Chapter 106: This Thing Is Just Right
“Professor, congratulations!”
“Director, congratulations on winning the Nobel Peace Prize!”
Lin Ran walked into the office lobby of Redstone Arsenal, and everyone stood up to applaud him.
This was NASA’s first Nobel Prize winner.
Not to mention inside NASA, even including scientists indirectly working for NASA externally, there were very few Nobel Prize winners.
Lin Ran won the Nobel Peace Prize, but it was still a Nobel Prize, a kind of glory.
At present, the Nobel Peace Prize was not yet considered to have no value, nor was it seen as the result of political manipulation.
On the contrary, because of the hotline proposed by Lin Ran and his promotion of negotiations between the White House and the Kremlin, his winning the award met everyone’s expectations.
Promoting negotiations between the White House and the Kremlin around the hotline and the Berlin Crisis to win the Nobel Peace Prize would make the public feel that this was the Nobel Prize keeping pace with the times, truly embodying the pursuit of peace.
For the NASA staff who often worked with Lin Ran, they would think even more so.
Among them, the blond, blue-eyed staff specially presented flowers to him.
However, Lin Ran had no mind for this at all; he kept thinking about what would be more suitable to give to China at present.
Plus, going to Geneva this time, anything too big would definitely not be appropriate.
Giving a USB drive loaded with technical data—probably by the time he returned, the Chinese side wouldn’t even open it.
After thinking it over, Lin Ran decided to provide an unmarked single-board computer to China.
That is, the so-called rudimentary version of the Raspberry Pi.
The smallest Raspberry Pi was only the size of a credit card, relying on a microSD card as the main storage medium.
Small as it is, it has all the vital organs.
Inside, with built-in simulation software for fluid mechanics simulation, plus the already declassified technical data of the U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, used to stimulate the Chinese side to increase resource investment to reverse-engineer the single-board computer he provided.
After all, the standardized interfaces he provided still required developing corresponding displays and input devices to be usable.
If there wasn’t some real substance inside, what if the Chinese side didn’t invest enough.
And the U-2 was still in service in America even until 2024, showing its value.
Therefore, the U-2, as a reconnaissance aircraft only successfully developed in the 1950s, was just right technically at present.
Suitable for China to chase, replicate, and research.
Next year, China would shoot down a U-2, and with the two contrasting each other, the information he provided would be more valued.
Also, don’t think that China’s experts at present couldn’t recognize what a single-board computer was.
Although China’s electronic technology was mainly focused on vacuum tubes now, what the Russians provided was vacuum tube production processes, and the first domestically developed computer 103 in 1958 was also based on vacuum tubes.
But China knew about transistors; Wu Xijiu and others who returned to China with Dean Qian had studied electrical telecommunications at Berkeley before returning, graduating first in the electronics department, then pursuing a master’s at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, becoming the first batch of technical personnel involved in transistor design and manufacturing.
After Wu Xijiu returned to China in 1956, that same year he led the Applied Physics Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to successfully develop China’s first transistor.
Including the design team responsible for transistor computer research and development, which would also be established next year.
In Lin Ran’s view, this thing was just right, letting China know that the future direction of computer development was transistors while making them realize why America wanted to develop transistor computers.
The greatest value of the single-board computer, besides itself, was pointing out the future direction of technological development.
America had obtained alien technology wreckage, so it dared to be sure that transistors were the future direction of technological development.
During the Cold War, everyone strongly believed in the existence of aliens, and reports of Area 51 in the media began in the 1950s.
Lin Ran, as a senior official in the White House responsible for aerospace, packaged the single-board computer as a product he obtained from Area 51; whether it was the alien original or the American replicate version didn’t matter—anyway, China couldn’t possibly come ask.
And what was loaded inside was perfectly the U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft data that Area 51 was responsible for developing.
Additionally, Lin Ran also considered whether to stuff hybrid rice technology inside, but after much left-and-right thinking, it wasn’t worry about the so-called butterfly effect or the like, but worry that providing hybrid rice to China would give them an unrealistic fantasy:
“The reason our crops don’t have high yields per mu isn’t because the crops can’t achieve it, but because we haven’t excavated the potential of the crops.”
After all, hybrid rice was a completely
To avoid this possibility, Lin Ran ultimately did not include the hybrid rice in New York in 2020.
On the plane to Geneva, besides Vice President Lyndon Johnson, there was also Secretary of State Dean Rusk.
If Lyndon Johnson and Lin Ran had a direct superior-subordinate relationship, then Dean Rusk was Lin Ran’s sponsor, because besides his identity as Secretary of State, he was also the chairman of the Rockefeller Foundation.
Dean had been a board member since 1950 and chairman of the Rockefeller Foundation since 1952.
One interesting thing about Dean was that from Kennedy to Johnson, he had repeatedly offered to resign, and the last time in 1967 was because his daughter Peggy planned to marry a black man, and he worried it would create a political burden for the White House.
After all, at that time many white people couldn’t accept this, and it could become a reason for the Elephant Party to attack.
From this incident, it can also be seen that Dean, as a Donkey Party member, didn’t have much racial discrimination mindset.
“Randolph, maybe Korolev is waiting for you in Geneva again.” On the special plane flying to Geneva, Dean teased.
Previously, when everyone didn’t know who Korolev was, they gave him the nickname of chief designer; now that his real name was exposed, they naturally called him by name directly.
Lin Ran smiled and said, “If he scares me again, don’t blame me for not being friendly to the elderly.”
Lyndon Johnson didn’t talk about this topic; he kept thinking about the negotiations: “Randolph, what do you say we should do to overpower them in momentum?”
The White House proposed establishing a hotline, which caused cheers in Europe; everyone thought this was responsible performance, a statement for world peace.
But in America, this was seen by some as a sign of weakness, after all, the Berlin Crisis didn’t happen on the American mainland.
Americans felt this was the White House actively seeking peace.
Therefore, Lyndon Johnson hoped to reflect his toughness in some form during the negotiation process.
Lin Ran picked up a sheet of White House letter paper from the table beside him and slowly folded it into the shape of a paper airplane.
(1961 White House presidential office letter paper, from the Kennedy Presidential Library)
“At the end of the negotiations, fold our demands into a paper airplane and fly it to Mikoyan.” Lin Ran handed the paper airplane to Lyndon Johnson and said.
This was also what Wright did to the Japanese when America and Japan signed the Plaza Accord in the future.
“Then have White House employees leak the incident to the media; this will be a humiliation to the Soviet Union.” Lin Ran said.
After Lyndon Johnson took the paper airplane, his eyes lit up, because it was simple: weakness was Kennedy’s weakness, and it had little to do with him.
The vice president couldn’t be expected to take the blame for the president over something like this.
But toughness—that would be his toughness.
This would form a stark contrast.
Lyndon Johnson didn’t think the presidential election three years later would be his turn, at least not within the Donkey Party where he couldn’t win against Kennedy, but seven years later? Seven years later, the Donkey Party could almost say he was the only suitable one.
Of course, he didn’t know the opportunity would come in two years.
For the election seven years later, Lyndon Johnson hoped to accumulate capital for himself in every possible way.
However, he was still a bit hesitant: “Would such an attitude not be good?
What if the talks fail, and the Soviet people feel humiliated, leading to further escalation of the Berlin Crisis?”
“So at the very end, when the terms are all settled, the other side will have scruples due to sunk costs; we humiliate Mikoyan, but the final decision-maker is Nikita.” Lin Ran explained.
Sunk cost wasn’t a new term; Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations had a similar concept, and Paul Samuelson’s Economics published in 1948 explicitly defined the concept of sunk cost.
“Good, this idea is not bad; I’ll seriously consider it.” Lyndon Johnson lightly tossed the paper airplane forward in the special plane cabin, fantasizing it was at the negotiation site.
Clearly, Lyndon Johnson was convinced by Lin Ran’s suggestion; after all, if the talks failed, it was Kennedy’s fault, but if they succeeded, it would gain him recognition from the public.
This deal was not a loss.
Moreover, even if the other side didn’t agree, they could concede two more steps; it wasn’t impossible.
It was equivalent to trading face for substance; the face was his, the substance was America’s, Lyndon Johnson thought.
Dean was dumbfounded; it wasn’t because Lin Ran’s suggestion was so awesome—the paper airplane humiliation was indeed creative—but Dean thought, although what Lin Ran said made sense, weren’t you afraid that if the Soviets really flipped out.
He further associated it with the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to the other side, but their behavior didn’t seem aimed at peace.
This was also a kind of information gap; from a God’s-eye view, Lin Ran deeply knew the nature of the Russian high-level officials facing America’s weakness, posturing, and fragility that broke at a poke, so he made such an unbridled suggestion.
The negotiations were held at the Palais des Nations at 14 Geneva Peace Avenue, which was also the location of the United Nations European headquarters; too many international conferences had been held here in the past.
This negotiation was held in the main conference hall, with a rectangular wooden conference table in the center, three national flags placed on the table, and documents, water cups, and pens beside them.
A world map and the United Nations emblem hung on the wall.
Lin Ran, as the American representative, looked eagerly at the Chinese representative.
Fortunately, the Raspberry Pi was small enough; even needing to confirm no dangerous items were carried before starting, for someone of his level, the check wouldn’t be too strict—confirming no gun was fine.
Not giving hybrid rice technology was due to historical reasons; the U-2 blueprints and specific design information plus simulation software would already fill the Raspberry Pi to bursting; couldn’t fit more.
Additionally, the Raspberry Pi would also have a strong connection to the plot in the 1970s later; no more spoilers, updated 7k yesterday, continuing daily ten thousand today, woo woo seeking monthly tickets!
