“A pleasure to meet you,” she said, checking her camera. She’d planned to catch Truman’s first reaction, but Bruin – who’d also made her swot up on Truman’s career – had forbidden it. “May I turn on my camera?”
She hoped that Truman wouldn’t come up with another quote for her to puzzle over. She’d nearly looked an idiot before. “You may,” he said, nearly making her panic.
“Thank you,” she said, tapping the camera. Truman examined it with interest; it didn’t look like any camera he’d ever seen. Charlene smiled to herself; the ball studded with sensors had to look futuristic to him, and daunting. “Recording; this is an interview with President Truman of the United States, conducted by Charlene Molesworth.”
She smiled at him. “Mr President, might I ask what your plans are for the future?”
Truman lifted an eyebrow. “To defeat the Axis powers,” he said. “Past that, to build a better world.”
“Ah,” Charlene said. It had been impossible for anyone, even Bruin, to predict possible answers, but they’d worked out as many as they could. “Do you then support the creation of a United Nations organisation?”
Truman considered for a long moment. “It seems fairly evident that the United Nations failed in the original history,” he said. “While a form of… world discussion centre is perhaps a good idea, I see no reason to repeat the mistakes of the future past.”
Charlene blinked. That was blasphemy, as far as she was concerned. “The United Nations did a lot of good,” she said. “It was only when it was ignored…”
“Which was all the time, according to the histories,” Truman said. “I see no reason to repeat the same mistake, even through… my past self was apparently keen on the idea.” He frowned. “I would like to meet him.”
“Some people have been doing that here,” Charlene said. “What future do you see for black people in America?”
“I have been following policies designed to bring them fully into the mainstream of society,” Truman said. “I will allow them neither to become second-class citizens again, or to be forced into dependency. Of the new divisions we are raising now, most of them will be mixed-race, while the Government will not do business with companies that do not have an equal opportunities policy.”
“An interesting concept,” Charlene said. “Now… the Ministry of Space has basically declared a policy of claiming any object in space, once it gets there and sets up a station. Do you approve of this?”
“Personally, yes,” Truman said. “However, control of a rocky airless world would hardly help them.”
“Space travel is a waste of resources,” Charlene agreed. “However, does it not belong to the world?”
“With an attitude like that, America would never have been settled,” Truman pointed out. “The Military Space Agency supports the British view, however, and they’re the experts.”
Charlene made a face. This wasn’t going well. “And do you intend to defeat Stalin as well?”
“Yes,” Truman said flatly. “Perhaps the United Nations can work without Stalin, but we’ll see.”
“Let’s hope so,” Charlene agreed. “In the future, America will make many mistakes. Will you be attempting to correct them?”
“Of course,” Truman said. “We won’t get involved in Vietnam, for one thing. While we do hope to develop ties with Iran, once it’s liberated, we won’t become involved in the Middle East and – hopefully – less dependent upon oil.”
“Your oil companies must love that,” Charlene said. “Serve them right.”
Truman looked faintly puzzled. “Perhaps,” he said. “Any more questions?”
Charlene thought bitterly for a long moment. Many questions had just… vanished against Truman’s personality. “What do you want from this conference?”
“I want an agreement on how to end this war in the shortest possible time,” Truman said. “I want a joint plan to end the war before we run out of time.”
“And the Germans develop something really unpleasant,” Charlene agreed. She decided that the interview was over. “Thank you for your time.”
She caught Truman kissing her hand on camera this time. “Thank you for an interesting experience,” Truman said. The hell of it, Charlene realised, was that he meant it.
“You handled that pretty well,” Hanover said, as the two leaders sat down over drinks. Truman had been curious about future coffee, but it seemed to be weaker than he liked, while Hanover drank tea.
“I tried,” he said wryly. “This coffee is odd.”
“There was a fad, back in 2005 or thereabouts, for coffee shops to sell nice-tasting coffee,” Hanover commented. “Of course, that misses the point, and there was a big to-do in the papers about coffee debts. They felt that students were spending too much money on designer coffees and that coffee shops should be shut down on general principles.”
Truman took another sip. It was as bad as the first one. “So, what happened?”
“Nothing much,” Hanover said. “The fuss died away, it normally does. The key to governing in a media environment is to remain calm and keep thinking five steps ahead of the mob.”
“I’m glad that America isn’t like that,” Truman said sincerely. “That… child reporter was very imprudent.”
Hanover shrugged. “There’ll be a bigger media conference when you leave,” he said. He made it sound like a threat. “They’ll be all over you. It won’t be long until some bugger decides to set up CNN a few decades too early.”
Truman put down his coffee and took a cup of tea instead. That tasted more like he was used to. “Now, seeing we’re alone together, and we’re talking…”
“Having been carefully briefed by the staff we’re meant to be in charge of,” Hanover said wryly.
They shared a grin. “We should discuss the future,” Truman said. “It is a policy of the American Government” – by which he meant Congress – “to bring the war to a victorious end as soon as possible. I assume that you have a similar objective?”
Hanover nodded. “But what do you mean by a victorious end?” He asked. “We’ve seen enough half-assed American attempts at war.”
Truman, who’d read some of the histories, shuddered at how… weak some of the future Presidents had been. Hoover had even assassinated Bill Clinton’s parents during the Wet Firecracker Rebellion; the man had been disgustingly liberal for his tastes.
“We want democratic governments imposed in Germany and the rest of Europe, including Russia,” Truman said. “We want to make certain that nothing like New York happens again, and we want to ensure that nuclear weapons stay in only our hands.”
“We can be trusted with them,” Hanover said, without irony. Truman nodded. “Between you and me, some of our operations have been aimed at taking down Comrade Stalin’s government from the inside, as it were.”
Truman nodded. The OSS had similar plans; they were just hampered by a lack of agents already in place. “As long as they become democratic, I don’t mind,” he said. “We would, of course, want everyone involved in war crimes hung.”
“No arguments there,” Hanover said. He grinned wryly at him. “Isn’t it wonderful when allies are in agreement?”
“Yes,” Truman said. “As you are no doubt aware, we are currently preparing fifty infantry divisions, fifty armoured divisions and fifty other types of division,” he said. He smiled. “The War Department likes big numbers. We’re also working on our logistical framework, using the knowledge of the future to aid us, and we hope to correct some of the mistakes before they were ever made.”