**Chapter 805: American Personality (2)**

Congressman Carl Vinson saw President Roosevelt sitting in his wheelchair like a statue, the expression on his face extremely cold, resembling a dictator of ancient Rome. For a moment, Congressman Carl Vinson felt he had asked the wrong question; perhaps mentioning the US military's preparation to use poison gas shells had underestimated Roosevelt's fortitude. Even if the US military was currently encountering setbacks, Roosevelt would not choose a method that would suffer fierce retaliation.

Roosevelt remained silent for a long time, then suddenly turned his wheelchair. The left wheel moved back, the right wheel moved forward, and the entire wheelchair rotated in place, turning from facing away from the French windows to facing them. He smoothly pulled open a drawer containing cigars, took out a Manila cheroot and lit it. Roosevelt took two puffs before asking, "Do you smoke, Congressman Vinson?"

Carl Vinson walked over, stood beside Roosevelt, and lit a cigar. The two smoked in silence for a moment before Roosevelt asked again, "Congressman Vinson, do you believe the He Rui administration is a government that wars for the sake of war?"

Carl Vinson thought for a moment and shook his head. "Mr. President, my job is to study what kind of weaponry and equipment the United States needs to win wars. In the eyes of many, I am engaged in work that is for war for the sake of war. So it seems I am not qualified to criticize the He Rui regime."

Roosevelt felt that Carl Vinson was truly an old fox, giving Roosevelt no opening at all. However, if Carl Vinson were a simple and honest man, he could not have become the Chairman of the House Naval Affairs Committee. So Roosevelt prepared to press Carl Vinson a little. "Congressman Vinson, when you formulated the 50-carrier plan, did you believe that such a quantity of aircraft carriers could win the Pacific War?"

Carl Vinson did not want to answer this question because he didn't know either. When facing war, the Senate (the House of Elders) managed power and personnel, while the House of Representatives (the House of the People) managed money. A large number of companies were now running to the House of Representatives wanting to make a fortune from arms procurement, so the arguments used to lobby Carl Vinson were truly by every possible means and full of strange things.

The number of aircraft carriers to be built was determined by the military. These companies would on one hand tell Carl Vinson how powerful the new aircraft carriers were and what advantages they had when facing China, so the expensive price of the new aircraft carriers was value for money and absolutely could not be low. Before long, these companies would tell Carl Vinson how fierce the Chinese aircraft carriers were and that they posed a threat to American aircraft carriers; in order to win victory, the number of aircraft carriers must be sufficiently high.

The combat capability level of aircraft carriers fluctuated high and low—powerful yet weak, indestructible while simultaneously possessing an Achilles' heel-like weakness. The only constant insisted upon was that the number of aircraft carriers was naturally the more the better. In short, the core was that more money had to be added.

Carl Vinson himself attached great importance to interaction and communication with core officers of the US Navy and considered himself reasonably knowledgeable about the Navy. Even so, Carl Vinson could not truly grasp the situation of naval warfare; often he could only rely on his intuition to make judgments.

Seeing Roosevelt's current lack of confidence, Carl Vinson sighed in his heart that neither he nor Roosevelt were military strategists and could not make precise judgments about the war. Just as Carl Vinson was wondering how to communicate with Roosevelt, he heard Roosevelt continue to ask, "Congressman Vinson, are you willing to believe the Army and Navy General Staff's assessment of the war, or are you willing to believe He Rui's assessment of the war?"

Carl Vinson felt a bit alert in his heart; this question carried a hint, implying that Roosevelt had no confidence in the Pacific War currently underway. Since he had faced successive probes from President Roosevelt, Carl Vinson took the initiative. "Mr. President, are you more willing to believe He Rui's judgment?"

"I believe He Rui is a military strategist. He has an extremely profound understanding of modern military affairs," Roosevelt replied. After speaking, he extinguished the cigar in his hand.

Carl Vinson had to admit in his heart that his view was about the same as President Roosevelt's. But admitting He Rui's military talent could not solve the predicament the US military currently faced. The US military had already completed the breakthrough in aircraft carriers within the Navy, and He Rui had also chosen the aircraft carrier route for the Chinese Navy. China and the United States were advancing side by side on the same track, but the United States currently had no way to obtain the specific methods of the Chinese Navy's application of aircraft carriers. Carl Vinson thought for a while and cut in from this angle. "Mr. President, can the intelligence agencies collect the core secrets of the Chinese Navy?"

Roosevelt did not answer this question, which was obviously somewhat evasive. What he wanted to get from Carl Vinson was the professional opinion possessed by this congressman who had long focused on the military field, and moreover, a professional opinion provided by a professional outside the naval system.

High-level officials all over the world knew that He Rui had entered a cadet school to study from a young age, had an extremely complete military educational background, and had personally formulated plans for several major campaigns, displaying his extraordinary military ability. And He Rui's abilities in politics and economics were even above his military ability. Military affairs are the continuation of politics, and politics is the continuation of economics; He Rui's talents in the three aspects of economics, politics, and military affairs gave He Rui a very complete strategic ability.

Although Roosevelt was very envious of He Rui's ability, he could only admit the gap between himself and He Rui. In the military field, He Rui knew very well where money should be used, without being perfunctory and misled by Chinese generals in various ways. So as the Commander-in-Chief of the US Armed Forces, every time President Roosevelt thought of He Rui, he felt very unconfident. This lack of confidence was increasingly reinforced as the war continued. To the extent that Roosevelt wanted to get some suggestions from Carl Vinson.

Since Carl Vinson was also unconfident, Roosevelt prepared to change to a more direct way of asking, which was whether the current US military could win the Pacific War.

Before Roosevelt could ask, there was a knock on the door. Carl Vinson looked gratefully at the door that had been knocked by someone unknown; he also sensed that the question Roosevelt was about to ask would be extremely difficult to answer. Carl Vinson had once believed that the series of acts named after him would allow the United States to possess a navy with quality and quantity that could gain an advantage in any war. When Carl Vinson's plan was implemented, he discovered that his plan only kept the US Navy from being defeated as soon as the war started, but did not enable it to overwhelm the opponent.

In the new shipbuilding plan, the number of aircraft carriers had already reached 50, yet Carl Vinson still could not be sure of winning the war. And the sudden knock on the door indeed helped Carl Vinson out of the predicament.

The door was pushed open, and Roosevelt's female secretary walked in lightly and said, "Mr. President, Admiral Melkin, the Chief of Naval Operations, wants to see you."

Congressman Carl Vinson was startled; before coming to the White House, he had reached an agreement with Admiral Melkin, the Chief of Naval Operations, to have dinner together that evening. Why did Admiral Melkin suddenly request to visit President Roosevelt?

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Near the Mariana Islands, nearly ten thousand kilometers from the White House, the main fleet of the Japanese Combined Fleet was slowly cruising on the sea. On the flagship *Yamato*, Yamaguchi Tamon, Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet, looked excitedly at the chart of the Hawaiian Islands before him and said loudly to the officers of the Combined Fleet Headquarters beside him, "This surprise attack seized four islands in one fell swoop, very good! Do not care about those eight transport ships that beached; if necessary, another sixteen transport ships can be sent to beach!"

The officers of the Japanese Combined Fleet did not cheer, but just looked expectantly at the four small islands marked on the chart. In the war of attrition over the past few months, more than 2,000 Japanese fighter pilots and the planes they flew had silently sunk to the bottom of the sea, and more than 4,000 fighter planes had crashed into the sea after being hit, with the pilots managing to survive by parachuting. The Allied logistics department only asked, "Have the pilots been rescued? How is the performance of the new planes sent to the front line? Are the fuel supply and ammunition supply sufficient?" but never asked about the various losses. The Japanese officers had also gradually become accustomed to this degree of "extravagance and waste."

If more islands could be seized, what did it matter if each island required the consumption of 10 transport ships? Even if the cost of a transport ship was as high as several million or even tens of millions of yen, so what?

As long as logistics could afford the supply, the front line was happy to use equipment with maximum efficiency. For this beaching, the Japanese army extensively modified the transport ships. The upper structures of the transport ships were reinforced, and several anti-aircraft gun positions were installed on top. Because of these additions, the cost of the transport ships used for beaching skyrocketed, and after the center of gravity of the transport ships shifted upward, they were no longer suitable for navigation in strong wind and wave environments.

Warships are like people; if the chassis is stable, they can move very steadily. If top-heavy, falling over is the norm. The Japanese army spent a lot of effort to allow these modified transport ships to successfully arrive near the target. After wiping out the US troops on the island with fuel-air explosives, they used the transport ships to beach directly.

Now these transport ships were stuck on the shallows near the shore. The anti-aircraft turrets and radars on them constituted a simple anti-aircraft position. Coupled with the equipment and facilities moved onto the island from inside the transport ships, the anti-aircraft firepower on these four islands was quite powerful. Japanese land-based aviation also went to the skies above the four small islands to participate in the defense. As long as they could hold out for a few days, it was possible to build even more powerful anti-aircraft systems on these few islands. At that time, perhaps Midway Island, which could get rid of US bombing, could build a very powerful anti-aircraft system, forming a pincer movement with other lucky Hawaiian islands that could protect themselves.

Yamaguchi Tamon did not offer a vision of the future. He looked up at the Chief of Staff and said, "Send telegrams immediately to the commanders in the Mariana Islands, Marshall Islands, and Wake Island, etc., requiring them to immediately report their current air force capabilities to see if relying solely on air transport can meet twice the transport capacity required for current operations. If the numbers cannot be reached, ask the commanders in each place what conditions they need to be able to do it! When can they do it!"

Even the Japanese officers who had become accustomed to the days of "extravagance and waste" in the past few months looked at Yamaguchi Tamon at this time. Their eyes were full of incomprehension or sympathy.

The Chief of Staff of the Japanese Combined Fleet could understand Yamaguchi Tamon's thinking; this commander had already moved his mind to a decisive battle. If relying on the current offensive efficiency, the US and Japanese armies would have to fight for another half a year before the Japanese army could seize the Hawaiian Islands. But once the Japanese Combined Fleet could inflict heavy losses on the large aircraft carrier formation of the US Pacific Fleet, relying on air transport capabilities to provide twice the supply of materials, Japan could completely seize the Hawaiian Islands within about two months.

But the Chief of Staff of the Japanese Combined Fleet did not answer immediately. He had a question at this time: was it necessary for the Japanese Combined Fleet to implement a plan that would let China win the war at the risk of being heavily damaged?

Yamaguchi Tamon did not offer any explanation. Seeing that the Chief of Staff did not act immediately, Yamaguchi Tamon asked, "Chief of Staff, did you hear my order clearly?"

The Chief of Staff naturally knew the reality that if Japan could not make enough contribution, it would not be able to obtain enough return. He immediately replied, "Commander, I will contact them right now!"

Waiting for the Chief of Staff to go and execute the order, Yamaguchi Tamon looked at the Chief of the Operations Section. "Major General Morita, where does the Operations Section believe the main force of the US aircraft carriers is?"