Technology invades the modern world

Chapter 442 Drones of 1970
Kissinger flatly refused.

They wouldn't even bother to offer a perfunctory suggestion like asking the professor for his opinion.

He was afraid that if he spoke up, something might go wrong and he would lose Nixon's trust when he returned to Washington.

Power does not come entirely from position; power often comes from your ability.

That's the extent of Lin Ran's power. Whoever is president, he'll have to be NASA's director.

Later in his career, Johnson developed a strong aversion to Lin Ran. In America, when the topic of space exploration and the moon landing came up, people only knew about Lin Ran and not the president.

Doesn't he want to replace him? Doesn't he want to bring in someone else from NASA and take credit for winning the space race?
Of course I want to, but the problem is I can't.

Kissinger's power stemmed entirely from Nixon's appreciation.

Things were slightly better after he became Secretary of State in 1973, but now he is merely an advisor, and frankly, dismissing him only requires an executive order from the president.

In the original timeline, Kissinger secretly traveled to Yanjing with Pakistan acting as an intermediary, arranging for him to fly secretly from Islamabad to Yanjing.

Meanwhile, backup channels also included Romanian and French diplomat Jean Santene.

During his public visit to Pakistan, he pretended to have a stomachache and needed to rest for a few days. In reality, he secretly went to the airport at 3:30 a.m. on July 9 in a Volkswagen Beetle driven by the son of a Pakistani diplomat.

Wearing a black bowler hat and sunglasses as simple disguise, he boarded a Pakistan International Airlines Boeing 707 and flew over the Himalayas, arriving at Yanjing Nanyuan Airport in just 4.5 hours.

The entire process was only communicated to a very small number of people, including Pakistani Ambassador Joseph Farland, but was strictly instructed not to inform Rogers, who was then Secretary of State.

To avoid provoking a backlash from conservatives in America.

In short, Kissinger was very careful throughout the entire process.

Meanwhile, Lin Ran gained new inspiration from reviewing historical materials regarding his secret visit to China.

The Chinese representative seemed somewhat disappointed, his disappointment evident in his expression. Even though the two did not speak the same language, Kissinger could clearly sense it.

Kissinger was able to empathize with the Chinese representative's feelings at that moment.

The same reason is that for over a thousand years, Jews worldwide have been unable to work for Jewish states.

“We understand your concerns and the risks Mr. Lin faces in returning to China. So, Paris, surely Paris is acceptable?” The Chinese negotiator was deeply displeased, because the professor, despite being of Chinese descent, was not even allowed to return to China.

It's one thing to serve America, but to be so guarded against is another.

This is the tragedy of a nation's poverty and weakness in modern times.

"This year's International Congress of Mathematicians is being held in Paris. Four years ago it was in Moscow, so the professor did not attend. This year it is in Paris, France, which is an important ally of your country in Europe and a country in the liberal camp."

We hope the professor can attend this International Congress of Mathematicians. China has established diplomatic relations with France, and we hope to hold negotiations with the professor, just as North Vietnam and the professor negotiated in Geneva in the past.

First, make a request that is difficult for the other party to accept, and then make a request that is relatively easy to accept.

Four years earlier, at the Congress of Mathematicians held in Moscow in 1966, Chen Jingrun was awarded the Fields Medal for his weak form of Goldbach's Conjecture. Initially, the Moscow side hoped to invite Lin Ran to the event to present the Fields Medal to his junior.

This is also a legacy of Chinese mathematicians, as Chinese mathematicians won the Fields Medal in both 1962 and 1966.

For Moscow, hosting such an international mathematics conference without Lin Ran's attendance is a regrettable matter.

However, the White House refused without hesitation, and the reason was quite valid: it was a crucial period for the Apollo moon landing, and the professor was too busy to attend.

As everyone knows, the real reason is that the foundation of trust between Moscow and Washington is so fragile that they are hesitant to send the professor to Moscow.

The people of Yanjing were well aware of this, and they chose France.

This year’s Congress of Mathematicians is in Nice, France. You may be worried about Moscow, but you can’t be worried about Nice, right?

Western Europe is definitely within America's sphere of influence.

In this region, Moscow's influence remains underground; no matter how powerful its underground forces are, they cannot reach the surface.

Kissinger thought to himself that he was really worried about France; among all the European countries, only France wouldn't obediently listen to orders.

Just as Kissinger was about to refuse, the Chinese representative sitting opposite him said with a serious expression and in a more emphasizing tone, "This is our last and only request. We hope to talk to the professor, as this will be very helpful in improving relations between our two countries."

Kissinger changed his mind, saying instead, "Okay, I will report to the President."

He dared not and could not agree to it.

Returning to the front lines of the Vietnam War, drones only began to shine in the public eye during the 2022 war between Russia and Vietnam.

In fact, drones were already being used on a large scale during the Vietnam War.

However, compared to the saturation attacks and intelligence sharing of modern warfare using drones, the drones of that time lacked GPS, real-time data links, and intelligence sharing.

In the original timeline, America deployed more than 3000 drones. According to America's data, each drone would be shot down or damaged after completing four missions.

However, a very small number of drones can perform 68 missions.

During the Vietnam War, electronic warfare began to emerge, and so did drones.

Not only are there a large number of sorties, but there are also constantly upgraded drones.

America named it the Lightning Bug.

The model designations have evolved from the earliest Ryan 147G to include G, J, E, F, N, NP, NRE, NQ, NA, NC, and so on. These are all drone model names, and the prefix is ​​always Ryan 147.

(Early drones)

(Rui'an 147H used for high-altitude reconnaissance in 1967)

But now that America has GPS satellites, its drones have also been upgraded.

With GPS providing positioning, the efficiency of drones has been significantly improved.

Simply put, in the past, drones relied on fixed paths. Once you fixed the path, altitude, and speed, and flew it several times, North Vietnam could calculate your flight trajectory and shoot it down.

So on average, it gets shot down in 4 missions: the first three are for data collection, and the last one is a fatal blow.

With GPS, even just real-time position correction can make its flight path more complex, enabling a certain degree of autonomous navigation, but the damage rate will increase significantly.

Another more important point is accuracy, the accuracy of intelligence gathering.

Originally, when I took photos with my drone carrying a camera, there was no location data. In the jungles of Annam, even if you captured valuable information, you wouldn't know exactly where it was.

Whether you photograph artillery or guerrilla camps, you can only get a vague location and approximate distance.

It's extremely inaccurate; even after analysis, the results are still inaccurate.

With GPS, things are different because it can add precise geographic coordinates to each image, which means real-time data fusion.

My drone takes a picture, and the missile is there the next minute. In fact, the drone itself can act as a target designator, providing GPS coordinates for precise target location.

So in 1969, America's GPS system went online, and in 1970 GPS was perfected, with all 34 satellites shining brightly in the sky.

A new generation of GPS-based drones has been deployed to the front lines of the Vietnam War.

However, it was not used on the front lines of the Vietnam War, but rather in Cambodia.

After receiving Nixon's approval, America and South Vietnam launched a surprise invasion of Cambodia in 1970.

Because North Vietnam established numerous military outposts in eastern Cambodia, including weapons, ammunition, and supplies.

America dared not cross the line drawn by the Chinese, so they chose to attack the Khmer to break the deadlock.

In the original timeline, this indirectly led to Bo Bo's rise to power.

There is no difference between Cambodia and Annam; they have similar climates and geographical conditions.

The air here is filled with the damp smell of earth, a smell that American soldiers used to hate the most. The smell of the sea was a stark contrast to the seawater where the sergeants rested on the Saigon beach.

So much so that the smell of soil would remind the soldiers of death, of tree-men that might suddenly appear, and of bullets that might appear at any moment.

Two months after the Lonno incident, America's invasion was in full swing.

Unlike the original timeline, which simply involved the advance of ground troops.

This time, a new generation of drones, codenamed Sky Eagle, is being used in actual combat here.

Why choose to fight in Cambodia instead of on the front lines of the Vietnam War?
Washington is concerned that if China takes the wreckage of these drones, it will quickly develop countermeasures, thus reducing their effectiveness.

They hoped that after obtaining firsthand combat data from the Khmer Rouge and adjusting large-scale production, they could deploy the supplies all at once on the front lines of the Vietnam War to gain some strategic advantage.

China's current presence in Cambodia is very weak, and Washington believes that even if a Cambodian drone crashes, their ground forces can recover it.

America's team of military experts and engineers departed from the air force base in Saigon aboard a C-130 transport plane, passing through the clouds over the Annamese border.

The team leader was Dr. Alan Harris from Teradyne Technologies Ltd., a physicist in his early fifties and one of the core engineers in the GPS development team.

Ryan Aeronautics, the manufacturer of the aforementioned Ryan drones, was acquired by Teradyne two years ago.

“Guys,” he shouted to his team in the cabin, “we’re not fighting a war, we’re reshaping war. The professor has helped us find the eye of God!”

As an engineer who worked alongside Lin Ran, Alan Harris could be described as a fan of Lin Ran.

He witnessed firsthand how Lin Ran turned a rudimentary idea into reality when everyone else only had a vague idea.

Researchers within NASA working on GPS projects agree that Lin Ran accelerated the process by at least ten years.

Beside him was Air Force Colonel James Reynolds, a combat-experienced engineer from the National Reconnaissance Office, who was responsible for turning laboratory ideas into weapons for the battlefield.

The team also included several young scientists, each carrying a laptop and a signal tester, who repeatedly checked the drone's data link during flight.

These Skyhawks are an upgraded version of the Ryan 147, incorporating a GPS receiver, enabling them to navigate autonomously, adjust their routes in real time, and even locate supply depots in North Vietnam amidst jungle fog.

The transport plane landed at a temporary outpost on the Khmer border, where Commander General William Abners had been waiting for some time amidst the rising dust.

The test began at dawn on the second day.

Inside the command tent on the edge of the jungle, screens flashed real-time feedback from satellite signals.

Abners stood in the center of the tent, arms crossed.

Harris and his team were beside him.

The first Skyhawk taxied off the runway and took off silently. Without radio control, only GPS coordinates guided it to the North Vietnamese supply point indicated by intelligence, located in the Parrot Beak area, 20 kilometers east of Cambodia.

Scientists stared at the monitors: the drones traversed the clouds, avoiding known air defense positions. Only the coordinates could be synchronized in real time; the images with specific geographical locations were delayed, but still fast enough.

On the screen, North Vietnamese trucks and ammunition piles are clearly visible, and the watermark-like mark in the lower right corner is the geographical coordinates of the camp.

For the standards of the time, the image was indeed quite clear.

"Target locked," Reynolds whispered the order. The high-altitude bomber, which took off after the drone, dropped precision-guided bombs at the designated location. GPS data, combined with the missile itself, corrected for wind drift and terrain errors.

One by one, North Vietnamese warehouses in Cambodia were reduced to ashes, and supply lines were cut off.

South Vietnam then began its ground advance.

McNamara was thrilled when he received the report from the front lines: the data was correct! The statistics were correct! And the mathematics was correct!
The reason we were inefficient before was because our technology wasn't up to par, but that doesn't mean the data-driven approach to warfare is wrong.

To elaborate further, in the original timeline, McNamara was quite insane, obsessively focused on using data to command warfare.

How insane was it? So insane that under his leadership, the Pentagon spent approximately $10 billion annually from 1968 to 1973 on a new computer-driven program aimed at ending the Vietnam War.

It has many names, including Practice Nine, Muscle Shoals, Illinois City, and Dye Marker.

It is best known for "Operation White Igloo".

The gist is that tens of thousands of seismic, acoustic, and magnetic sensors were deployed along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. These sensors, analyzed by computers, detected enemy movements in real time and guided air strikes to completely cut off North Vietnam's supply lines.

(An American soldier deploying a gravity sensor during the Battle of Khe Sanh in 1967; it looks like a missile.)

This is why the Department of Defense, under McNamara's leadership, so readily awarded large contracts to Lin Ran, and to NASA's GPS and Star Wars programs.

McNamara was willing to approve their plans even though they were going to waste more money and be less effective.

Now that there are much more practical plans led by professors, McNamara makes decisions without hesitation.

"President Nixon, our new technology has been very successful in testing at the front! It has effectively struck North Vietnam's supply lines."

Under the guidance of the new drones, South Vietnamese soldiers displayed unprecedented morale.

This ensures that even if we completely withdraw from Annam, the South Vietnamese army, by only providing supplies, can still independently counter enemy infiltration!

McNamara spoke confidently and smugly on the phone.

In a sense, throwing a punch forward is for peace.

At this time, it was hard for outsiders to imagine that America's tragic end in Cambodia was for the sake of a complete withdrawal of troops.

As Nixon was thrilled to hear this, Lin Ran's words suddenly came to mind: "Mr. President, please, please do not have any, not even the slightest, hope for South Vietnam."

This extinguished the flame that had been burning in Nixon's heart.

“Mike, but the professor said not to have any hope for South Vietnam.”

(End of this chapter)