Chapter 17: The Declaration Of War

Chapter 17: The Declaration Of War

*Blink Blink*

*Blink Blink*

"Just say what you want, Phillips. Don't stare at me like a schoolgirl in love." Hector annoyedly told Brigadier Phillips.

They were on a plane back to the capital now. There were Hector, Logan and Phillips alone sitting in the passenger cabin. It had only been 2 hours since the attack. Hector had quickly addressed the men at the base, cheered them for their courage and promised them that the enemies will not sleep a single day peacefully now.

Logan sat there smoking with a frown, apparently in a bad mood, as he mistakenly landed directly on a mountain instead of the sea. He was gravely injured, then got healed and had to trek back to the base.

Phillips asked, "Mr President, how will you make the country believe that what you did was normal?"

"I won't," Hector replied with a grin.

"Phillip, there is a thing called public narrative, as long as you know how to control it, you will never have to worry about some conspiracy theory going out of hand. I will just tell the country that I am old, I do not have any family, other than this nation, and as a proud leader of the nation and this family, it was my duty to save it, protect it. And so I did, with no fear of life. In the end, God was with me and blessed me to come out alive." Hector masterfully gave him his statement.

Logan snorted, while Phillips blinked dumbly, and couldn't help but feel, ~God damn, Roosevelt did right letting him take over.~

"Just relax now and head back to SSR headquarters to prepare for the war. A joint session of Congress has been called, and I will deliver my speech to the nation tomorrow, live. I will call for a declaration of a state of war with Japan. Knowing how hanky panky Nazi Germany and Imperial Japanese leadership is, Germany will declare war on us. Then us on them." Hector instructed him while drinking some whiskey.

Phillips nodded, this was a good assessment of the situation on Hector's side, he thought.

...

Things worked out as Hector had expected. However, the people were praising Hector as well, since some really "lucky" high-quality photos of his crazy deeds had surfaced in the papers. Secretly, all thanks to SSR.

Anyway, the public sentiment was that of anger and they wanted to get revenge. The final casualty report had come in, a total of 4 ships were destroyed, the rest were slightly damaged but could be repaired. 500 Military personnel died, 200 civilians died due to their ending crazed retreat.

In Hector's mind, the operation was both a success and a failure. Success, because he reduced those casualties by a lot, nearly nullified the damage to the Pacific Fleet. A failure because more Civilians died this time. The source of this content nov(el)bi((n))

A bit mournful, he called for the Majority and Minority leaders to show the stats and talked about what the country's attitude was right now. Without clearly saying it, he got his words passed that war is inevitable, be prepared to vote.

"Woof" Moony spoke up.

"Yeah yeah, sorry, I will take you with me next time to have fun. Now, let me write my speech. I guess I will take some words from old Roosevelt's original speech as well." He muttered and wrote on a paper.

...

The next day, much of the world's focus was on the Joint Congress session. The Allies were looking at it with the hope that, finally, the United States will enter the war openly. And they didn't get disappointed.

Hector wore his best suit with a long coat, put down his hat and started his speech, he looked tall and mighty, however, first, he asked for a minute of silence for commemorating the fallen souls. He then looked left and right, the cameras were rolling, the mics were transmitting to the whole country, "YESTERDAY, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

...

"I want to go there," Logan demanded from Hector. Logan sat in the office with Moony nearly at all times. Most politicians even envied him, as he probably knew more secrets than they ever would.

"Rejected," Hector replied.

"I don't need permission," Logan argued.

"I will take you when I reach there myself. I told you that I will be fighting. There is not much war involved right now. In the coming years, at least until the second half of 1942, Germany will be at their peak military success. I will be heading there at that point.

"Meanwhile, we have so much to do here, I am about to rebuild the American Civil society as we know it. A country that lived on the concept of unity, with no racism. Now, when most of our young boys will be fighting wars, I have time to enact some laws that would have called for riots." Hector told him, and this honestly sounded more interesting than fighting.

"What kind of laws?" Logan asked.

"Equal rights, removing segregation by law, land rights to the natives, rights to equal vote for the coloured folks. Such things are a ticking time bomb. It is better to resolve them before they take a bigger shape. Anyway, let's go, I got a call from Einstein and his team." He got up to leave.

"WOOF" Moony happily skipped along.

...

Inside a large secure warehouse, a team of some American and Jewish scientists worked on a large machine called a Helicopter. All of them were folks saved and brainwashed by Hector into the juicy ways of capitalism, instead of their previous ideology of socialism.

Einstein was a happy man now, his son had now been cured of his schizophrenia and was an up and coming music artist in LA. His wife was happy with him and worked alongside him, his stepdaughters were smart and in school. Life was never better.

Hector reached the place with much excitement, wanting to see what these mad geniuses even made. All he had given them were the general designs after all.

"So, what have you made for me? Tell me I didn't waste my millions." He asked them.

Einstein had a smug look on his face, "There is nothing impossible, Mr President, just unexplored. Yes, we have been able to develop what you want.

"Show it, my brothers." He instructed his team of 20 scientists. The team was seriously an overkill for making this.

They brought Hector to something covered under a big cloth. They were excited by their looks. Hector could understand, if anyone, these men could understand how revolutionary was the ability to land and fly from anywhere one wanted.

"I have named it ANY-1. It means anyone as it's so easy to fly." Albert said as he pulled the sheets.

*WHISTLE* Logan admired the thing. Moony barked "WOOF" and jumped into it quickly.

In front of Hector was a helicopter, like those used in the Vietnam War. They were real workhorses. Specifically, it was called HU-1 in his world. But here, it was going to change World War 2. With this, they can take supplies anywhere, swiftly drop men in strategic positions for operations, and provide emergency air.

He laughed widely, "Hahaha... I LIKE IT!"