When he saw Josie sitting opposite Ross in the yard of Ross's house, Phillips was confused.
At the same time, my heart was full of helplessness.
But helplessness soon turned into determination.
There was no other way. Now that he was in this situation, he couldn't help but retreat. If he stretched out his head, it would be a knife, and if he stepped back, he would be a knife. It would be better to just attack.
"Long time no see, General Phillips!" The last time the two met was in Vienna, when they cooperated to capture the remaining "Hydra".
Of course, those arrested were mainly those die-hards who were unwilling to surrender to Josie, the new leader of Hydra, and some scapegoats that neither Josie nor Austria looked down upon.
At that time, Phillips had just been promoted from colonel to brigadier general, but now he was already a major general.
In terms of promotion speed, it's pretty good.
But to say that he is more capable than William Ross, it is not necessarily true.
After all, William Ross's military rank was really achieved by commanding the army.
To be honest, Phillips largely benefited from the death of Captain America and the credit of Howard Stark, the super scientist.
But I can't stand it because they have a deep background and a lot of power.
"It's been a long time indeed, Mr. Kahn!" Phillips also said hello to Josie honestly.
"General Phillips, you're welcome. Sit down quickly. Speaking of which, you are also Steve's old boss, so we can be considered half-friends." Josie greeted Phillips warmly, as if he were the one who sat down.
The owners here are the same.
William Ross, who was standing by him, didn't mind this either. He smiled at Phillips and said, "You're welcome."
Immediately, the three of them started talking nonsense, with Qiao Xi taking the lead.
It wasn't until Phillips couldn't bear it any longer that Josie suddenly asked a question, "Speaking of which, the Department of Defense is preparing to establish a War Assets Management Department. Phillips, you should know, right?"
"...I've heard a little about it!" Phillips couldn't help but click after hearing the words. Of course he knew about this matter, and as the head of an intelligence agency, he was also a smart person. He immediately looked at William who didn't know what was going on.
Ross glanced at it, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart for Josie's magical powers and William Ross's good luck.
The so-called War Assets Administration, or WAA for short, is a specialized agency established by the United States after World War II to handle the huge inventory of military supplies.
When any country produces military materials, it is impossible to produce them to the extent that the existing military strength is just enough. There will always be a surplus.
During World War II, in order to cope with its own military system of tens of millions and to provide blood transfusions to many allies, the production of military supplies was completely unplanned. It basically produced everything at its best and then accepted everything as ordered.
If you dare to produce it, I will have it.
This resulted in that once the war ended, the U.S. military not only had a large amount of supplies that had not been used up, but also had a large number of orders that had not even been produced.
How much are these huge supplies?
The total valuation exceeds 34 billion U.S. dollars, with more than 4 million categories. There are two large stacks of 28 catalogs, each stack is more than 2 meters high. The items listed on it range from dogs issued to the observation troops stationed in Greenland.
From pulling sleds to the mosquito nets used by soldiers fighting in the South Pacific, from small bullets to aircraft, warships and tanks, they are distributed in 181 warehouses across the United States.
What does 34 billion U.S. dollars mean? In 1945, the U.S.’s annual GDP was only 355 billion U.S. dollars.
This number already exceeded the total assets of any consortium in the United States at that time.
With so many assets, let alone using or selling them, it would take a long time even if they were given away for free.
After the original WAA was officially established in early 1946, under the management of its helmsman, Major General Thomas John, various military material modification equipment were sold throughout the United States.
For example, a washbasin transformed from a steel helmet, a large trainer bomb transformed into a lamp holder, a military tracked vehicle sold as a tractor,
320,000 medical vials became targets at a shooting range.
The snake-shaped hose on the gas mask became a venomous snake toy that children loved in the hands of the toy dealer.
Large quantities of medical bandages were used by Cincinnati garment factories as padding for suit shoulder pads.
Half a million pieces of aluminum ribbon used to jam radar became a trendy Christmas decoration in Washington.
60,000 rocket launchers became elegant lampposts.
4.5 million pairs of fleece-lined flight pants were turned into gloves and slippers, and a mountain of surplus military supplies slowly became available to civilians.
But even so, it can only consume one-seventh of this huge supply.
So while domestic consumption is slowly being consumed, they are also desperately trying to sell abroad. Norway and the Netherlands are ideal buyers of old ships. Italy is most concerned about the military shoe production line; while Czechoslovakia can buy a little of anything as long as it is cheap;
The anxious East Asian countries are concerned about the remaining flour and milk powder in the United States.
At that time, these countries basically did not have much cash, so they used credit, credit, and credit again.
In the end, it turned into a series of bad debts and defaults.
In order to sell these supplies as quickly as possible, the final profit from the US military is often less than one-tenth of the value of the supplies themselves.
But even so, not much can be sold, and most of them can only be thrown away or burned... Even in 2022, there is still a lot of inventory of this batch of materials.
Of course, it’s not like there are no people who make a fortune by reselling these materials, but basically they are just a small fortune.
To the consortium, these materials are just a pile of military garbage with little value.
What is this called? This is called a waste of natural resources.
If this was placed in Josie's hands, and then sold to Daenerys, its value would be at least ten times greater.
I dare not doubt that Daenerys cannot eat it. Now Daenerys is planning to launch a war of conquest across the entire Game of Thrones world, and the demand for military supplies has reached the extreme.
Even if you can't eat it all at once, I believe you will be able to eat most of it slowly by fighting in the future.
And even if you can't eat them all at once, you don't have to worry about these substances going bad if they are placed in Qiao Xi's system warehouse.
In the future, when we encounter a backward world similar to the Game of Thrones world - such as that little doll that hasn't grown up yet, we can still sell it.
But if you want to get the sales management rights of this material, then the position of WAA person in charge must be Qiao Xi's own person.
In his opinion, William Ross is the best candidate.
In particular, WAA is not a temporary organization, but a long-term, well-oiled organization. After all, in the following decades, the war in the United States has basically never stopped.
Especially the South Vietnam War, its scale and consumption were more severe for the United States than the Pacific War.
But it is not easy to recommend General William Ross to fill this position.
It's true that Qiao Xi had a good relationship with the military, but it was limited to the army garrisons in Europe during the war.
This relationship is simply not enough to be considered by the Pentagon.
General McGinnis, the general with the best connections and the highest military rank, not to mention that he is still stationed in Europe. Even if he comes back, a mere four-star general will not change anything at all. After all, during this period, the US military has as many as seven or eight generals.
Ten.
Regardless of whether it is President Truman or Marshall or Eisenhower, the real top military bosses, so far, Josie can only say that he can talk to each other, and cannot reach the point where everything can be settled with one word.
In the United States, it is true that capital has the final say, but only if you are the one at the top.
Of course, if Josie can convince the entire council to help, then this matter will most likely be a success.
However, the interests of everyone on the board of directors are not unanimous.
The massive amount of military waste is something that Josie regards as a treasure. Others led by Thomas may not think so. It is not very possible for them to help him plan for the position of WAA manager. After all, this matter only belongs to Josie.
Self-interest is of little significance to the overall layout of the council.
As for the fact that he had just helped them catch Bucky, Josie was not prepared to use it as a favor.
Because this favor is not enough.
Even if the capture of Bucky failed at that time, it would not have much impact on the Board of Directors. But now that the capture is successful, from the perspective of the Board of Directors, it is not enough for them to spend the price to help Josie fight for the person in charge of WAA.
position.
On the other hand, if Josie is willing to provide the bestiality potion to the council, the council will most likely agree to help Josie, but this is not cost-effective for Josie.
I just didn't expect that when Josie was planning this matter, Phillips himself would bump into it.
In the Marvel movies, as one of the three founders of S.H.I.E.L.D., Phillips has a very low sense of presence because he is not the protagonist, thus making Howard Stark and Peggy Carter the "first-generation S.H.I.E.L.D."
"Top card".
But in fact, Phillips was the most critical link in the original S.H.I.E.L.D.
Although his military rank is not very high, his family is a military family that has existed in the United States since the founding of the United States more than a hundred years ago, and its influence in the Department of Defense is very large.
This is evident from the fact that during World War II, Phillips was able to supervise the "Rebirth Project" with a mere rank of colonel, which invested a huge amount of money and had a high level of confidentiality to create super soldiers.
It was also because of his role as the middleman and leader that he was able to later recruit Howard Stark and Peggy Carter to establish S.H.I.E.L.D.
Otherwise, one is just a scientist and a rich man, and the other is a British agent, and she is also a woman.
Why do they get the support of the military, Congress, the White House and other forces to establish a special organization with powers that surpass almost all existing intelligence agencies in the United States?
Does Howard think he would offend someone by sleeping with someone else's wife?
Phillips is the real key.
So just a waa person in charge? It’s just a trivial matter.
"I think that given the importance of this institution, an officer who is young, powerful, has rich military experience, has enough merit, and has a good relationship with the financial group should take up this position, so that the huge amount of post-war assets can be used as much as possible.
Digest it and get enough funds, what does General Phillips think?" Qiao Xi put forward the conditions with a smile.
"Of course, I think there is no one more suitable for such a candidate than General Ross!" Phillips simply agreed to the deal.
Although this matter is a bit troublesome for Phillips, and from the perspective of pure exchange of interests, Phillips will suffer a great loss, even a big loss.
In theory, a branch of the Strategic Science Corps and a dozen senior agents are not worth the price of the person in charge of WAA.
But that’s not how the account is calculated.
Although the position of the person in charge of WAA is very valuable, the premise is that you must have the ability to eat those things or sell them, otherwise this job may not be a fat job.
The Pentagon is not stupid. They also hope to use this batch of supplies to exchange for as much military spending as possible.
In contrast, the Strategic Science Corps is a special institution established by Phillips and is his lifelong effort.
Although the New York branch is small, it is a very important part of it.
And if this matter continues to escalate, no matter how hard Phillips' relationship is, the entire agency will face the crisis of being abolished - several other intelligence agencies, such as the FBI, SA (National Security Agency) and many other intelligence agencies, but
They have long seen that he is unhappy. As long as they are given a chance, they will not mind trampling to death the Strategic Science Corps, the organization that divides their power.
Therefore, in comparison, he is more willing to pay a small price to help William Ross take the position of WAA manager.
Moreover, William Ross himself is also a very good support target.
Like the Phillips family, the Ross family is actually an old military family, but it is not as strong as the Phillips family, and William Ross's own political acumen is not as good as the Phillips family.
But being a puppet WAA director and earning a wave of qualifications is enough.
Phillips saw clearly that Josie's fundamental purpose was not to help William Ross. The bigger reason was that he was eyeing the terrifyingly large batch of military supplies.
So both sides agreed on the matter in a few words, one willing to fight and the other willing to suffer.
I turned to William Ross, and by the time it was over I still didn’t fully understand the situation.
After Phillips left, Josie explained it carefully to him, and then he understood the meaning of waa.
He didn't have any objections to this, because Qiao Xi made it very clear that for him, taking this position would only be beneficial and would not do any harm.
Since the two parties met, Josie has never cheated old friends like Ross and McGinnis, so his words have a very high credibility.
Afterwards, Josie stayed at Rose's house for another dinner before leaving.
On the way back to the hotel, Josie looked at the busy streets and suddenly realized that she hadn't actually bought a house in New York yet.
Although he has no plans to live in New York permanently due to the shadow brought by the Avengers series of movies in his previous life.
But as a super rich man, having to stay in a hotel every time he comes to New York is a bit too much.
Speaking of which, the future land of the United Nations...