the second half of 1943.

Therefore, countries and people who hold US dollars in their hands now do not have to worry about not being able to buy things.

"The second reason why the European mark is not strong is that there are no gold reserves." Morgenthau continued. "As we all know, after the end of the last world war, most of the world's gold went to the United States. The Federal Reserve Bank controls the world Most of the reserves are gold and silver, and this trend has not changed during this world war. The Federal Reserve now has more gold and silver than it did in 1939.

And in the treasury of the United European Bank, there are only bonds issued by European Community countries that no one wants! "

In this era, the "gold standard" and the "silver standard" are still deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. And "unsecured currency" is always linked to "devaluation" in people's minds. Therefore, the U.S. dollar backed by a large amount of gold and silver is definitely stronger than the European mark without any guarantee.

What's more, the current economy of the European Community really cannot be compared with that of the United States. Therefore, in the battle between the US dollar and the mark, the US dollar still has an overwhelming advantage.

Roosevelt laughed, and then looked at William Leahy with sharp eyes, "General, do you understand why I want to make peace with the Japanese?"

Wilhelm Leahy nodded and said: "Mr. President, you think it is unlikely that Germany will make peace under the current circumstances."

"Yes." Roosevelt nodded his head and said, "Once peace is restored on both sides of the Atlantic, the Germans will find that they cannot maintain the world empire they have worked so hard to build. Because the Italians are our friends, and the French They will also be our friends. Britain has lost most of its colonies and even India has fallen into chaos and has to turn to us for help. If the ruined Russian Empire wants to survive, it also needs to borrow money and buy supplies from the United States.

As for Japan... Well, the Germans will soon find that the entire Eastern market has closed its door to Europe. They would have to pay high prices for rubber, silk, tea, and certain raw materials that were only produced in the East. At the same time, the Euromark and European-produced consumer goods will be shut out!

Therefore, Germany will most likely adhere to the war line in order to attack our economy and prestige through war, and use military means to take away Venezuela's oil and Brazil's food. At the same time, we can also use the state of war to prevent our capital from penetrating into the United Kingdom, France and Russia, and buy time for Germany to further consolidate the European Community. "

"But do we really want to let Japan go easily?" William Leahy was still a little confused.

Roosevelt's face also darkened. He gritted his teeth and said, "No! Of course we cannot let them off lightly! In fact, our peace talks with Japan have pushed Japan to the brink of breaking up with Germany. Most Germans will not agree. To make peace, if Japan wants to make a separate peace, it will mean that the Japan-Germany alliance has completely broken down. At that time, we will have the initiative to make peace, and can implement strategies such as armistice, negotiation, and negotiation breakdown according to the needs of the Atlantic battlefield. Without signing the end-of-war peace treaty, we can end the negotiations and start the war again at any time!”

Negotiation does not mean peace, and a temporary truce does not mean that the war cannot be restarted! Historically, it was not uncommon for people to fight and talk while fighting. As long as Japan violates Germany's will and conducts "armistice peace talks" (temporary armistice) with the United States alone, the Japan-Germany alliance will be immediately suspended.

…

"Your Excellency, Imperial Marshal, the war in the Pacific has caused great damage and pressure to our country. The bloody battle in the Hawaiian Islands continued for a long time, and the navy and army aviation suffered heavy losses. The total number of aircraft lost has exceeded 4,000. This number does not include suicide bombers. The loss of aircraft. American submarines and mines also caused great losses to our country. As many as 160,000 tons of merchant ships were sunk in April. It is estimated that more than 180,000 tons of merchant ships will be lost. What a heavy loss. If this continues, the Japanese Empire will be defeated..."

The person who was talking to Hersmann on vacation in a luxurious villa in the fairy tale town of Berchtesgaden was Hiroshi Oshima, the Japanese ambassador to Germany, who had just returned from Tokyo, Japan.

Hessman looked at the sad-looking Japanese in front of him, and of course he understood what the other party meant - Japan must have felt that the peace offer offered by the Americans was good, and they would not accept the offer if they wanted to see a good deal.

In fact, after the United States truly showed some sincerity for peace, the countries in the Axis camp that wanted to give up as soon as they got along were not only Japan, which was beaten to the ground by the United States. Even Caesar Mussolini of the Roman Empire will come to Berchtesgaden today. He will probably lobby Hitler at the Eagle's Nest to agree to make peace, right?

It is a pity that Japan and Rome can make peace with the United States, but Germany and the European Community must insist on fighting.