Chapter 442: Drones Of 1970
Kissinger flatly refused.
He wasn’t even willing to say something perfunctory like “I’ll go ask the professor’s opinion.”
He was afraid that if he said it, some variable would appear, and he’d lose Nixon’s trust back in Washington.
Power doesn’t entirely come from position; power often comes from your strength.
Lin Ran’s power is exactly like that; no matter who becomes president, they have to let him be NASA Director.
In Johnson’s later period, he was once very resentful of Lin Ran; the whole America, whenever aerospace or moon landing was mentioned, only knew of Lin Ran and not the president.
Didn’t he want to replace him? Didn’t he want to replace NASA with someone else and claim the credit for winning the space race for himself?
Of course he did, but the problem was he couldn’t.
Whereas Kissinger’s power comes entirely from Nixon’s appreciation.
After becoming Secretary of State in 1973, it got a bit better, but right now, he’s just in the role of consultant; frankly, firing him only requires a single executive order from the president.
In the original timeline, Kissinger secretly went to Yanjing, relying on Pakistan as an intermediary; they arranged for Kissinger to secretly fly from Islamabad to Yanjing.
At the same time, the backup channels in between also included Romania and French diplomat Jean Sainteny.
During his public visit to Pakistan, he pretended to have stomach pain and need a few days of rest and recuperation; actually, at 3:30 a.m. on July 9, he took the son of a Pakistani diplomat’s Volkswagen Beetle car secretly to the airport.
Wearing a black round top hat and sunglasses as simple disguise, he boarded Pakistan International Airlines’ Boeing 707, flew over the Himalayas, and arrived at Yanjing Nanyuan Airport in just 4.5 hours.
The entire process was only informed to a very few people, including Pakistan’s ambassador Joseph Farland, but with strict instructions not to tell Rogers, who was Secretary of State at the time.
To avoid causing a backlash from conservatives domestically in America.
In short, Kissinger was extremely cautious throughout the entire process.
At the same time, after reviewing historical information on his secret visit to China, Lin Ran gained new inspiration.
The Chinese representative seemed somewhat disappointed, with disappointment written all over his face; even though the two couldn’t communicate due to language barriers, Kissinger clearly sensed it.
Kissinger could empathize with the Chinese representative’s current state of mind.
Because for over a thousand years in the past, Jewish people around the world had no way to work for a Jewish country; it was the same principle.
“We understand your concerns, understand the risk of Mr. Lin returning to China, then Paris—Paris should be acceptable, right?” The Chinese negotiator felt very displeased inside, because the professor was clearly of Chinese descent, yet he wasn’t even allowed to return to China.
Serving America was one thing, but to be guarded against like this.
This is the sorrow of a modern nation being poor and weak.
“This year’s International Congress of Mathematicians is being held in Paris; four years ago it was in Moscow, so the professor didn’t attend; this year it’s in France’s Paris, and France is your country’s important ally in Europe, a free world country.
We hope the professor can attend this International Congress of Mathematicians; the Chinese side has already established diplomatic relations with France, and we hope to conduct negotiations with the professor, just like how North Vietnam did with the professor in Geneva in the past.”
First propose a demand that’s difficult to accept, then propose a relatively easier one to accept.
At the mathematician conference held in Moscow four years ago in 1966, Chen Jingrun was crowned with the weak form of the Goldbach Conjecture for the Fields Medal; initially, the Moscow side hoped to invite Lin Ran to the scene to present the Fields Medal to his junior.
This is also the inheritance of Chinese descent mathematicians, who won the Fields Medal in both 1962 and 1966.
For Moscow, hosting such an international mathematical event without Lin Ran’s attendance was also a regret.
But the White House refused without hesitation, and the reason was very legitimate: it was a critical period for the Apollo Moon Landing at the time, and the professor was too busy with work to attend.
The outside world all knew that the real reason was that the basis of trust between Moscow and Washington was very fragile, so fragile that they weren’t comfortable letting the professor go to Moscow.
The Yanjing side was very clear on this, so they chose France.
This year’s mathematician conference is in France’s Nice; you’re worried about Moscow, but surely not worried about Nice?
Western Europe absolutely counts as America’s sphere of influence.
In this territory, Moscow’s influence only lingers underground; no matter how powerful the underground forces are, they can’t surface.
Kissinger thought to himself that France was indeed a bit worrying; among European countries, only France wouldn’t obediently listen.
Just as Kissinger was about to refuse, the Chinese representative sitting across from him said with a serious expression and heavier tone: “This is our last and only request; we hope to talk with the professor—this will be very helpful for improving relations between our two countries.”
The words of refusal that Kissinger had on the tip of his tongue took a turn: “Alright, I will report to Mr. President.”
He didn’t dare nor could he agree outright.
Perspective back to the Vietnam War frontline; in the public eye, drones only started to shine brightly in the 2022 Russian war.
In fact, as early as the Vietnam War, drones had already been deployed on a large scale in the battlefield.
But compared to modern warfare’s drone saturation attacks and intelligence sharing, the drones at that time lacked GPS, real-time data links, and intelligence sharing.
In the original spacetime, America deployed over 3000 drones in total; according to American data, each drone would be shot down or damaged after completing 4 missions.
But a very few drones could execute 68 missions.
In the Vietnam War, electronic warfare began to show its initial promise, and drones did too.
Not only with a massive number of sorties, but also with continuously upgrading drones.
America named it Firefly.
Models evolved from the earliest Ryan 147G, with models changing one after another: G, J, E, F, N, NP, NRE, NQ, NA, NC, etc.; these were all drone models, with the prefix Ryan 147.
(Early drones)
(Ryan 147H used for high-altitude reconnaissance in 1967)
But now, after America had GPS satellites, the drones were upgraded accordingly.
With GPS providing positioning, the drones’ execution efficiency clearly improved.
Simply put, previously drones relied on fixed paths; once you fixed the path, altitude, speed, and flew a few more times, the North Vietnam side could calculate your flight trajectory and then shoot you down.
So on average, they were shot down after 4 missions: the first three to collect data, the last one a one-hit kill.
With GPS, even just real-time position correction could make its flight trajectory more complex, enable a certain degree of autonomous navigation, and greatly increase the damage rate.
Another even more important point is precision, the precision of intelligence collection.
Originally, my drone carried a camera to take photos without location data; in Annam’s jungle, even if you captured valuable information, you wouldn’t know the exact location.
Whether it was artillery you photographed or guerrilla team camps, you could only get a vague direction, a rough distance.
Extremely inaccurate; even post-analysis, the results were equally inaccurate.
With GPS it’s different, because it can add precise geographic coordinates to every image, meaning real-time data fusion.
My drone photographs it, and right after, the missile follows.
It could even be said that the drone itself can act as a target designator, providing GPS coordinates to guide and directly precisely locate the target.
So in 1969, America’s GPS system went online; in 1970, GPS was perfected, with all 34 satellites brightly hanging in the sky.
The new generation of GPS-based drones had already been transported to the Vietnam War frontline.
However, they weren’t used on the Vietnam War frontline, but in Cambodia.
After getting Nixon’s approval, America and South Vietnam boldly invaded Cambodia in 1970.
Because North Vietnam had established a large number of military bases in eastern Cambodia, including weapons, ammunition, and materials.
America didn’t dare cross the line drawn by China, so they chose to attack Cambodia to open the situation.
In the original timeline, this also indirectly led to Pol Pot coming to power later.
Cambodia and Annam are no different; similar climate, similar geographical conditions.
Here permeates the moist earthy flavor that American soldiers hated the most in the past; the places where Saigon seaside officers rested had a sea water flavor that formed a stark contrast.
To the point that soldiers, upon smelling the earthy flavor, would think of death, think of treants that could burst out at any time, bullets that could appear at any moment.
Two months after the Lon Nol coup, America’s invasion operation was already in full swing.
Different from the original spacetime’s pure ground troop advances.
This time, the new generation of drones, codenamed Skyhawk, were in actual combat here.
Why choose Cambodia for actual combat? Instead of the Vietnam frontline?
Because Washington was worried that if these drones’ wreckage was taken by China, they would quickly research countermeasures, causing its power to decline.
They hoped to adjust after obtaining first-hand actual combat data in Cambodia, then mass produce and deploy all at once on the Vietnam War frontline to gain certain strategic advantages.
China’s current presence in Cambodia is very weak, and Washington believed that even if drones crashed in Cambodia, their ground troops could complete recovery.
America’s military experts and engineer team departed from Saigon’s Air Force Base, boarding a C-130 transport plane, crossing the cloud layer over the Annam border.
The team leader was Dr. Allen Harris from Teledyne Technologies Inc., a physicist in his early fifties, and also one of the core engineers of the GPS R&D team.
The Ryan Aeronautics, manufacturer of the aforementioned Ryan drones, had been acquired by Teledyne the year before last.
“Guys,” he shouted to the team in the cabin, “we’re not at war; we’re reshaping war—the professor found God’s eye for us!”
As an engineer who had worked alongside Lin Ran, Allen Harris could be said to worship Lin Ran.
He personally witnessed how, when everyone only had a rough idea, Lin Ran turned the idea into reality.
NASA insiders working on the GPS project unanimously believed Lin Ran accelerated it by at least a decade.
Beside him was Air Force Colonel James Reynolds, an experienced combat engineer from the National Reconnaissance Office, responsible for turning laboratory ideas into battlefield weapons.
The team also included several young scientists holding notebooks and signal testers, repeatedly checking the drones’ data links during the flight.
These Skyhawks were upgraded versions based on the Ryan 147, integrating GPS receivers, capable of autonomous navigation, real-time path adjustment, even locking onto North Vietnam’s supply warehouses in jungle mist.
The transport plane landed at a temporary forward base on the Cambodia border; amid the flying dust, Commander William Abernathy General had been waiting for a long time.
At dawn the next day, testing began.
In the command tent at the jungle edge, screens flickered with real-time satellite signal feedback.
Abernathy stood in the center of the tent, arms crossed.
Beside him was Harris and his team.
The first Skyhawk taxied out the runway, took off silently, no radio remote control, only GPS coordinates guiding it straight to the North Vietnam supply point indicated by intelligence, located in the Parrot’s Beak area 20 kilometers east in Cambodia.
The scientists stared at the display: the drone crossed the cloud layer, avoided known anti-air positions; only coordinates could be synced in real time, images with specific geographic locations had latency, but it was fast enough.
On the screen, North Vietnam’s trucks and ammunition piles were clearly visible; in the bottom right corner, like a watermark, was the geographic coordinate of that camp.
In terms of photo precision at the time, it was indeed clearly visible.
“Target locked,” Reynolds commanded softly; the high-altitude bomber that took off after the drone dropped precision-guided bombs at the predetermined location; GPS-provided data, combined with the missile’s own corrections for wind deviation and terrain error.
One by one, North Vietnam’s warehouses in Cambodia turned to ashes, supply lines cut off.
South Vietnam then began ground advances.
After receiving the report sent back from the frontline, McNamara felt exhilarated inside; the data was right! Statistics was right! Mathematics was even more right!
The reason our efficiency was poor before was because the technology wasn’t in place; it doesn’t mean data commanding war is wrong.
A side note here: in the original spacetime, McNamara was crazy about data commanding war.
How crazy? So crazy that under his leadership, the Pentagon from 1968 to 1973 spent about 1 billion US dollars annually on a new computer-driven program aimed at ending the Vietnam War.
It had many names, including Practice Nine, Muscle Shoals, Illinois City, and Dye Marker.
It was most widely known as “Operation Igloo White.”
Roughly, it meant deploying tens of thousands of seismic, acoustic, and magnetic sensors along the Ho Chi Minh Trail; these sensors, analyzed by computers in real time, detected enemy movement and guided air strikes to completely cut off North Vietnam’s supplies.
(American soldiers dropping gravity sensors during the 1967 Khe Sanh campaign; they look a lot like missiles)
This is also why, under McNamara’s leadership, the Department of Defense so readily placed huge orders with Lin Ran, with NASA’s GPS and Star Wars Program.
Because their plan wasted more money and had worse effects, yet McNamara could approve it.
Now with the professor’s much more practical plan, McNamara made decisions without hesitation.
“President Nixon, our new technology verification on the frontline has been very successful! It effectively struck North Vietnam’s supply lines.
Under the new drones, South Vietnam soldiers burst with unprecedented morale.
This can guarantee that even if we completely withdraw from Annam and only provide materials, the South Vietnam army can still independently snipe enemy infiltration!”
McNamara assured confidently over the phone, his tone full of pride.
In a sense, swinging the fist forward is for peace.
At this time, the outside world could hardly imagine that America’s bold action in Cambodia was for a full troop withdrawal.
After listening, while Nixon felt exhilarated inside, Lin Ran’s words suddenly appeared in his mind: “Mr. President, absolutely, absolutely, don’t hold any, even the slightest hope for South Vietnam.”
This involuntarily extinguished the flame that had ignited in Nixon’s heart.
“McNamara, but the professor says, don’t hold any hope for South Vietnam.”
