The Freedom Road Action lets Americans know about Vietnam. Eisenhower's domino talk about movies such as "The Freedom Road" and "Miss Hanoi" produced by DreamWorks, which has won the sympathy and support of many Americans.

Moreover, the achievements of Diem and his administration have achieved in the past few years with the help of the United States have been remarkable.

Gain independence from the French, miraculously wiped out the warlords of the sect, accepted and resettled more than 2 million refugees, completed the nationalization of the military, and basically eliminated the domestic Vietnamese forces. Agriculture developed rapidly, and rice exported more than 2 million tons last year. The industrial village plans to achieve phased results. From the end of this year, ordinary steel, cement, fertilizer and other materials will no longer rely on imports.

Diplomacy is even more amazing.

So far, it has been with the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Japan, Italy, the Republic of China, South Korea, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Spain, Cuba, Haiti, Bolivia, Guatelagua, Brazil, Libya, Nicaragua, Chile, Greece, Luxembourg, Argentina, Costa Rica, Canada, Laos, Turkey, Belgium.

51 countries including Austria, West Germany, Vatican, South Africa, Honduras, Venezuela, Guatemala, Colombia, Sudan, Jordan, Portugal, Denmark, Lebanon, Ghana, Morocco, Tunisia, Malaysia, Switzerland, Sweden, Iraq, Indonesia and Norway have established diplomatic relations.

Ireland, El Salvador, Peru, Panama, Uruguay, Iran, Ethiopia and Dominia, although they did not formally recognize the Republic of Vietnam, voted in favor of the issue of joining the United Nations, implying recognition of South Vietnam as a legitimate government.

Although India did not formally recognize and did not exchange consular documents with each other, it sent a consul general in Saigon.

The same is true for Myanmar and Cambodia. Not only is North Vietnam far inferior in this regard, but even the Republic of China, one of the five permanent members of the United Nations, is willing to take a disadvantage.

Although red flowers are good, green leaves need support.

Li Weimin won the Oscar for Best Original Music Award for three consecutive years. He is known as "Chopin of Vietnam". He is a famous musician, entrepreneur and philanthropist. Even his beloved wife has been on the cover of Time magazine. He is known as "The Lotus of Saigon". He is well-known in the United States to catch up with big stars such as Gregory Parker.

His "green leaf" adds a lot of color to the "red flower" of Ng Diem.

After five years, he set foot on the US territory again. It is no longer so deserted and no longer hits walls everywhere. President Eisenhower personally went to the airport to greet him and was welcomed by the US government as unprecedented.

The high reception specifications do not mean that there is no difference between the two sides. Li Weimin clearly understands that Eisenhower is so high-profile, largely in order to send a positive signal to allies of the "free world" that are facing threats from the Soviet camp, including West Germany, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.

As he expected, when they arrived at the White House and when they talked about substantive issues, the two sides were not as happy as they first met at the airport.

After giving the state gift, Ng Diem said straight to the point: "Mr. President, we sincerely hope that the United States can increase its aid and help us increase the number of army from the current 150,000 to 170,000, because the number of North Vietnamese troops has exceeded 40,000."

Eisenhower remained silent, and Li Weimin was embarrassed.

He translated it word by word. Diem talked about the importance of Laos and Cambodia: "North Vietnam will definitely cross the territory of Laos and Cambodia to attack our Mekong region. If North Vietnam launches an attack, we will not be able to resist because there is a very long border between the three countries."

Eisenhower said perfunctorily: "Mr. President, if that happens, the United Nations will do everything to help our allies. We have the Southeast Asian Defense Treaty Organization, and your country is not fighting alone."

What a joke about the Southeast Asian Defense Treaty Organization?

Diem Ng was extremely depressed and said solemnly: "Mr. President, I have carefully studied that treaty and found that the treaty has only good deterrence. If South Vietnam is attacked, Pakistan is too far away and cannot be counted on, only the Philippines and Thailand can rely on. However, the Philippines has only 60,000 troops, and can only protect itself. Thailand has 150,000 troops. If North Vietnam attacks Thailand through Laos at the same time, Thailand will not even have enough troops to defend itself."

The Southeast Asian Defense Treaty Organization is not the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, how could Eisenhower not knowing that none of the allies could count on?

When it comes to money, he will not give in. He said bluntly: "Mr. President, the United Nations will do its best to help our allies, but remember that we have many other international obligations, such as Europe and South Korea. Our financial aid is not limitless, we must use our resources reasonably. Here, I must regret to tell you that Congress is considering very little economic aid to South Vietnam."

After the translation, Li Weimin noticed that Ng Dienm's face suddenly turned blue, which was undoubtedly a heavy blow to him.

Because the US's economic aid accounts for almost 6% of the South Vietnamese government's budget. Without reducing aid, South Vietnam still lacks funds to strengthen the armed forces in rural areas. Now, let alone consolidating the results of the purge to fight the infiltration of North Vietnam, it is a problem whether the existing 150,000 national troops can be maintained.

Of course, Ng Diem could not give up and immediately adopt a roundabout strategy.

On the grounds of reducing "administrative friction", the security forces should be transferred from the Ministry of Interior to the Ministry of National Defense. Eisenhower opposed this in the name of the security forces being controlled by civilians, and even suggested gradually reducing the number of security forces by 4%.

The essence of the dispute is still the amount of military aid, because once the security forces are under the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense, they should be no less than the regular army in terms of equipment, and the US military aid should increase as a result.

After a bad break, Diem was extremely lost.

In order to appease Diem, Eisenhower arranged for the commander of the Pacific Fleet to meet.

It is all high-profile, claiming that if the Soviet camp attacks American allies, the United States will consider using nuclear weapons. If North Vietnam launches an attack and the United States cannot stop the North Vietnamese offensive, the United States will not hesitate to use all the weapons it can use, claiming that the existing US military force can defeat the challenge of any Soviet camp force.

As ambassador to the United States, Chen Weng failed to play his due role even though he knew that the United States needed less aid. Ng Diem was very disappointed and unwilling to see him. He closed the door and studied countermeasures with Li Weimin.

"Everyone says that the United States is generous and generous, but in fact, they are not generous compared to the Soviet Union and China. Judging from what we have learned, the Soviet Union's aid to China is unreserved, and China's aid to North Vietnam is also unreserved. They only care about immediate interests and have made up their minds to reduce aid. It seems that we can only rely on ourselves in the future."

Ng Diem took a sip of cigarettes and shook his head and said, "The Industrial Investment Company has just developed. From a long-term plan, it cannot kill chickens and get eggs now."

The industrial village security team is getting bigger and bigger, and the number of people is increasing.

Not only did the Ministry of the Interior have opinions, but even many generals and officers of the National Army tried to incorporate the Phu Quoc Special Zone security team into the Fourth Tactical Zone on the grounds of nationalization of the army. Establishing a joint command is a temporary measure and these problems must be solved once and for all.

Before coming, he held a board meeting. Li Weimin smiled as if nothing had happened: "Mr. Yan, industrial development is important, national defense and security are even more important. Next July, the three-year duty-free period for some companies will arrive. Including the income from mineral resource mining, we can squeeze out about 40,000 US dollars a year to support the government."

Cut the aid by 2%, which is equivalent to USD 40,000.

Wu Diem was stunned. Li Weimin continued: "Support the government without using foreign exchange, or even giving all cash, and can replace the goods produced by enterprises in industrial villages and services provided. For example, providing military uniforms, some commonly used ammunition, oil, cigarettes, medicines and other materials, and providing weapons, equipment, especially vehicles, ship maintenance and other services for the national army."

At critical moments, your own people are still reliable.

Diem weighed it and asked in a low voice: "Will the reserve officer training team and the reserve force be affected?"

"The impact will definitely be a little affected, but the problem is not very big. In addition, we must explain clearly to the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of National Defense and the General Staff that the funds were squeezed out from the gap between the teeth of the industrial investment company. Several of them discussed a distribution plan and needed material resettlement and allocation plans to go to our designated industrial village. After that, we can't work and invest in the company."

"Equivalent to tax coverage?"

Li Weimin nodded and confirmed with a smile: "As the development of various industrial villages, the corresponding share will gradually increase. As for how much it increases, it depends on the overall development level. You can hold a meeting once a year to discuss this issue."

It can not only solve the urgent need for the United States to cut aid, but also ease the conflict between the industrial investment department and various government departments and the national army. Ng Diem weighed it and said with a smile: "This can be done."

On the surface, it seems that the Industrial Investment Company suffered a loss, but in fact it is not.

Because this is equivalent to giving industrial investment companies the right to collect taxes. The industrial investment companies pay uniformly on their behalf, and pay in the form of commodity materials. This can not only keep the Ministry of Finance from being confident, but also ease the relationship with each department, but also expand domestic demand to a certain extent and drive the development of enterprises in industrial villages.

With this "peace of mind" given by Li Weimin, Ng Diem was in a much better mood.

He was invited to give a speech in Congress, visited two monasteries he had stayed in New York and New Jersey, visited the University of Michigan to visit old friends of the Government Research Agency, went to Detroit to visit employees of the Industrial Investment Corporation's representative office and the Bank of East Asia branch, visited members of the "Friends of Vietnam Association", and met with representatives of the Vietnam Youth and Chinese Youth Association students studying in the United States. He stayed in the United States for 21 days before returning to Saigon.

During this period, Li Weimin has always played the role of official spokesperson.

At a press conference in New York, he mentioned that the Industrial Investment Corporation reached a mineral resource exploration and mining agreement with several southern Vietnam provinces, and will next form an oil company to explore and exploit oil.

France has been colonized in Indochina for so many years, and I don’t know how much coal mines have been mined, but I have never mined oil. Public opinion was in an uproar, and no one believed that there was oil in Vietnam, so it was a big joke.

Li Weimin didn't care about so much, and did not return home with Ng Diem, but stayed to visit major American oil companies to seek joint venture cooperation.
Chapter completed!