American Strategic Deception Bureau

　Anyway, the government and the law are no longer useful. Internal fighting in the company can no longer be gentle and polite, it should be more violent.

　Just like modern, backward countries often have democratic systems, but which leader who came to power through a coup d'état actually took votes seriously?

　Referring to real-life business wars, this kind of "bloodbath in the boardroom" and random invalidation of stocks should happen quite often, right?

　Just like Adam Hammer in Night City, as long as he kills Saburo Arasaka, he can inherit Arasaka Corporation with his head.

　Of course, the branches would surely rebel and lay siege. But when Akechi Mitsuhide killed Oda Nobunaga, he didn't seem to have considered that much, did he?

　Chapter 440: Nuclear Assassination of the President! What a Grand Show!

　While Colonel Filikin, commander of the Federal Space Force in Los Angeles, worried about whether he could still be promoted to general after President Kennedy's death, across the ocean in Singapore, sirens wailed, riots spread, and the streets were filled with looting thugs and wailing citizens.

　Because, a striking nuclear mushroom cloud is rising from Paya Lebar Airport in the northeast of Singapore...

　(The later famous Changi Airport had not yet been built in Singapore at that time.)

　Besides the blinding white light and the radiation shockwave that swept across Singapore as a scorching foehn wind shattered windows across the city, blowing off countless rooftops, vehicles, roadside trees, and hapless passersby, even more horrific was the death of the President of the United States beneath this mushroom cloud!

　God, I heard that in the past someone would blow up an entire building in order to assassinate a target, which was already exaggerated enough.

　Now, even though it’s just an assassination of a president, they have to use an atomic bomb!

　If we want to upgrade the power of assassinations in the future, we will probably have to pull asteroids from space to hit cities on the ground, right?

　Furthermore, the atomic bomb attack on President Kennedy in Singapore—or rather, the "bombing"—had driven the surviving Americans into a frenzy. Furious Secret Service agents and local CIA spies stormed the Istana and arrested Singapore's President Lee Kuan Yew, who hadn't yet grasped the situation. They interrogated him harshly, questioning him about his alleged links with the Communist Party, sparking widespread chaos in Singapore.

　——The police station, army and municipal agencies have all been forcibly taken over by the US military. Singapore has entered a state of anarchy. How can it not be chaotic?

　In addition, as the citizens watched the terrifying mushroom cloud of the nuclear explosion hanging high in the sky and the ferocious US military rampaging in the streets, rumors spread all over the streets of Singapore. Some people even claimed in vivid detail that in addition to the nuclear bombs at the airport, dozens of nuclear bombs had been buried by Vietnamese spies in various places on the island of Singapore, just waiting for the order to detonate and sink the entire island of Singapore to the bottom of the sea.

　Others said that the city's tap water system had been poisoned, and drinking the water would cause poisoning or plague.

　This caused panic throughout the city and the country, and the citizens were like rats on a sinking ship, trying every possible way to escape from this crisis-ridden island.

　However, the US military, intent on tracking down the murderer, erected roadblocks in the streets, blocking Singapore's external traffic and preventing citizens from leaving the city, fearing that "Red elements" might escape among the refugees. This resulted in even more intense clashes between the military and civilians, with hundreds of citizens being killed by US troops on the streets...

　Wait, how did all these messy and earth-shattering things happen?

　- Well, let's turn the clock back three days. On that day, President Robert Kennedy arrived in Singapore on Air Force One, met with General Westmoreland, commander of the US military in the Malay Archipelago, and reviewed the US Navy, Army and Air Force stationed in Singapore.

　Afterwards, President Kennedy summoned the three "allies" (puppets) of the US military in Indochina - President Lon Nol of the Khmer Republic, President Leon Lai of South Vietnam, President Vang Pao of Thailand, and President Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, who was the host - to the US military base in Singapore for an emergency meeting on the current situation of the war in Southeast Asia. They discussed the current situation of the Viet Cong with intercontinental missiles, which were not very effective, and the increasingly fierce suicidal nuclear counterattacks by the communists. The US military and allied forces on the front line suffered large-scale defeats, and heated discussions were held.

　As for this multinational war

　What conclusions the meeting ultimately reached have become completely unimportant and no one cares.

　Because, when President Kennedy Jr. and his three minions, Lon Nol, Li Mingdao, and Wang Bao, arrived at the Paya Lebar Airport terminal after the meeting to hold a press conference and prepare to communicate with reporters from various countries before flying back to their respective countries...

　A miniature nuclear bomb that had been hidden in an underground pipe in the airport terminal was suddenly detonated by remote control!

　The entire Paya Lebar Airport terminal, like a cesspool filled with firecrackers tossed by mischievous children, instantly erupted in a tsunami! The four presidents present—or rather, the American president and three puppet statesmen, along with General Westmoreland, the commander of the US forces in the Malay Archipelago, and over a thousand accompanying personnel and airport staff—were all blown away along with the reinforced concrete and rubble. Not a trace of their bodies remained!

　Afterwards, the mushroom cloud rising from the explosion site was several kilometers high, and could even be seen clearly from merchant ships sailing in the Strait of Malacca.

　So much so that one newspaper commented sarcastically: "When President Kennedy Jr. was killed in the bombing, he must have been flying higher than his brother."

　Just like that, after 48 hours of chaos, almost all countries in the world knew that a group of "red terrorists" had attacked Singapore with an atomic bomb, successfully killing the US President and a group of "outsiders" - this news was so explosive that it couldn't be more explosive!

　Although neither the Vietnamese Communist Party, the Thai Communist Party, the Khmer Rouge, nor the Soviet KGB came forward to claim responsibility for the incident.

　But in today's situation where the world is divided by the Iron Curtain and two major camps are fighting each other, everyone can judge that the murderer must be from the opposite camp.

　——Even if it was not a direct order from the Kremlin, but the independent actions of Southeast Asian communists, what difference does it make to the United States?

　Next, Singapore's President Lee Kuan Yew, who had undergone a whole set of "memory recovery techniques" in the torture room of the US military base, was finally released with a bruised face and scars. He then had to use his mouth, which was broken and toothless, to appease the people and try to restore order.

　As for the sudden deaths of the US military commander and the presidents of Cambodia, South Vietnam and Thailand, what kind of turmoil and negative impact will it cause on the front line?

　Who has the heart to care?

　Anyway, the US troops on the front line had already been driven to collapse by the endless bombing of atomic bombs. Even if they collapsed a little more, it would not be too much.

　——When the news reached the country, there was naturally an uproar: three presidents were assassinated in a row within ten years. This is really exciting!

　Soon, some news media compared the two assassinated Presidents Kennedy to the Gracchus brothers who were killed for their reforms in the ancient Roman Republic.

　Next, the federal government couldn't find President Kennedy Jr.'s body during his state funeral in Washington, which was a minor issue.

　Just put a set of the president's old clothes in the coffin to express the living's grief.

　——The concept of cenotaphs is not only found in China, but also in Europe and the United States.

　The real question is, who should be the next president of the United States?

　Chapter 441: Nixon finally became president

　Monday, December 1, 1969, at the White House in Washington, D.C.

　Following the command of the honor guard, the coffin, covered with an American flag, was carried out of the White House and placed on a horse-drawn carriage.

　Then, the state funeral officially began, and the horse-drawn hearse belonging to yet another president drove up Pennsylvania Avenue in the capital. According to tradition, an unrider's horse preceded the hearse, with a pair of upside-down leather boots in the stirrups, symbolizing a deceased leader.

　In front of live television news cameras, the coffin, containing President Robert Kennedy's clothes (because the bones at the nuclear explosion site cannot be identified), will first be carried on a gun carriage to St. Matthew's Cathedral for a funeral mass, and then transported from there to Arlington National Cemetery.

　Delegations from more than 60 countries have arrived at Arlington Cemetery in advance to attend the funeral of President Kennedy Jr. and watch the coffin being buried.

　Standing outside the door of St. Matthew's Cathedral, watching the slowly approaching hearse, facing this familiar scene, Fili couldn't help but feel a little emotional.

　——Perhaps it was the end of the world line. In the end, the Kennedy brothers all died in assassinations one after another, and neither brother survived the 1960s.

　What made him even more emotional was the new American president, who appeared beside the widow of President Kennedy Jr., with a serious and unsmiling face...

　"It's unbelievable! How did Richard Nixon... eventually become president? Could this be his destiny?"

　- According to the presidential succession order stipulated by US law, if the president dies during his term, the vice president shall take over.

　Next, if the Vice President of the United States also dies or is unable to perform his duties for some reason, the order of succession after him will be the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President pro tempore of the Senate, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Secretary of Defense.

　Since Robert Kennedy succeeded the president as vice president, the United States was left without a vice president after his inauguration, and he did not appoint a new one—since the vice president, like the president, is elected. Therefore, the question of whether the president can appoint the vice president remains a mystery, and it wasn't until the 1970s that the Supreme Court explicitly authorized the practice.

　After the Vice President, who should take over next?

　The speaker of the House of Representatives is the Speaker of the House of Representatives, but the current Speaker of the House of Representatives in the United States is an old Republican man who is over 80 years old, frail and sick, and is even beginning to show signs of dementia and forgetfulness. He just announced last week that he is ready to retire.

　Now, if we let this Alzheimer's patient return to the White House and take on even more arduous responsibilities, the entire Congress would say forget it! They're afraid of the embarrassment!

　So, the person who ultimately succeeded the president was the pro tempore president of the United States Senate.

　Under normal circumstances, the US Vice President automatically serves as the President of the Senate, even if the ruling party is in the minority in the Senate.

　However, when Vice President Kennedy Jr. became president, the Speaker of the Senate could no longer allow him to continue serving in that position.

　In this case, it is natural that the majority party in the U.S. Senate, now the Republican Party, should nominate someone to serve as temporary speaker.

　Exactly, Richard.

　Nixon was a senator before running for president. So after losing the election, because President Kennedy Jr. had a somewhat shady background, he gave Nixon the position of Senate President pro tempore through political bargaining, treating it as a consolation prize.

　Anyway, the position of President Pro Tempore of the Senate is strictly speaking useless. Apart from reading the report and symbolically presiding over the meeting, the position cannot even vote during normal times. The only crucial vote is when there is a 50-50 tie.

　——It is conceivable how much psychological pressure the Speaker must be under when a bill requires a vote by the Speaker to decide its outcome.

　But what no one expected was that Kennedy Jr. passed away before he had even served a full year as president.

　Then, the vice presidential position is currently vacant, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives is suffering from Alzheimer's and is retiring, making him unfit to serve as president.

　Thus, after a series of unexpected turns, Nixon unexpectedly returned to the White House as the President Pro Tempore of the Senate a year after losing the election!

　What’s even worse is that Kennedy was a Democrat, while Nixon was a Republican!

　In other words, this year the United States once again set a historical precedent. Without even a general election, the government went from a Democratic Party to a Republican Party!

　In this way, the entire Democratic cabinet in the White House is about to be collectively expelled by the new president and sent back home to eat their old bread!

　-

　"

　As soon as President Nixon was sworn in, he immediately laid off the entire cabinet, saying he wanted to replace them with new Republicans. Now, Secretary of Defense McNamara, Secretary of State Rusk, Secretary of the Treasury Fowler, and Attorney General Clark were all packing their bags to go home.

　However, I see that both McNamara and Rusk look relieved—come to think of it, the war in Asia has become such a mess. Both the military and diplomatic sides have reached a dead end, and they are probably eager to pass the mess on to the Republicans!

　Then, as National Security Advisor, I was almost fired along with them. It was only thanks to Mr. Nelson Rockefeller’s intervention that President Nixon agreed to keep me on for a while and give me a temporary trial period.”

　In a Washington, D.C., café, Dr. Kissinger sipped his unsweetened black coffee while apprehensively speaking to Fieri, sitting across from him, "I hope President Nixon's style isn't as hawkish as the Democrats claim. Otherwise, as a pessimist, I'm afraid it'll be hard for me to get along with a bellicosity. I just don't know how this nuclear war can escalate any further."

　"Don't worry, Doctor. I think President Nixon is much more flexible than the two Kennedy presidents."

　Recalling the "Nixon visit to China" that was so prominently featured in history textbooks before his time travel, as well as Nixon's subsequent visit to the Soviet Union and his agile turnaround in withdrawing from the Vietnam War, Fili felt that even in a different timeline, Nixon was still the pragmatic Nixon.

　——In the United States, the more left-wing one is, the more he likes to talk big and the more extreme and rigid he is in his foreign policy; if he switches to the right, he can be more pragmatic.

　Therefore, it is usually the Democrats who advocate for war, while the Republicans are responsible for cleaning up the mess.

　Because the Democrats can't clean their own asses, they can only lie with their eyes open and pretend that there is no shit on their asses...

　——Precisely because Nixon was on the right, he could turn left without pressure and make peace with the red camp without having to prove his innocence.

　Who can blame them for calling themselves conservatives? They don't have to worry about being labeled as "Bolsheviks"?

　"Even if President Nixon wanted to continue the war, not only would the domestic budget no longer be able to sustain military spending, but the morale and spirit of the troops on the Asian front would also have collapsed," Firi continued. "Regardless of who becomes president, withdrawing troops from Southeast Asia is inevitable..."

　The day after President Kennedy Jr. was assassinated in Singapore, General Vang Pao, the self-proclaimed "Hmong King" of Thailand, ascended to power alongside the US president in Singapore. This led to a mutiny among his 10,000 Hmong mercenaries, and the Thai people, fed up with the situation, also rose up in rebellion.

　Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, has once again fallen into anarchy, with various factions engaged in a chaotic melee. The Hmong mercenaries, leaderless and eager to make a killing before each of them could disperse and return home, have been plundering Bangkok, turning the city into a battlefield.

　In addition, the Thai Communist Party underground party took the opportunity to fan the flames, causing

　Bangkok, which was already devastated, has become even more chaotic.

　General Abrams, commander of the US forces in Thailand, was unfortunately hit by a stray bullet while leading US troops to suppress riots and died the next day despite rescue efforts.

　On the same day, General Taylor, the commander of the US forces in Vietnam, ordered a US Marine Corps that had just returned to Saigon for rest to immediately end their leave early and march to Hei Po Mountain in Tay Ninh Province to attack the secret warehouse where the Viet Cong guerrillas stored miniature atomic bombs... This resulted in a mutiny in the entire army, and a group of chaotic soldiers even broke into the headquarters. General Taylor was shot by someone in the chaos, and when he was found, he was already dead.

　Add to that General Westmoreland, who was killed by a nuclear bomb in Singapore along with President Kennedy Jr.... in other words, the three main commanders of the US military in the Southeast Asian battlefield were killed one after another in less than a week, and the morale of the army was extremely low.

　Therefore, by December, the United States was already collapsing on the Vietnam War front. Most of the US troops could no longer endure the endless suicidal atomic bomb bombings and began to collapse on a large scale, just like the German or Russian armies at the end of World War I.

　In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge armed forces entered the city of Phnom Penh and engaged in street fighting with the US military who were surrounded on all sides.

　In South Vietnam, the 1st Marine Division of the US Army, which retreated to Da Nang, directly disobeyed orders, abandoned its positions and retreated southward without authorization, regardless of the instructions of the Pentagon.

　A U.S. Army regiment in Nha Trang mutinied. The soldiers kidnapped their superiors, hijacked merchant ships and fled to the Philippines.

　Even the Pacific Fleet disobeyed orders, with many ships refusing to go to the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand war zones and staying in rear military ports to go on strike.

　In Thailand, the US military, with its commander dead and unable to quell the chaos in Bangkok, hastily evacuated Thailand's largest city, retreating to the southern naval base of Sattahip. Those left inland were told to "break out on their own" and "march toward the coast."

　It is conceivable how harshly the officers and soldiers of these troops would curse.

　In general, the demoralized and underwhelming American troops on the Indochina Peninsula haven't been completely driven back by the Communists. This is partly because the Viet Cong, the Thai Communists, the Khmer Rouge, and the Laotian Pathet Lao have all been nearly depleted and unprepared for a full-scale counterattack. It's also because the US Strategic Air Force is relentlessly bombing and destroying Red bases and transportation lines, hindering the enemy's counterattack.

　Even so, anyone with a discerning eye could see that the United States could no longer continue the Vietnam War.

　Not to mention the surging anti-war movement in the country and the anti-war groups that have been active in the capital Washington all year round, even the soldiers on the front line who really need to withstand the critical hits of nuclear bombs, and the recruits who are about to be sent to the front line to be hit by nuclear bombs, are almost unable to hold back and storm Capitol Hill and hang the senators!

　Everything seems like a replay of the February and October Revolutions! I hope the United States will not repeat the same mistakes that Russia made fifty years ago!

　This was said in a recent interview by Kerensky, the leader of the Russian Provisional Government, Lenin's childhood friend and revolutionary rival, in a recent interview with reporters!

　After the establishment of the Soviet Union, Kerensky went into exile in the United States. As a historical figure, he taught history at a university... And surprisingly, while his contemporaries like Lenin, Stalin, and Trotsky were long dead, and even his younger contemporaries like Mussolini and Hitler had all passed away, Kerensky, the leading figure of the Russian counter-revolution, lived on in America, remarkably alive, well into the 1970s!

　Ahem, back to the point, given the aforementioned predicament of the United States on the front lines and in the rear, no matter what Nixon's inner thoughts were, as long as he had enough rationality, he had to now overcome the opposition of the war madmen and try to reduce the intensity of the war and withdraw troops from Southeast Asia.

　Once President Nixon decided to withdraw from the Vietnam War, he had to engage in secret diplomatic contacts with China.

　However, the US diplomatic department was certainly unwilling to touch the most sensitive political correctness red line during the Cold War, take the blame for the president and bear the responsibility of "collaborating with the Communists", so Nixon could only find someone from his advisory team to do this job.

　This would allow Kissinger, as National Security Advisor, to apply all his life's knowledge. His long-planned strategy of "Greater Triangle Diplomacy" between the US, the Soviet Union, and China, along with his vision of uniting with China to resist the Soviet Union and splitting the socialist camp, would also become a reality.

　"Maybe, but you have to know that expecting politicians to always remain rational is an impossible task in itself."

　Dr. Kissinger waved his hand somewhat disinterestedly. "I'll stay in Washington for a while, trying to impress the new president and see if I can maintain my foothold in the White House. What about you? What are your plans next?"

　"It seems there's no place left for a short-seller like me in Washington, D.C., so I'll be returning to Los Angeles in a few days."

　Ferry finished his coffee in one gulp, wiped his mouth with a napkin, and replied, "First, I'll go to Hollywood to find a few art studios to design a unique uniform, flag, emblem, and military song for the newly established Space Force. Then, I have to start preparing to move..."

　"Moving?" Kissinger blinked curiously.

　"Yes, I'm moving, but I'm only planning to move to the next door community - Eden Town in San Fernando Valley. It was initially completed last fall and the properties started to be sold. The house I bought in Eden Town has also recently been sold.

　The renovation is complete and you can move in now! "

　Chapter 442: Clearing out nuclear bomb stockpiles, a massive delivery of 100 million tons of equivalent!

　Although international observers who claim to be "discerning-minded" all agree that the United States can no longer fight in the Southeast Asian battlefield.