Chapter 608 Secret Agreement

Among all the powerful countries, the United States is definitely the most special one, and it is also the country with the most complex national conditions.

As an immigrant country, especially the most popular immigrant country before World War I, the United States has many ethnic groups.

Although they are collectively called Americans, they are divided into British, French, German, etc.

Coupled with the previous slave trade, as well as immigrants and stowaways from East Asia, the population of the United States has gathered three races: black, white, and yellow.

What's more, the famous Lincoln gave human rights to black Americans. Although this allowed the United States to win the Civil War, the conflict between blacks and whites has also become an important factor affecting the stability of the United States.

It is no exaggeration to say that if one day the United States eventually splits, then the contradictions and conflicts between races are definitely one of the most important reasons.

At this point in time, compared with later generations, the human rights of blacks are not so stable. There are still a large number of whites who discriminate against blacks, and even do not regard blacks as human beings.

But it has been several decades since the Civil War, and blacks are also demanding more human rights, and even becoming a normal American.

After the instigation of the Australasia and British public opinion bombardment, the American demonstrations have become more and more intense. The content is no longer to demand the United States to withdraw from the war in Central America, but has become a human rights issue between blacks and whites, to resist the atrocities of the US government against the Indians, and to oppose the current US President Coolidge, etc.

Apart from anything else, the United States is definitely more chaotic now. These issues are not easy to deal with, and they can make the situation in the United States worse at any time.

The biggest problem for the United States at present is how to deal with the public opinion bombardment from Britain and Australasia?

If there is a counterattack, there is no need to think about influencing Australasia's public opinion. Australasia's control over public opinion propaganda is still very strict, and it is almost impossible for the United States to sanction Australasia in terms of public opinion propaganda.

The British side is not afraid of the American counterattack at present. The Irish issue is already a cliché, and it has been resolved long ago, and it can't cause much trouble.

The oppression of the African and Indian colonies is already well known to the whole of Britain. Most British people take it for granted and it is impossible to affect the British government.

What else can be promoted? It is impossible to say that the United States was a British colony before, and the policy of massacring Indians began during the British colonial rule.

Although doing so can indeed get rid of some of the blame, the question is, isn't this a self-degradation?

If the public opinion bombardment is only the first threat to the Americans, then increasing support for the Philippines is the second threat from Australasia to the United States.

With the transportation of a new batch of weapons and equipment from Australasia to the Philippines, the Philippines' offensive has become fiercer, and it has not maintained a tacit understanding with the US military.

Even the Philippine military's offensive has a tendency to drive the Americans into the sea. It no longer tolerates the US troops stationed in the port, and has no intention of playing a show-like war of attrition with the United States.

On the first day of the arrival of weapons and equipment, the Philippine army had an all-round offensive and defensive battle with the US garrison in Manila.

The Philippine army suffered more than 1,500 casualties, but also caused at least 300 deaths and 600 injuries to the US army.

Although it seems that the casualties are not equal, the US military has the advantages of firepower and defense, so such a casualty ratio is normal.

More importantly, the US army had only a few thousand people, while the size of the Philippine army had exceeded 100,000.

The first day of the war was just an attack by a small number of Philippine troops. The US army would face more Philippine troops in the future, and it would be a problem whether it could defend the port of Manila.

If the Philippines were lost before the end of the peace talks, the Americans would have lost an important peace condition and would have to pay a greater price.

This was something the Americans did not want to see, but they could not openly send more aid to the Philippines. They could only hope that the US troops in the Philippines could hold on, at least during the entire negotiation period.

But the development of things was obviously beyond the expectations of the Americans. The aid from Australasia was mainly in ammunition, especially artillery shells, which were assisted by more than 500,000 rounds at one time.

Arthur had only one requirement for the Philippines, that is, to launch a full-scale attack on the US army in a short period of time, with enough bullets and shells, and as fierce as the firepower coverage could be.

The Filipinos did not dare to violate Arthur's request. Although they were very distressed, they also fired more than 150,000 shells in three days.

Although such consumption is far behind that of the Australasian army, the weapons and equipment of the Philippine army are different, and the number of artillery is far behind, so such consumption is already acceptable.

The US army, which has been hiding in ports and military bases, has experienced such bombardment again after several years.

Don't trust the military quality of the US army too much, because they will hide in the defense base at the first moment of artillery fire, and it doesn't matter whether they fight back or not.

Some American soldiers even fired bullets everywhere as if they didn't have money in order to complete their tasks rigidly, just to prove that they consumed bullets in the war and fought back against the enemy.

As for whether the enemy is in the sky or on the ground, there is no one to supervise the bombing anyway, so naturally no one can actually consider it.

On the third day of the full-scale attack on the Philippines, the US military had been sending telegrams to the US government for three days.

But it was obvious that the ports in the Philippines were under martial law, and the British and Australasian fleets were patrolling, which would not allow the US support forces to approach the ports.

Without reinforcements, the US army was doomed to not last for a few days, and it was only a matter of time before it was defeated.

Under such pressure, the United States finally made concessions and agreed to Britain's request for more Central American countries, but was still unwilling to give up the Panama Canal.

In addition to Nicaragua, the United States was willing to give up the Republic of Guatemala, which was closer to Mexico and Honduras.

Although Guatemala was larger in area, it was the country farther away from Panama among the Central American countries.

Americans were unwilling to give up Costa Rica, which was closer to Panama. This was equivalent to the buffer zone between Panama and Nicaragua, and it was also the first line of defense for the United States against Central America and British forces.

The Americans' attitude towards the Panama Canal was indeed firm, and they even directly stated that they would go to war for the Panama Canal.

Perhaps it was also because they saw the Americans' final bottom line and knew that it was impossible to obtain the Panama Canal, so the British gradually gave up their demands for the Panama Canal.

In the end, Australasia, Britain and the United States reached an agreement. The United States withdrew from Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador, and withdrew all its troops in Costa Rica.

In addition, the United States allowed the Philippines to be independent, to form a government of any system on its own, and to withdraw all its troops in the Philippines, giving up its sovereignty over the Philippines and its affiliated islands.

In return to the United States, Panama and the Panama Canal will continue to be managed by the United States, and Britain shall not intervene for any reason.

As a buffer state between Panama and Nicaragua, the three countries that signed the agreement are not allowed to build any military bases in Costa Rica, and are only allowed to carry out civil economic development and cooperation.

The Americans specifically requested that the content of the agreement should not be exposed in the short term, and all public opinion output in the United States should be stopped.

Arthur and Britain would naturally agree to this. After all, if the trouble continued, it would be a war. It is not appropriate to start a full-scale war with the United States at present, and no one can bear such a loss.

Having achieved their goals, Britain and Australasia were relatively happy.

Although they did not directly obtain the Panama Canal, the expansion of power in Central America was equivalent to weakening the United States.

The happiest country was Australasia. With the successful acquisition of the Philippines and El Salvador, Australasia's expansion policy on both sides of the Pacific has been completed by more than half.

As long as the Philippines is well controlled, it will also be a very important help for Australasia.

In particular, the relatively rich population of the Philippines can provide a large number of cannon fodder for Australasia in the next war.

However, if a part of the more elite Philippine troops is trained, the combat effectiveness that can be provided is still considerable.

As the saying goes, the bullets fired by soldiers and children have the same lethality, and the firepower of a well-equipped Philippine army is also guaranteed.

Although the US government is the only country that suffered heavy losses, for the current Coolidge government, such a result is acceptable.

After all, Panama and the Panama Canal are still preserved, and the United States at least does not have a too serious crisis.

Moreover, the signing of this agreement was concealed, and the United States can also declare that it will voluntarily withdraw from these areas in exchange for the goodwill of the people.

Anyway, evacuating these areas is what the people want. Under the premise of ensuring the safety of the Panama Canal, what can the people say about evacuating these areas?

However, after this incident, President Coolidge also realized the importance of public opinion to the national government.

After the signing of the agreement, while feeling relieved, President Coolidge also asked the propaganda department to impose stricter restrictions on the publication of newspapers, and even take an attitude like prohibition.

This is not an exaggeration. President Coolidge was really scared by the pressure of public opinion.

Other countries launched some public opinion offensives, and the United States actually had a serious political crisis. No president could accept such a situation.

President Coolidge was even more afraid that Britain and Australasia would launch such a public opinion attack again. President Coolidge didn't want to experience that kind of day of fear for a day.

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