When that strange little man came into his life, he knew this would be the time to strike. Combined with the massive demobilization of the U.S. and Britain, his own army taking up precious resources and Sergo’s promised anti-bomber missile system, the time seemed ripe to strike.
Now that the U.S. had foolishly let both the atomic bomb and the B-29 bomber fall into his lap, it seemed that all logic pointed towards fulfilling his dreams before it was too late. The fact that the U.S. had very few atomic bombs and his spies had sabotaged their production facilities, only added to his reasoning.
Yet the looming drought and lack of food, combined with the starving masses in Europe, would force some hard decisions on who would live and who would die. He was used to such decisions and did not shy away from making them. By the time the Americans are able to even try to subjugate Europe once more his successors will have the atomic bomb, the Tupolev Tu-4 bomber and the greatest army that the world has ever seen. They will never even try.
In a few years, the Soviet system will out-produce their feeble attempts. New oil and aluminum ore deposits, as well as other strategic materials, are being discovered every day within his greater Soviet Union. The entire world will see the advantages of Communism, even without more conquests or invasions. The capitalists will be defeated as their own peoples rise in revolt.
As long as Sergo and the others, kept advancing their scientific knowledge regarding air-defense there will soon be no possibility of the Americans attacking the Motherland in that manner. They are too cowardly to fight man-to-man with the Red Army. Their only way to defeat us is to use the coward’s way. They will try to bomb us and we will keep shooting their planes out of the sky. No, as long as we can stay focused and defend our skies time is our ally.
In twelve months there will no longer be a need for subterfuge to defeat the enemy’s bombers. There will be enough missiles to ring all major strategic targets. His new jets will be the equal to anything the U.S. can produce. Combined with Sergo’s missiles, they would be safe from an assault from the air. The MiG design bureau has promised a new model jet fighter that will sweep the skies of the Americans, and soon, he will have missiles that will be able to reach America. They would not dare attack then.
Eventually, he would have the atomic bomb, and the means to deliver it but even that may not be needed.
For the most part the army had done its job. As soon as Spain was conquered, he too could demobilize the ground forces and concentrate on the air force and possibly, the navy. These would be the future weapons to keep the capitalists at bay until their ultimate defeat by their own peoples.
Time is on our side. Soon the world will see the superiority of the Soviet system and the teachings of Comrades Marx and Lenin. Britain should be joining us soon after it becomes apparent that the corrupt capitalist system cannot even feed them.
He had made the right decision and the time was ripe for conquest. History will prove him justified and he will go down in history as the savior of mankind.
With those thoughts swirling in his mind, he drifted off into a chemically-induced sleep.
“Hey! What’s going on in there?”
“You know that guy that wrote that economics book that made it into Readers Digest and then the condensed version? The one named ‘Road to Serfdom?’ You know, the one that got all the attention a while back arguing against that English guy? You know, the one that Roosevelt liked… Keys or Keynes… or something like that. Well this guy is named Hayek, and he argues almost exactly the opposite.
“What do you mean?”
“Well from what I can make of it that Keynes guy says the government has a vital role to play when the economy goes in the tank, like what happened in 1928. Things stayed pretty miserable until FDR started putting government money into all the parks, dams, roads and stuff; you know, the public works programs and the CCC.”
“Yeah I was in one of those. We had some good times. We worked in Tennessee and made some money that we could send home. It sure kept our family from starving and I learned some good skills that…”
“Okay, I get it. I was in the CCC myself. This Keynes guy’s approach has been taken to the extreme by the new guy in England. You know, that Attlee guy. He wants to have the government take over the mines, the phone system, and the trains… just about everything. In fact I think I read that they had already done it to the Bank of England.”
“You mean the government is running the banks? Wow! I bet that doesn’t sit too well with those Wall Street types!”
“Now you’re getting it. The guy talking to Truman has some henchmen in there with him. Some little guy named Freeman, or Friedman and enough southern Senators to choke a horse. They’re all beating up on this Keys guy’s ideas and trying to convince Truman not to give the Brits any more money until they change their ways.”
“The hell you say! The Reds are breathing down their neck. How can we abandon them now, for Christ’s sake? We just fought side by side, with them. Hell, a Limey saved my ass in those hedgerows. Dashed out from under cover, and hauled me back to safety.”
“Well, I guess what those guys in there are pitching is that there is no way the Reds are going to get across the channel. The Brits still have a hell of a navy and we can help them out in that area too. All the commies can do is to attack them from the air. Nothing they haven’t seen before. Last time they did alright without us so maybe this time is the same? In the meantime, this Attlee guy gets all the blame and they vote him out and get someone more to our liking with promises from us that we’ll lend them money again as soon as they reverse their nationalization program. They’ll have to change over to what this Friedman guy is talking about, where the government just plays around with the money supply and the Wall Street types take care of the rest.”
“Well call me a monkey’s uncle if that don’t sound like blackmail! That’s pretty underhanded to let all those people die just so the bankers can get what they want. FDR’s, and this Keynes guy’s, ways worked pretty well for us. Why won’t it work for them?”
“It does sound kind of nasty and cruel but from what they were saying in the hallway before they went in, ‘a little pain now will stop a whole lot of pain later.’ I say tell that to the dead kids after the Reds clean their clock. The little guy even had a name for it, ‘shock therapy,’ he kept saying. You know like when they got you in the loony-bin and they hook you up to electricity and shock the crap out of you? It’s supposed to rewire your brain, or something.”
“Sounds pretty drastic to me.”
“Hopefully for the Brits, Truman throws them out but in the meantime the Senators are holding up any more money going to England. Even if the money starts flowing again tomorrow they’ve been stalling for three months now and the Reds are going to attack soon. How many factories are going to be able to reconvert in Britain that fast to make any difference? How many workers are going to work for free when they are rationing bread? I think they’ve run out of time and they’ll have to fight with what they got on hand.”
“God help them, is all I can say.”
“Amen to that.”
The man had a slight trace of a limp as he walked across the concrete towards the door of the munitions section. He passed by the sandbags, saluted the guard and went inside. The private at the desk looked up and smiled, then stood at attention and gave the visitor a smart salute.