Chapter 427: The Divine Mike Mcnamara
Lin Ran walked straight to the center of the meeting room, waving his arms and said:
“Victory is the only way for us to escape our current predicament.
We need a general offensive against North Vietnam. This is not a routine tactical offensive; we need a decisive campaign targeting the opponent’s military infrastructure, command centers, and supply lines.
For the Soviet Union, it’s either abandon North Vietnam or come to the Vietnam War frontline personally to clash head-on with us!
We need to use this campaign to let our army quickly occupy key bases, severely damage the North Vietnam army, and force them back to the negotiating table.
Then let the media portray this victory as the turning point of the war, the victory of justice. We need to shift the public’s attention from the Washington scandal to the heroic deeds on the frontline.
At the same time as the military operation, Haldeman, the White House must implement thorough information control over the news media. This is a war of public opinion.”
Lin Ran pointed his finger at White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman.
This core staff member who had followed Nixon since the 1950s, all the way until after the Watergate Scandal when he stepped down with Nixon, and even received an 18-month prison sentence for covering up the Watergate Scandal for Nixon.
“The White House needs to strictly limit the interview scope of war reporters, only allowing them to report screened positive news.
At the same time, we only cooperate with pro-government media to ensure the news of victory is disseminated to the maximum extent.
Select soldiers who performed heroically in this campaign, mold them into national heroes, and widely report on them in major television stations and newspapers.
These heroes will appear at press conferences, recounting their heroic deeds to inspire the public’s patriotic enthusiasm.
，Taking advantage of this victory, the focus was shifted to portray the Hoover affair as a despicable conspiracy orchestrated by Soviet Russia to prevent an American victory.。”
Haldeman nodded in agreement.
Lin Ran then turned to look at Nixon and said: “Mr. President, we need to hold a press conference to announce that we will continue to investigate the Hoover incident, never letting off a bad person, nor letting off a good person.
Use a large amount of ambiguous information to eliminate the public’s interest in the Hoover incident.
On one side, there
On one side, it’s a dead person tied to the Soviet Union, the White House just needs to stick to denial, all evidence is one-sided claims, we are still continuing the investigation, and will keep investigating.
Sooner or later, the public will get tired of Hoover’s news, and good news from the Vietnam War will replace Hoover.
This is a total war, from the frontline to public opinion.”
Lin Ran spoke passionately, and the other White House senior officials nodded frequently.
Nixon suddenly felt puzzled: Am I the President or is he the President?
Why has it now become the professor arranging work?
After thinking for a moment, he said: “The professor spoke very well. We’ll proceed according to this.
However, I need to add two more points.
First, we need to launch an investigation into V, and we need to send more personnel to investigate V’s true identity.
The media can casually assign feats to V, fabricate stories, and depict his life story, but similarly, our FBI, as well as other investigation institutions, must synchronously launch an investigation into V.
The overt information on V is false, but we must privately find out who V really is.”
Nixon pointed to the film reel in the corner:
“If this movie really comes from V, then it gives us the best entry point to grasp V’s true identity.
A movie, from filming to editing, from staff to actor, involves far more than just a few people—at least hundreds or thousands of people—and they always have some who have had deep contact with V.
If this movie came from the Soviet Union or some other organization, then we still need to track it down.
We cannot let them control the process of public opinion and set the topics.
We need to take the initiative back into the White House’s hands.
Second, McNamara, you must go to the frontline. You cannot stay in Washington to command. What I need is victory, not damn numbers.
I don’t need to take statistics classes, and I don’t need you to tell me that we’ve won based on the data—we only lost one soldier, but our opponent lost ten.
Do I not know that 10 is bigger than 1?
I don’t need you to come tell me again that if I really one day become interested in statistics and numbers, I know to let the professor give me a lecture! Instead of you using our soldiers’ lives as examples to lecture me.
Finally, I need an indisputable victory!
“We will turn the current situation around!”
What Nixon and Lin Ran said was pretty much the same.
After hearing this, Lin Ran thought to himself, would the Soviet Union personally intervene this time? Would they send troops to the Vietnam War Frontline for a head-on clash with America?
If so, wouldn’t China, which is doing business on both sides of the war at the same time, make a huge profit?
Kissinger thought to himself, everyone present was a white person, yet they had to have a yellow-skinned Jewish professor teach them how to do it; only when Jewish people reached this level in the White House could they be considered to have influence.
If Washington had more Jewish people like the professor, then their return to the homeland would be even more stable.
After the White House formulated the strategy, the massive war machine began to start up.
Lin Ran returned to Huntsville, this was his base, every appointment here required his approval, he was hailed by the media as the king of NASA.
In the view of NASA employees, such a title would only underestimate Lin Ran’s authority at NASA.
McNamara also came to Huntsville.
He wanted to witness the weapon that would turn the tide of the war here.
GPS.
From Transit to GPS, Lin Ran participated throughout.
GPS is also the foundation of the man-made God on the Moon.
It will undertake the mission of building the 60 spacetime global network.
This is also NASA’s most important task at present.
In NASA’s meeting room, besides McNamara, there was also an Army general in a crisp uniform, Robert Sterling.
His jaw was clenched, having just returned from the Vietnam War frontline and about to head back to the frontline to rejoin the battle.
They thought the pen for the peace agreement was about to be signed, but suddenly a mysterious force appeared and flipped the table over.
The peace agreement couldn’t be signed, and what was about to begin was an even more brutal war.
McNamara spoke first: “Professor, I want to know when the GPS system can be put to use?
We already have 15 GPS satellites in orbit now, very close to the previous estimate of 34 satellites fully operational, though still far from the goal of 10,000 satellites monitoring globally.”
After Lin Ran proposed the Star Wars Program, NASA’s funds have been burning, even more than during the Apollo Program.
Although the reusable rocket has succeeded, the GPS nuclear-powered satellite is a super heavy rocket.
Lin Ran glanced at McNamara, thinking, you really have background; the Vietnam War turned into a pile of shit, yet you can still go to the frontline to command and continue staying in the Secretary of Defense position.
In the original spacetime, McNamara was to retire honorably, moving from the Secretary of Defense position to become president of the World Bank.
But in this spacetime, because of Lin Ran’s admonition, McNamara chose to stay.
As for why the White House changed from the Donkey Party to the Elephant Party, and McNamara could still stay, it’s because he himself is an Elephant Party member with a close relationship to Nixon.
What should be asked more is why the Donkey Party’s White House appointed an Elephant Party professional manager as Secretary of Defense.
On the long table in the center of the room, there was a huge Vietnam War military map spread out, marked with red and blue thumbtacks indicating complex frontlines and supply points.
Robert Sterling pointed to a green area on the map with a baton, a dense jungle.
“This is the problem we’re facing,” Sterling said: “At night or in the rainy season, a platoon of soldiers might get lost in there for hours.
They can’t confirm their position with fire support units or find evacuation points.
This is not just an efficiency problem, it’s a life-and-death problem.
We need GPS to be put to use as soon as possible.”
Lin Ran said calmly: “Secretary McNamara, General Sterling, since we successfully launched the first experimental satellite in 1967, we already have 15 satellites in orbit, covering most Earth orbits.
They all carry high-performance rubidium atomic clocks, capable of emitting extremely precise time signals.
Through passive receivers, ground personnel can calculate their own three-dimensional position and precise time by receiving signals from at least four satellites, with meter-level accuracy.”
Lin Ran placed a silver metal box on the table, slightly larger than a briefcase, covered with complex circuits and antenna interfaces.
“This is a prototype receiver specially designed for the Army, weighing about 5 kilograms, fully transistor-driven.
It identifies each satellite by demodulating the pseudo-random code sent by the satellite and corrects motion errors using Doppler shift.”
This is the product delivered by NASA to America’s army.
A mobile terminal for receiving and transmitting GPS signals.
McNamara didn’t touch the box; he crossed his hands and pondered for a moment.
“5 kilograms,” he repeated, particularly sensitive to numbers: “This already exceeds the load limit for one of my soldiers.
Professor, you just said most orbits, at least four satellites. That means on the battlefield, we can’t guarantee it will always work, right?
We’re still a ways off from being able to use it in all scenarios.”
Lin Ran explained: “Yes, but this problem is expected to be solved next year.
We will solve this problem by adjusting satellite orbits and launching more satellites.
By mid-next year, just mid-next year, we will complete the launch of all 34 GPS satellites.
Additionally, what I need to explain is that what we provide is not just a device in soldiers’ hands.
This is a system.”
Lin Ran turned to the map and circled several key areas with a pen.
“Imagine, when a reconnaissance platoon needs to call for air support, they no longer need to estimate position via map; they just need to transmit the coordinates from the receiver directly to the Air Force in the rear.
Bombers can perform blind drops directly using these coordinates at night or above cloud layers, with precision far exceeding our optical sighting systems.
This can effectively destroy enemy supply lines and secret bases without risking pilots circling at low altitude.
We can also use it in artillery positions.
An artillery battery can quickly and precisely determine its own position and target position on any unknown terrain.
This will greatly reduce deployment time and improve artillery strike efficiency.
Furthermore, in search and rescue missions, if a crashed pilot carries our receiver, we can lock onto their position in the shortest time, saving countless lives.”
After Lin Ran finished speaking, McNamara’s gaze had already lit up.
“Let me design a mathematical model,” McNamara picked up a pen and drew a simple coordinate graph on the notebook, “Assume a platoon of soldiers in the jungle, their position is an uncertainty area, we can represent it with a Gauss distribution, the mean is their estimated position, and the variance is the possibility of them being lost.
And every fire support comes with a risk coefficient, this coefficient depends on their position uncertainty.
The closer our soldiers are to the goal, the higher this risk coefficient, and the more likely our artillery is to friendly fire.”
He turned the notebook toward Lin Ran and General Sterling.
Sterling was cursing inwardly: hasn’t your model screwed us over badly in the past four years?
Frontline ground troops who mention you, McNamara, without cursing are all saints.
“Now, the professor’s system can do what? It can shrink the variance of this Gauss distribution from hundreds of meters to ten meters.
It can turn that uncertainty area into a precise point.” McNamara’s voice grew excited, he pointed to the formula on the notebook, “This is not just a tactical advantage, this is a victory in mathematics.
It will make our friendly fire rate, ammunition consumption rate, and mission failure rate all drop exponentially.”
He looked at General Sterling, his gaze firm and powerful: “Sterling, the soldier life-and-death problem we’ve worried about in the past stems exactly from the uncertainty of the data.
And the professor’s system can provide us with precise data. With precise data, we can make precise decision making, thereby minimizing casualties.”
He looked back at Lin Ran, his eyes full of admiration, thinking the professor was indeed the professor: “Professor, your system is not just navigation, it is a risk control model.
It will turn all the uncertainty variables in the Vietnam War into constants we can control.”
He stood up, walked to the map, and tapped a point on the map with the pen tip.
“I don’t need to know where a platoon of soldiers is, I just need to know their precise coordinate.
I don’t need to know where the enemy is hiding, I just need to know the coordinate where they might be.
Then, I can destroy them with the smallest risk coefficient.”
Sterling closed his eyes, thinking if it weren’t for McNamara’s financial magnates background, he really wanted to shoot him, just like Dobrynin did to Hoover.
However, suppressing his emotions, regaining calmness, and letting reason occupy the brain.
Sterling realized the advantage of this equipment on the battlefield.
Setting aside McNamara’s model, this is not just equipment, it is a tactical revolution.
If this system can mature, it will completely change their disadvantage in the Vietnam War.
He no longer focused on that 5 kg weight, but saw the huge military advantage it could bring.
“I understand,” a new light flickered in Sterling’s eyes: “Professor, what you said is not just navigation, it is about intelligence, fire control, and battlefield survival.
This is a system that can change the rules of war.”
McNamara looked at the staff behind him, his tone carrying no doubt: “Immediately draft a report, list this project as the highest priority.
I want the Pentagon and Congress to know, we are not investing in space, but in victory.
It will win us the war!”
