Technology invades the modern world

Chapter 79 From Pearl Harbor to Liberty 7: A Replay of the Crisis Script

At the Times headquarters in London, after receiving the fax from America, Frank, the young reporter in charge of receiving faxes, had a look of disbelief on his face.

He rushed out of the large office, ran into the office of the deputy editor in charge of international affairs and shouted:

"Sir Haley, something terrible has happened. America's manned space mission has failed again."

Sir John Haley, whose full name is John Haley, is a senior editor of The Times and also serves as the Director-General of the BBC. In 46, he was awarded the Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George, so he can be called a knight.

In the eyes of Frank, a young editor who just joined the industry this year, Sir Haley is the person he wants to learn from.

"Calm down. Isn't failure the norm for NASA? What's so strange about this?" Sir Haley said calmly.

Even though England and America are allies, as the former king of the world, the English have an indescribable mentality towards America, and they are happy to see America suffer a setback.

For an old-fashioned aristocrat like Sir Haley who studied at Victoria College, it was more satisfying to see America get humiliated than to see the Soviet Union get humiliated.

"Professor Randolph Lin made a prediction before the launch, NASA temporarily replaced the astronauts with gorillas, the original astronauts were seriously ill and the matter was deliberately concealed, Kennedy said in a speech that someone within NASA deliberately caused NASA's failure and announced that a manned moon landing would be completed in the 60s."

Frank rambled on and on about the contents of the transoceanic telegram and then handed the complete text to Sir Haley.

Sir Haley took it and nodded. "Okay, I understand. You can write a news article with this as the title."

After saying that, he left the transoceanic telegram in his room, picked up a Parker 51 from the table and began to write.

Frank was surprised: "Sir Haley, aren't you shocked at all?"

Sir Haley shook his head and said, “Why should you be shocked?

What I care about more than whether the news can shock me is whether the news can be made interesting enough.

This happens to be a particularly good topic. I will write a report myself and you write one. We will see whose one is more interesting.

If you write something more interesting, I will give you all the space and credit on the front page.

And after you see it, you'll understand why I think this isn't surprising."

Frank was called an editor when he first joined the company, but in reality he was just sending and receiving telegrams.

This time I have the opportunity to write a report myself, and it will be the front-page headline.

But he really had no confidence that he could write better than Sir Haley.

Randolph's startling predictions thwart NASA's NAZI German scientist conspiracy

After much deliberation, Frank decided this angle might offer a surprising advantage. After all, Randolph was a highly sought-after figure in mathematics, and after the White House leadership change this year, he had become the special assistant for space affairs. His overt and covert battles with the Nazi German scientists would surely attract readers' attention, Frank thought.

When Frank excitedly took the manuscript to Sir Haley, Sir Haley asked him a question that stunned him:
“Who said this was a conspiracy by Nazi German scientists?
The Paperclip Project was launched during the Democratic Party, and the German scientists were also recruited by them. Even if it was really the German scientists who did it, the White House would never admit it to the public.

Isn't it speculation when you write this?

Also, what was so amazing about Randolph's prediction? Your report doesn't even mention what he predicted. Is predicting a launch failure enough to be considered amazing?
Then next time I will predict that NASA will fail in a launch, with an accuracy rate of at least 80%. Will I also make a shocking prediction?
Can you think before you write?"

After saying this, Sir Haley handed the already dry manuscript to Frank, on which was written:

"From Pearl Harbor to Liberty 7: A Replay of the Crisis Script?"

Frank subconsciously complained in his heart, "Could this be related to Pearl Harbor?" But he had to admit that the title immediately caught his interest as a reader.

He couldn't help but pick up the manuscript and read it slowly:

Washington, D.C., May 5

As the Freedom 7 spacecraft crumbled into a flaming wreckage, Kennedy publicly declared it a NASA-directed drama. However, I can't help but wonder if this space disaster, like the Pearl Harbor incident in 1941, was deliberately allowed or even manipulated by the White House, simply to find leverage to reform NASA and sway Congress's financial resources.
A fringe faction of historical scholars has long accused President Franklin Roosevelt of having deciphered the Neon attack plan in advance but concealing the information in order to end domestic isolationism and force America into the war.

1961年4月12日苏俄宇航员加加林完成人类首次太空飞行。4月20日：白宫幕僚会议记录显示，肯尼迪要求顾问制造全民性的耻辱感。5月5日：NASA原定执行首次载人亚轨道飞行，后推迟至5月15日的自由7号失败。

This is more like Pearl Harbor Script 2.0. As a president from the Democratic Party, Kennedy was inspired by Roosevelt's Pearl Harbor incident and wanted to lead a similar drama on the stage of the space race.

Retired Admiral Chester Hall, who served in the Pacific Fleet (his father was a survivor of the USS Arizona which sank in the Pearl Harbor incident), once said in a public interview that the radar warning intelligence received by Admiral Kimmel was deliberately delayed.

Today, the White House did not deny that they knew in advance that there were problems with Freedom 7 and the astronauts originally scheduled to go into space. If it were not for the opportunity to completely transform NASA, the White House would not have replaced the astronauts with gorillas. Would the truth of the accident be buried forever in the dust of history like the Pearl Harbor incident?
In other words, without the wreckage of Freedom 7, where would the national consensus come from? President Kennedy said in his speech: "We chose to go to the moon not because it is easy, but because it is hard." Perhaps he forgot to say the subtext: make the difficulty seem fatal.

Sir Haley's manuscript linked the Pearl Harbor incident with the Freedom 7, which was a stroke of genius.

Because the Pearl Harbor incident has always been a turning point in World War II, leading to America's official entry into the war, some historians believe that it was the result of Roosevelt's deliberate instigation.
"Sir, you are amazing. How could I not have thought of that?" Frank put down the manuscript, looking unsatisfied.

Sir Haley smiled faintly and said, "When you have experienced it long enough, you will naturally know how to connect it."

Frank asked seriously, "Sir, do you really think this is a conspiracy by the White House?"

Sir Haley shook his head: “What I think is not important, what the audience wants to see is important.

As for the truth of the matter, I think we’ll know it naturally when we interview Professor Lin when he comes to London to receive the Queen’s award.”

(End of this chapter)