Chapter 65: The Final Hurdle
“Chinese descent? It depends on the specific position.
If it’s Kennedy, for positions that don’t require Congressional approval, someone of Chinese descent has a certain possibility.
Because Kennedy’s attitude toward Chinese people is relatively friendly, from an election perspective, he might appoint one or two officials of Chinese descent to attract ethnic Chinese votes.”
After spending a year in the 1960s, Lin Ran realized that money was just a number to him, so in 2020 he used some of his savings to buy a second-hand battle-damaged Toyota Corolla.
He deliberately drove a full day to Buffalo University to find Li Xiaoman.
Li Xiaoman was surprised that Lin Ran had come all this way covered in dust:
“Additionally, if I remember correctly, Kennedy spoke about ethnic Chinese before being elected, expressing a friendly attitude toward Chinese people.
But Randolph, did you really come all the way from eastern New York State to western New York State just to ask me this?”
They were both at the State University of New York, but the distance between different campuses could be hundreds of kilometers.
Lin Ran’s Stony Brook University was on Long Island in New York State, right near New York City, while Li Xiaoman’s Buffalo University was in Buffalo in western New York State, and the driving distance between them was a full 700 kilometers.
A full year had passed in 1960, plus Lin Ran occasionally staying in 2020 to check information and read papers, so 2020 spacetime had already entered February, and Li Xiaoman had returned to Buffalo to continue school.
Among the many campuses of the State University of New York, only Buffalo University offered a PhD in law.
Lin Ran explained: “I recently found Jerome Wiesner’s manuscript online; he was Kennedy’s chief science advisor.
Then yesterday I had a particularly vivid dream where I appeared in 1960 Washington and was appointed by Kennedy as special assistant for aerospace affairs.
In the dream, Kennedy held my hand and told me to do a good job, instructing me not to let him down.”
Li Xiaoman didn’t find it strange; it’s normal to dream about something when you’re immersed in it. She listened while searching on her mobile phone:
“Jerome Wiesner’s official title was special assistant for science and technology, not chief science advisor. Also, Kennedy had just finished the election in 1960; his appointments wouldn’t start being issued until 1961.
Moreover, at that time, there was the National Aeronautics and Space Council directly led by Vice President Lyndon, so it was unlikely there would be a need for a dedicated special assistant for aerospace affairs.
In summary, your dream is completely unreliable.”
Seeing that Li Xiaoman was seriously analyzing his dream for him, Lin Ran felt touched inside. He stared into her beautiful eyes and asked: “Because the dream felt so real, I wanted to share it with you.
Sister Xiao Man, for a position like Jerome Wiesner’s special assistant for science and technology. I’m very curious, what kind of power and influence does a position like that have?”
Wanting to see her was a white lie; the successive accidents in the 1960s were the real reason. The accidents made Lin Ran cautious, and he didn’t want to have such discussions over the telephone.
“To be honest, so-called special assistants can have great or small authority. On one hand, it depends on your own identity; on the other, it depends on how much power the president is willing to delegate to you.”
After a pause, Li Xiaoman continued: “Taking Kennedy’s time as an example, they established an institution called the National Aeronautics and Space Council, led by Vice President Lyndon Johnson.
If it was like in your dream, serving as special assistant for aerospace affairs, because of Lyndon’s existence, there would actually be no real power at all.
Lyndon’s power was undoubtedly enormous; he could directly influence NASA’s finances, personnel, and supplier choices.
I can’t really understand why Kennedy would have any need to appoint another special assistant for aerospace affairs.”
After chatting with Li Xiaoman, Lin Ran even started doubting his life, because her analysis was indeed correct.
With the National Aeronautics and Space Council in existence, was there really any need to go to the extra trouble?
After spending the weekend with Li Xiaoman and staying two days at Buffalo University, Lin Ran felt his heart calm down again:
“With the gate here, what do I have to fear? Worst case, I go to Hong Kong or Göttingen, or simply stay in China in 2020 and not go abroad.
Are they going to cross spacetime to chase me down?”
“Randolph, the special assistant for aerospace affairs is real.
Because NASA’s rocket launches kept failing continuously in the past, Kennedy was dissatisfied with NASA.
He believed NASA needed to be straightened out, that NASA’s executives needed to be replaced, but that wasn’t enough; he wanted to find a technically professional expert to help manage NASA from an engineering management perspective.
Perhaps, I guess, he hoped you would be the catfish in the catfish effect, to change NASA’s ecosystem.
Additionally, there’s a very important reason: NASA had overly relied on former Nazi German scientists in the past, even including trash like Rudolf Arthur, which reflected the reality that geopolitics trumps ethics.
But that doesn’t mean Kennedy didn’t want to change this situation; he might want to change this situation.
Finally, because of your Chinese descent identity, both Kennedy and Lyndon had relatively friendly attitudes toward ethnic Chinese, and they also hoped to have ethnic Chinese faces in the White House to improve the situation.
As for your professional level in the aerospace field, I don’t know who told them that.” Professor Horkheimer chattered his guesses to Lin Ran.
No matter how things developed, Lin Ran was certain of one thing: he really was going to start working as special assistant for aerospace affairs in a West Wing Office in the White House.
He had thought he’d overtake via General Aerospace, but unexpectedly, it was directly stepping into heaven in one bound.
Special assistant—authority can be great or small. With sixty years of information gap in hand, Lin Ran didn’t think he couldn’t stir up a storm in the White House and NASA.
However, before formally entering NASA, there was one last hurdle: the hearing specifically prepared for his appointment.
Clearly, a person of Chinese descent entering the White House still faced considerable backlash, especially from conservatives.
“Randolph Lin may become the White House’s first senior official with East Asian blood”
“Red scientist about to take over the White House”
“Kennedy’s so-called space race with the Soviet Union turns out to rely on ethnic Chinese?”
America’s newspapers rushed to report on this, especially those supporting the Elephant Party.
Because previously, the White House had never had an ethnic Chinese bureaucrat.
The first black person to serve in a senior administrative role in the White House was in 1865, when William Slade served as personal assistant under President Abraham Lincoln, managing White House affairs, and assisted in arranging the funeral after Lincoln’s assassination.
And the first yellow person to serve in a senior administrative role in the White House was in 1961, when James Thomson served as special assistant for East Asian affairs in the John F. Kennedy administration; Kennedy was also assassinated.
It couldn’t help but make one sigh that history is a cycle.
(James Thomson was born in Nanjing in 1931, entered politics in 1959 as assistant to Congressman Chester Bowles. After the 1960 presidential election, Thomson followed Bowles into the Kennedy administration, first as special assistant to the deputy secretary of state, then as special assistant for East Asian affairs)
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