Father of France

Chapter 269 De Gaulle's Approval
While the Soviet Union protested, it also made increasingly frequent moves in the Soviet-occupied zone. The United States' response was to remain silent, believing that as long as it ignored the Soviet protests, the Soviet Union would accept the status quo on its own.

This has been the case ever since the war. Therefore, the concerns of the French Army General Staff, in the eyes of the British and American militaries, were simply that the French army had lost confidence after World War II. Although it still appeared strong on the outside, it was not strong enough on the inside, and France was no longer a true power.

The current Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Schumann, was furious. He could only try to appease the senior military leaders, saying, "Perhaps we should do something, but it's too late."

Koeman was unaffected; it was just a few days of sarcastic remarks. Once the Soviet Union was ready and cut off the road access to West Berlin, then we'd see who the clown was.

That's right, the UK and the US can build an air bridge through air transport. The US has the money to do so, while France can just stand by and watch.

According to unidentified sources, major French newspapers reported that the French General Staff had issued a warning to the UK and the US, which was ignored by both countries.

"Wouldn't this put a lot of pressure on the Chief of the General Staff?" Alan thought Koman's actions were a bit of a rip-off, like putting Admiral Dragon on the hot seat.

"Do you have any evidence that I leaked the information?" Koeman looked like it had nothing to do with me and didn't bother to explain further. When the Berlin Crisis broke out, General Dracon's image was that of the most professional Chief of the General Staff of the French Army, which also enhanced the professional image of the entire French Army.

The UK and the US are the fools who are confused about the situation and can only waste huge amounts of manpower and resources trying to fix it from behind. Their sarcastic remarks over the past few days are nothing.

Did the British and Americans complete the Berlin airlift with ease? How come Koeman remembers that the United States spent $500 million to reverse its image of not taking Soviet warnings seriously?

It's worth noting that the total US aid to the Greek civil war was roughly this amount, and the Marshall Plan gave France one-fifth of that total. Was that a small amount?

And what about Britain? Although the British Royal Air Force flew much less frequently, the costs incurred during airlifts were by no means insignificant for postwar Britain.

If you asked a conspiracy theorist to analyze this, they would conclude that the US was ostensibly confronting the Soviet Union, but secretly trying to weaken Britain.

With Koman's support, Ava Gardner has returned to North America to organize the Miss America pageant. From a third-rate actress earning a weekly wage when she left the United States, she has now returned home in glory with a net worth of hundreds of millions of dollars, and is valued by Washington as an outstanding woman who hopes to exert America's influence in various countries.

Leaving the United States was the right decision for Ava Gardner, allowing her to become a bridge between Europe and America. With the femme fatale gone, Koeman is left to spend the last days of her vacation alone.

Philippe de Gaulle, who was being talked about by Koeman, was making a lifelong promise under the moonlit flowers and was communicating the news of his marriage to his father, de Gaulle. Philippe de Gaulle had already planned to get married before.

However, an unexpected event occurred: Koeman appeared with the design blueprints for an angled-deck aircraft carrier, and Philippe de Gaulle became a representative figure of the aircraft carrier faction during that period, and his activities delayed his original wedding date.

He was later promoted to captain, and various factors caused the wedding date to be delayed by several months. Now that Koman is on leave, he is thinking of taking advantage of the fact that his friends are all in Paris to hold the wedding.

"That genius Dragon?" General de Gaulle asked, hearing his son mention the name. "He's on vacation; we're inviting him to the wedding."

“Yes, Father, Corman is a very thoughtful soldier.” Philippe de Gaulle, having accepted the help from the angled-deck aircraft carrier, had a much better impression of Corman and also shared his understanding of Corman from his recent time with him: “He has always had some reservations about the United States.”

"This is unexpected. Isn't his girlfriend American? Could it be because of the General Staff's escalation of tensions between the British and American armies in Germany these past few days?" Since resigning from office, General de Gaulle has been keeping to himself, but that doesn't mean he's unaware of the dynamics of all parties involved. On the contrary, he's fully aware of everything.

"That's not the reason. He believes the United States is plundering European countries through dollar exports. In fact, his girlfriend is also investing all over Europe." Philippe de Gaulle mentioned Eva Gardner's land grabbing activities near the capitals of various European countries.

During a previous gathering, Koeman discussed the differences between strong and weak monetary policies. Simply put, a strong global currency is suitable for investment, while a weak domestic currency is suitable for exports.

The current French franc represents a weak monetary policy, backed by the dollar under the Marshall Plan. It maintains French socio-economic stability by exporting goods to the US through sweatshops. Koeman made this statement using a scenario he envisioned decades later where the US would acquire European countries, but in reality, this had already begun in this era. Moreover, from the perspective of sweatshops, European countries were among the first to engage in sweatshops after the war. However, because they were once imperialist powers, they retained much technological expertise, and thus largely moved away from the sweatshop model within a decade.

However, separation can only be said to be the majority. As long as the US dollar can still circulate in European countries, it cannot be said to be a true separation; it's just that the position may be slightly higher.

The comprador class exists in countries like the Philippines and Vietnam, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist in Europe. European companies' autonomy has been gradually eroded by the United States over time.

This process was marked by setbacks. For example, in the 1960s, de Gaulle led France out of NATO, eliminating some pro-American forces. Building on this momentum, France then consolidated a number of European projects in the 1970s.

This period coincided with the time when the United States was deeply embroiled in the Vietnam War. As it gradually lost ground to the Soviet Union in the global hegemony, it had to make concessions to the strategic autonomy of Western European countries. However, after recovering, the United States strengthened its control over Europe.

As General de Gaulle listened to Corman's complaints about the United States and the dollar, some thoughts gradually became clear in his mind: "It seems that there is a good reason why Dragon is so proud of this child."

After General de Gaulle returned to power for the second time, he publicly stated that the US dollar was simply a pile of paper used by the US to exchange for the productivity of European countries, and that he wanted to help France regain its economic sovereignty. This kind of thinking was at play.

In 1948, General de Gaulle was still out of office, but he still believed in such statements and expressed his strong agreement.

While being discussed by the future French president and the commander-in-chief of the French Atlantic Fleet, Corman was listening to Martin relay a recent critique by some French historians of the Mediterranean historical perspective, including the Roman view, that was about to be implemented in the overseas territories, as well as rebuttals from historians such as Fernand Braudel and Georges Dupye.

"What they mean is that the Gallic view of history is inviolable," Martin said helplessly. "Of course, it's still just an academic debate right now, and people think it shouldn't be included in textbooks until there's a conclusion."

"Why the hell do so many things? They do nothing all day long, these liberal arts students are always causing us trouble."

Upon hearing this, Coman erupted in a tirade, "Whatever historical perspective benefits France, we'll use it. Who gives them the right to comment? If the Mediterranean historical perspective aligns with national interests, it can be changed even if our ancestors were Gauls. We've done that with the Germanic historical perspective before. What the people think depends on how we indoctrinate them. Where are the supporters of the Germanic historical perspective from a hundred years ago?"

"Corman, you're getting too worked up." Alan listened to Corman's merciless scathing remarks about some historians. What hadn't he seen? He certainly hadn't seen anything like this from Corman.

“Historians who don’t serve the national interest, I don’t see the need to support them. If they were in an overseas province, I’d just take them out,” Koeman said to Martin. “Make a record of these historians’ names. I think these historians are unstable elements, and they might fall into our hands at any time.”

As historians, we should simply cooperate with the government's decisions. Why are you constantly trying to gain attention? Do you think you have a conscience?
Koeman recalls that deconstructionism seems to have originated in France, and that no field can escape the deconstruction of those people? Deconstructing history from thousands of years ago and treating it as research findings? It's not even as good as switching careers and going to work in a factory tightening screws.

It seems that during the May 1968 events, a group of scholars who touted deconstructionism jumped out. After thinking about it, Corman realized that there were indeed such scholars—a bunch of scholars who deconstructed French society. Their existence was a waste of time.

"How about we find them an overseas job and send them out to calm down for a few months? We just don't have the money to lure them out." Martin listened to Koeman's suggestion to chop off the heads of these Gallo historians, but for now, he was just listening; how could he actually do it? At least not now. This wasn't Madagascar.

“It would be best to let them go to Canada and dissect Quebec,” Corman replied to Martin. “I’ll pay for it. Let them go as soon as possible so we can avoid seeing them and having more trouble.”

"And then there are the geographers who surveyed Lake Chad. They've finished their expedition and delineated the waterways. Would you like to talk about it sometime?" Martin finally managed to calm down Koman, who was in a bad mood, perhaps because Eva Gardner had left, and brought up the Lake Chad expedition plan.

"Have them produce a report on the Lake Chad Canal. The core of the report we need is that the grasslands south of the Sahara are degrading and Lake Chad is shrinking. If France doesn't intervene, the survival of thousands of people in the area will be severely threatened. We need to develop a plan based on this core message."

Koeman added, "Don't be like those people in history, always going against us. The core of this report cannot be changed. Our idea is that as long as we want to do it, it will all have a positive impact. Don't talk about macroeconomics or the big environment in the report."

(End of this chapter)