American Comic Dimensional Trading Device

Moreover, even these six were additional conditions that Josie originally proposed to the council.

Whether all six nuclear warheads can be launched depends on the progress made by the council.

Because of the stubbornness of the Japanese, if you don't provoke them, the chances of them surrendering are very low.

The real problem was actually internal, with President Roosevelt.

Don't be fooled by the fact that the Manhattan Project was spearheaded by Roosevelt.

However, according to information from the council, as the war situation became clearer, the president seemed less inclined to drop the nuclear bomb.

How can this be done?

I started work a bit late, so I'll post one chapter first. The other chapter won't be until midnight.

Chapter 127 The French reneged on their debt again

The Weimar Conference, originally scheduled, was postponed.

Because in just one week before the meeting, two major events occurred.

One of them was President Roosevelt, whom the American people loved. Just one day before he was to depart for Europe, he visited a military facility and, due to excessive emotional excitement, unfortunately suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died.

In response, Josie's Fortress headquarters lowered its flag to half-mast as a sign of mourning.

Of course, the fact that he and his subordinates had a lavish dinner in private was something that was best left unsaid.

Anyway, it's quite normal to have a feast at a funeral.

Another major event was the British general election, in which the arrogant Mr. Churchill, who believed he had saved Britain, lost the election.

This has little to do with Josh, and Josh doesn't care who becomes the British Prime Minister.

However, the two events combined forced the Weimar Conference to be postponed for a week.

However, the postponement of the meeting did not prevent Weimar from becoming a gathering place for influential figures ahead of time, nor did it prevent Josie from coming here to seek opportunities and collect debts.

“Your Excellency de Gaulle, you have been dragging your feet on the matter of the French-occupied zone, which is inconsistent with our previous discussions. Can I interpret this as your intention to renege on your debt?” In a small tavern in Weimar, Josie met with de Gaulle, who had arrived in Weimar ahead of time, and questioned him in a very unfriendly tone.

Just as Josie had predicted, de Gaulle, as the interim leader, had no say in the French loan process.

Not long after the new parliament was elected, de Gaulle began to face marginalization.

What Josie didn't expect was that de Gaulle was so incompetent, so powerless to control the French-occupied territories, and was hindered by domestic forces in France, causing delays time and time again.

“Mr. Kahn, it’s not that we’re defaulting on our debt, but the situation in our country is indeed quite complicated right now, and the international situation isn’t very good either, so we’re temporarily unable to repay the debt. Also, the price of the supplies you provided was indeed a bit high!” Before de Gaulle could speak, a middle-aged man wearing glasses standing behind him spoke first.

"Who do you think you are? Do you have the right to interrupt when I'm talking to His Excellency de Gaulle?" Josie glanced at him and said disdainfully.

“Mr. Kahn, watch your words. I am a French diplomat. Your insult to me is an insult to my country!” The man said, his face flushed, in response to Josie’s disdain.

"Tch, I'm insulting you, so what? A country that was occupied by the Germans in a month, and whose restoration was only possible thanks to the Allies, a country that can't even get a formal seat at international conferences, and I'm insulting you? What are you going to do about it? You're no good at fighting, but you're all talk when it comes to defaulting on your debts, what a piece of trash!" Josie tilted her head and looked at the man who claimed to be a French diplomat for a few seconds with amusement before she started cursing.

They showed absolutely no consideration for the other party or for Charles de Gaulle, who was sitting opposite them.

For Josh at this point, there's simply no need.

France was indeed liberated and the famine was over, but that didn't mean things were any better for it.

Although countries have recognized France's status as a victorious nation, that's all; they still have no say in major international affairs.

Just like the Yalta and Potsdam conferences in history, which were not entitled to seats, the Weimar Conference in this world was also without any say for them. Only the three countries of Britain, the United States, and Russia had official seats.

France and other countries that attended the conference were merely there as accompaniments, going through the motions.

Furthermore, the war severely damaged France, and its recovery would require significant financial support from the United States.

Although the decision to provide financial support is made by the White House and Congress, the actual implementation is carried out by financial groups, making it incredibly easy to manipulate the process.

As a representative of the American conglomerate, how dare you French people lay a finger on Josie? You'd be skinned alive!

"Ahem, Mr. Kahn, let's stick to the facts and please don't escalate this to the national level." De Gaulle finally couldn't help but speak up. He hadn't spoken at first, not because he was deliberately ignoring Josie, but because the diplomat had already spoken before he could. Besides, this diplomat wasn't actually one of his men, so he was happy to let the guy play the bad guy.

What de Gaulle didn't expect was that Josie would be so disrespectful, not only insulting him but also the country, which he found unacceptable.

These days there are already quite a few insulting remarks, and de Gaulle was aware of them, but he usually only talked about them in private. Josie is the first person to openly insult someone in front of the other country's leader.

If it were an ordinary person, de Gaulle would probably have already pulled out his gun by now.

But when facing Josie, he really couldn't say anything tough.

Because it was indeed my fault to begin with, last year I begged and pleaded with Josie to borrow $200 million worth of food and signed a contract to use resources from the French-occupied territories as compensation.

He just hadn't expected that the guys in China were even more difficult to deal with than he had imagined, to the point that he couldn't even fully control the resources in the French-occupied areas.

“Mr. de Gaulle, I don’t want things to look bad for everyone, but you can’t keep dragging this out on the debt issue. Or is it that France doesn’t actually want any further support?” Josie asked, shaking her head.

"Hmph, do you think the support your country provides to our country can be decided by a mere representative of a conglomerate like yourself?"

De Gaulle wanted to have a proper talk with Josie and give him some more time.

Unexpectedly, the diplomat then said something similar.

This shows just how weak De Gaulle's control over his own country had become, to the point that he couldn't even silence one of his accompanying diplomats.

"In that case, there's nothing more to discuss!" Josie glanced at the diplomat, suddenly smiled, and immediately got up and left the tavern with her men.

"Boss, should we teach that idiot a lesson?" Vito asked Josie as he got into the car and sat in the passenger seat.

“Not for now. The situation in Weimar is special, and we can’t cause trouble at this juncture.” Josie shook her head and said, “Besides, diplomats aren’t really stupid. The fact that they’re provoking me like this shows that they’re really prepared to renege on their promise. I don’t know where they get their guts!”

In fact, defaulting on debts has become a traditional skill of the French government.

It can be traced back to the time of Louis XVI.

More recently, there was World War I.

When World War I ended, France owed the United States nearly 10 billion dollars, including national debt and private debts like those of Josie.

However, from 1920 to 1930, the French government only repaid a total of 5 million.

If you really calculate it, it's not even enough to cover the interest.

With the onset of the Great Depression, France simply gave up and refused to pay back its debts.

This is also one of the reasons why the United States was unwilling to provide free aid to France during World War II.

Josie knew all along that in the early days after the end of World War II, the new French government actually wanted to renege on its debts.

It was only after realizing that the economy could not recover that, in order to obtain the support of the later Marshall Plan, that they had to renegotiate with the United States and formulate a complete repayment plan before they could slowly repay the money, and finally, they barely managed to pay it off in the 21st century.

Since the French want to renege on their debt, fine, then. If we don't make them pay back double, I'll change Josh's name.

While Josie was failing to collect her debt from the Frenchman, Ophelia was meeting someone at another hotel not far away, and the other person, like Ophelia, was also a great beauty.

“Nice to meet you, my name is Claire, Claire Wayan!” the woman introduced herself to Ophelia.

“Ophelia Salgistein, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Claire~” Ophelia smiled and extended her hand to shake hands with her.

Although both women smiled gently, the waiter felt that the temperature seemed to drop several degrees when he approached their table.

Chapter 128 Highest Temperature 6,000 Degrees

"Ah, Josh Kahn, a young talent of our America, it's a pleasure to meet you. You are indeed a man of great talent. On behalf of America, I thank you for your contributions to the country and the military!" Truman said, warmly shaking Josh's hand at the grand banquet.

As the new session of parliament drew near, Truman, who had just taken the presidency, finally arrived in Weimar.

To welcome the president, Josie, who was practically a local landowner, pulled all the strings and booked a luxurious estate in advance for Truman to stay temporarily. He also spent a fortune to host a grand welcome banquet in conjunction with high-ranking military officials stationed in Europe.

Truman was very pleased with this.

It wasn't that he had a penchant for extravagance, but rather that this represented the recognition he received from a group of financial groups led by Josie, as well as from the European military.

After all, from the outside perspective, Truman's presidency was largely a case of getting the job by chance.

Therefore, Truman at this time desperately needed to gain recognition from all sectors of society.

What Josie is doing now can be said to have scratched the itch of the new president.

"Mr. President, you're too kind. This is just what I should do as an American citizen!" Josie said with a smile.

For him, spending a little money to build a good relationship with the new president is a worthwhile investment.

Moreover... all the expenses throughout the process were covered by the council's accounts.

Entertainment expenses are a universally applicable expense!

I have to say, it's pretty satisfying to spend other people's money and gain favors in return.

"I have heard about the unfair treatment you suffered in France. Rest assured, we will definitely seek justice for you. No country or individual has the right to arbitrarily seize the property of an American citizen!" Truman said very solemnly.

Josie didn't question Truman's words.

Because in the original timeline, this is exactly what they did. After agreeing on a new debt repayment plan with France, the French side prioritized repaying private debts—after all, it's a capitalist country, and capitalists' money must be repaid first, while the country's money can be repaid slowly, without any rush.

But Josh still thought to himself, "Yeah, other countries can't take over American property, but the US government is quite adept at taking over the assets of people from other countries."

Moreover, the French already owed money to the US government, so Truman was simply doing them a favor.

However, what Truman didn't know was that, besides getting the money back through normal channels, Josie was already planning to take drastic measures against France.

Josie couldn't do much about things on the French mainland, but don't forget that France also has tens of millions of square kilometers of colonies.

Especially in Africa, many African colonies, led by Algeria, contributed greatly to the liberation of France.