"Huh? What exactly is it?" John raised his eyebrows. He still didn't understand what it meant, but he immediately came to his senses and asked, "Oil embargo?"
"Uh-huh! Targeting India alone." Alan Wilson said to his old friend, "Oil is a weapon, especially for India. Does India have large oil-producing areas across the country? No. If so, wouldn't we know about it?
?Oil is a major weakness of India, so once the India-Pakistan war starts, letting Middle Eastern countries use it as a weapon can help Pakistan."
"Oil, this is where the Germans lost in the first place." John chuckled and compared the Germans to India, "Do you think oil is enough to defeat India?"
"We won't do this if we can defeat us, but it can make India quite uncomfortable. But then again, this is not a weakness of Europe. Compared with the United States and the Soviet Union, Europe has too many resource shortcomings."
Alan Wilson sighed deeply. Europe, to be precise, Western Europe, is on the same level as India in terms of natural resources. What is better than India is that Europe's agricultural conditions are good, at least it has hot and rainy seasons, unlike India where it rains all the time.
Focus on two months.
To say that there are not many places with good natural conditions in the world, there are not many good places that favor industry and agriculture, such as the European part of the Soviet Union, a certain big country and the United States.
Comparing the conditions of the agricultural era alone, the United States cannot be ranked. The cold wave in North America that harvests regularly every few years makes the farming community untenable. Otherwise, Spain would choose North America instead of Central America as the center. Of course, who in the industrial era
Everyone acknowledges that the United States is uniquely endowed with favorable conditions.
Of course, a large country in the industrial era was not bad, and its various mineral reserves were relatively large, but the quality was not very good. No matter how you compare it, not every country is Australia.
As for Western Europe, the agricultural conditions in Western Europe are okay, but the two countries are going crazy because the coal and iron on the German-French border belong to the two countries. The British only have coal and iron of poor quality and suppress Western Europe. You know that Western Europe and India are in natural resources.
The reputation of "mountain-side-by-side" is not unfounded.
"You know this, why are you still doing this?" John was very surprised. Europe also lacks oil. Of course, Britain does not. Britain has North Sea oil, but North Sea oil cannot fill the oil gap in Europe. Today, the Middle East countries are facing a shortage of oil.
If India does this, if Arab countries taste the benefits, will they use it in Europe in the future?
"In fact, for us, the harm is not big. After the development of the Gulf of Guinea in Africa, the harm of the oil embargo to Europe is controllable. But India does not have the conditions that we do not have. Moreover, if such a thing happens, it will provide European countries with
Wake up and realize that oil security is also a good thing." Alan Wilson told his friends that the reason for doing this was simply to use India as a touchstone for Europe.
Alan Wilson is the staunchly pro-European Cabinet Secretary-General, and now the situation is much bigger than before. At least it has changed from Britain will never surrender until the blood of the Indians is shed to Europe will never surrender.
"Furthermore, the UK has not withdrawn from the Persian Gulf. This can be used to get European countries to support the UK's permanent presence in the Persian Gulf, at least with understanding." Alan Wilson continued to persuade, "Let them know that Europe cannot be self-sufficient in energy, and energy security problems are serious.
.In this case, they are at least secretly supporting Britain's presence in the Persian Gulf."
When playing cards, different timing of playing cards will bring different results. The oil crisis was originally the result of the Fourth Middle East War due to the West’s support for Israel. That time, the United States suffered heavy losses, not to mention Europe.
At that time, the British military presence had already withdrawn from the Persian Gulf, so it was naturally unable to exert influence.
It is easy to withdraw something like a colony, but it is even more difficult to go back. If an oil crisis broke out while Britain was still there, and the tragedy became known to European countries. Not only would Europe have no objection to Britain's presence in the Persian Gulf,
The British mainland can also recognize this risk, and it is no longer a naive so-called decolonization.
As long as the UK stays in the Persian Gulf, it will naturally have solutions to many problems in the Middle East. Whatever the US wants to do, it must have the cooperation of the UK. As long as the UK does not cooperate, it cannot be done.
John was silent for a long time, nodded and said, "Will the cabinet agree?"
"Does the cabinet dare to joke about its own approval rating? They don't dare!" Alan Wilson said in a don't joke tone. "The spontaneous actions of Arab countries have nothing to do with the United Kingdom. Since it has nothing to do with the United Kingdom, it is important whether the cabinet agrees.
What?"
Anyway, Alan Wilson felt that while Britain still had a military presence in the Persian Gulf, it would be beneficial to have a targeted oil crisis. It would use India's predicament to serve Britain.
It can also show the unity among the Peace Cults and make Europe aware of the energy issue. There are not many things that can be achieved with one stone. It is a win-win outcome.
Now that the United States is busy marching its troops north, it is unlikely to intervene in the war between India and Pakistan. At this time, when will the United Kingdom not take the initiative to shoulder the important responsibility of the special relationship between Britain and the United States?
The importance of the Persian Gulf has been raised. Is it necessary to retain Britain's huge ocean-going fleet? Is it necessary to maintain the shipbuilding industry? This is also good for the Royal Navy.
It must be emphasized here that the United States has never been a strong shipbuilding country. The booming development of American shipbuilding is closely related to the World War. Once the war is over, American shipbuilding will return to its original shape. Currently, the largest fleet in the world is still
It is owned by the United Kingdom, and even Japan's fleet is much larger than that of the United States.
The U.S. shipbuilding industry only serves the military field, and it is not a problem that only appeared in the 21st century. It is just that there are still some civilian shipbuildings that are better than nothing. It is not like this will disappear in future generations.
Even the merchant fleet that travels between North America and Europe is mostly British, and the American merchant fleet is very small.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Of course, it is still much better than later generations. In the 21st century, among the more than 40,000 ocean-going merchant ships in the world, the number of merchant ships registered in the United States is less than 200.
Ships. Although the annual trade volume in and out of the United States exceeds one trillion U.S. dollars, and the vast majority of it is transported by sea ships, ships registered in the United States only account for about one percent.
The powerful U.S. Navy is protecting the route from a certain major country to the United States to prevent this extremely important lifeline for the United States from being threatened by a certain major country.
In the past 1964, the civilian shipbuilding industry in the United States only fluctuated around 200,000 tons a year, which was only a fraction of the current British shipbuilding industry. As Alan Wilson targeted Japan, the civilian shipbuilding industry in the United Kingdom and Japan
Competition will only have a negative impact on the U.S. shipbuilding industry, which is already better than nothing.
Of course, it is always a bit unsafe to only take action in Arab countries. Alan Wilson thought hard and took into account the interests of Portugal, a loyal ally for hundreds of years. He decided to have some exchanges in the field of intelligence cooperation, hoping that the Salazar government could
Use your influence to play a positive role in this conflict between India and Pakistan.
Although Portugal has laid mines around Goa, gone back on its word with New Delhi, and is not negotiating on the Goa issue, objectively Goa is still in Portuguese hands. The Salazar government cannot deny this fact and should make its due contribution to regional peace.
If a war breaks out between India and Pakistan and affects the stability of South Asia, Portugal's interests will also be harmed. This is a bad thing for everyone, and Britain is not willing to see this situation happen.
The meeting of colonial commissioners ended in victory. Profits would give Britain the motivation to continue to maintain the existence of the colonies. The major commissioners in the colonies still had a general understanding and understood what this meant.
The first batch of Marine Corps to cross the ocean from the United States, a total of 3,500 marines, landed in South Vietnam. It was already March. In the past period, the United States dispatched an average of 3,600 aircraft per month.
sorties, carpet bombing North Vietnam.
"In terms of intelligence support, we still need to work closely with Washington. This is also the intention of the Prime Minister." Richard White of General Intelligence 6 was called, and Alan Wilson solemnly ordered, "It is not in the interests of the United Kingdom to join the war.
, and we are in a confrontation with Indonesia and cannot get away. But outside the military field, we still firmly support all actions of the United States."
Richard White nodded to express his understanding, "We have always maintained close contact with the United States. There is absolutely no problem with this."
"What else? Pay attention to the brutality of civilians by American soldiers." Now that the trivial matters were over, Alan Wilson began to talk about serious matters, "Don't get me wrong, Americans always say that Britain is a colonizer. During the Nassau Conference,
We have produced some evidence of mishandling by U.S. soldiers in Japan and South Korea. Well, we have to keep pace with the times. You and I both know that everyone in the war hopes not to disturb civilians, but in fact it is not
It’s possible. War itself is life-threatening, and you still expect the soldiers participating in the war to be like angels?”
"Cruelty against civilians will definitely occur. We have some evidence in our hands, which will have a positive effect on the exchanges between Britain and the United States."
"Well, I understand." Richard White accepted this explanation and heard the secretary-general continue, "Secretary work is extremely important. We don't want to delay the actions of the US military. We can even help cover up some incidents, but like
As I just said, you must have the evidence in your hands. Also, be careful. Britain will not nominally participate in any aspect of the war. Agents working abroad should not cause trouble for Britain."
At present, the nine missing agents in Indonesia must have unfortunately died for the country, because the Soviets did not make a fuss about the matter. This also made Alan Wilson breathe a sigh of relief, and can only say that he died a worthy death.