Chapter 79: From Pearl Harbor To Freedom 7: The Crisis Script Reenacted
At the headquarters of The Times in London, after receiving the fax transmitted back from America, the young reporter Frank, who was in charge of receiving faxes, had an expression of utter disbelief on his face.
He rushed out of the large office and ran into the office of the deputy editor-in-chief in charge of international affairs, shouting loudly:
“Sir Hailey, this is bad, America’s manned spaceflight has failed again.”
Sir Hailey, full name John Hailey, was a senior editor at The Times and also served as the general manager of the BBC. In 1946, he was awarded the Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, which entitled him to be called Sir.
In the eyes of Frank, a young editor who had just entered the industry this year, Sir Hailey was the person he wanted to learn from.
“Calm down, for NASA, isn’t failure the norm? What’s so strange about that?” Sir Hailey said calmly.
Even though England and America were allies, as the former king of the world, the English people had an indescribable attitude toward America; they enjoyed seeing America suffer setbacks.
For an old-school noble like Sir Hailey, who attended Victoria College, seeing America suffer a setback was even more satisfying than seeing the Soviet Union suffer one.
“Professor Randolph Lin made a prophecy before the launch, NASA temporarily replaced the astronaut with a gorilla, the original astronaut was seriously ill and deliberately concealed, Kennedy’s speech claimed that someone inside NASA deliberately manufactured NASA’s failure and announced that manned moon landing would be completed in the 1960s.”
After Frank chattered on and finished relaying the content of the transoceanic telegraph, he handed the full content to Sir Hailey.
After Sir Hailey took it, he nodded: “Good, got it. You go write a news article with this as the title.”
After saying that, he left the transoceanic telegraph in his own room, then picked up a Parker 51 from the desk and began writing.
Frank was very surprised: “Sir Hailey, aren’t you shocked at all?”
Sir Hailey shook his head: “Why should I be shocked?
Compared to whether this news can shock me, what I care about is whether the news can be made interesting enough.
This is just a particularly good topic. I’ll write a report myself, you write one, and we’ll see who writes the more interesting one.
If yours is more interesting, I’ll give you the entire front-page headline space and byline.
And after you read it, you’ll naturally understand why I think this event isn’t worth being surprised about.”
Since starting work, Frank had been called an editor but had actually been doing the job of receiving and sending telegraphs.
This time he had the opportunity to write a report himself, and it was even for the front-page headline.
But he really had no confidence that he could write better than Sir Hailey.
“Randolph’s earth-shattering prophecy thwarts NASA’s NAZI German scientists conspiracy”
After racking his brains, Frank felt that this angle might be the one to win unexpectedly.
After all, Randolph, as a hot figure in the mathematics community, had become the special assistant for aerospace affairs after the White House changed hands this year. His overt and covert struggles with the NAZI German scientists would surely attract readers’ attention, Frank thought.
When Frank excitedly brought his finished manuscript to Sir Hailey, Sir Hailey stunned him with one sentence:
“Who said this is a conspiracy by NAZI German scientists?
Operation Paperclip was carried out during the Donkey Party era, and the German scientists were dug up by them too. Even if it really was the German scientists up to no good, the White House side couldn’t possibly admit it publicly.
Isn’t writing it this way just speculation?
Also, where is the earth-shattering part of Randolph’s prophecy? Your report doesn’t even say what he prophesied, just prophesying launch failure—is that earth-shattering?
Then next time I prophesy NASA launch failure too, with an accuracy rate of at least eighty percent—is that earth-shattering too?
Can’t you use your brain before writing?”
After saying that, Sir Hailey handed the already dry manuscript to Frank, on which was prominently written:
“From Pearl Harbor to Freedom 7: The Reenactment of the Crisis Script?”
Frank inwardly grumbled subconsciously, this could connect to Pearl Harbor? But he had to admit, this title immediately piqued his interest as a reader.
He couldn’t help picking up the manuscript and reading it slowly:
“Washington D.C., May 5
When the Freedom 7 spacecraft turned into a burning wreck in the sky, Kennedy publicly declared it a self-directed play by NASA. However, the author can’t help but wonder if this aerospace disaster, like the 1941 Pearl Harbor Incident, was deliberately allowed or even manipulated by the White House, just to find a handle for modifying NASA and to awaken Congress’s purse strings?
Fringe factions in the history community have long accused President Franklin Roosevelt of deciphering the Japanese attack plan in advance but concealing the intelligence, in order to end domestic isolationism and force America into the war.
On April 12, 1961, Soviet astronaut Gagarin completed humanity’s first space flight. April 20: White House staff meeting records show Kennedy demanded consultants manufacture a nationwide sense of shame. May 5: NASA’s originally scheduled first manned suborbital flight, Freedom 7, which was postponed to May 15, failed.
This is more like Pearl Harbor script 2.0. President Kennedy, also from the Donkey Party, inspired by Roosevelt’s Pearl Harbor Incident, wanted to direct a similar play on the stage of the space race.
Retired Admiral Chester Halsey (whose father was a survivor of the sunken Arizona in the Pearl Harbor Incident), who served in the Pacific Fleet, stated in a public interview: The radar warning intelligence received by Admiral Kimmel back then was deliberately delayed in processing.
And today the White House doesn’t even deny that they knew in advance that Freedom 7 and the originally scheduled astronaut had problems. If not for the opportunity to thoroughly modify NASA, and if the White House hadn’t replaced the astronaut with a gorilla, would the truth of the accident have been permanently buried in the dust of history like the Pearl Harbor Incident?
In other words, without the wreck of Freedom 7, where would the national consensus come from? In President Kennedy’s on-site speech, there is a line—’We choose to go to the moon not because it is easy, but because it is hard.’ Maybe he forgot to say the subtext: To make the hard seem deadly enough.”
Sir Hailey’s manuscript linking the Pearl Harbor Incident with this Freedom 7 was a stroke of genius.
Because the Pearl Harbor Incident, as the turning point of World War II that led America to formally join the war, has long been considered by some historians to be the result of Roosevelt’s deliberate inducement.
“Sir, you’re really amazing. How come I didn’t think of that?” Frank put down the manuscript, looking as if he hadn’t had enough.
Sir Hailey smiled faintly: “When you’ve experienced enough time, you’ll naturally know how to connect them.”
Frank asked seriously: “Sir, do you really think this is a White House conspiracy?”
Sir Hailey shook his head: “What I think doesn’t matter; what matters is what the audience wants to see.
Also, as for the truth of the facts, I think when Professor Lin comes to London to receive the Queen’s medal, I’ll naturally know from interviewing him then.”
