Chapter 632
The Final Ultimatum
Chapter 632 The Final Ultimatum
President Wilson decisively rejected the League of Nations' demands, which was exactly what the League of Nations members wanted to see.
After the United States rejected the international coalition's request, European media immediately began to put pressure on the United States, with numerous reports speculating that a chemical plant leak in the US had caused the major flu outbreak.
Even if these media reports can't bring down the United States, they will certainly annoy it. After all, the United States absolutely needs Europe's support to expand its international influence.
Even though America's industry has become comparable to that of Europe, Europe still has many powerful nations and is currently the most developed continent, making it the focus of attention for countries around the world.
As long as European countries do not end this public pressure, America's reputation will not improve, and naturally, fewer immigrants will choose to go to the United States.
This is tantamount to digging up America's roots. For an immigrant country like the United States, blocking immigration is clearly the most serious blow.
If the US government were united, it could calmly deal with the threat from the League of Nations. But at this time, the US government was already divided, and even if President Wilson wanted to unite the US against the League of Nations' covetousness, he could never persuade the Republicans to cooperate with him.
From the Republican perspective, President Wilson's rejection of the League of Nations' demands was entirely unnecessary.
The US government itself knows that the chemical plant leak was purely coincidental and had nothing to do with the outbreak of the flu in the United States.
Even if the League of Nations investigation team were to investigate again, what difference would it make? As long as the United States closely monitors the investigation team's actions, the League of Nations investigation team would be unable to find any evidence that the chemical plant leak was related to the outbreak of the flu in the United States.
If no evidence is found, the so-called investigation will naturally come to an end. For the United States, this will not result in any loss; a second investigation would completely clear the US of suspicion and restore its original good reputation.
If the US government refuses the League of Nations' demands, not to mention the subsequent sanctions, the public pressure alone is enough to give it a headache.
President Wilson had his reasons for rejecting the League of Nations' demands. With only a few months left in his term and himself in a semi-paralyzed state, his political career was essentially over.
Even if Wilson's decision leaves the United States with a mess, it won't affect Wilson himself. His reputation is already utterly ruined; a further decline wouldn't cause him any real harm.
However, from the Republican Party's perspective, President Wilson's approach was somewhat undesirable. President Wilson was a Democrat, and thanks to his poor reputation, Republican presidential candidate Warren G. Harding has gained considerable public support.
The Republican Party doesn't want President Wilson to leave behind a mess, because the next US president is very likely to be a Republican.
From the Republican perspective, no matter how President Wilson governs the United States in the remaining months of his term, he cannot cause too much trouble for the country, as this would be detrimental to the Republican Party's rule over the United States.
If problems are going to occur, let them occur during this short few-month term; after all, that would make it easy to shift the blame to President Wilson.
In any case, President Wilson's political career was basically over, so even if he were to take the blame for the US government, it wouldn't have much of an impact on President Wilson himself.
Surely the blame can't be left for the new president to bear? The Republican Party still has high hopes for Harding, hoping that he can reverse the unfavorable situation under President Wilson's rule and bring glory to the Republican Party in the United States.
Clearly, the Republicans' concerns are valid.
The League of Nations could not remain indifferent after the United States rejected its demands. After all, the League of Nations had four permanent members. The United States' rejection of the League of Nations' demands was, in effect, a slap in the face to the four permanent members of the League of Nations.
Excluding Italy, the three major European superpowers—Britain, France, and Spain—need to respond to the United States' decisive rejection of their demands, even if only to save face.
How to deal with it? The method is very simple: incite immigrants in the United States to oppose the decisions of the US government, and even provoke a civil war in the United States.
The British had been anticipating this moment for a long time. The United States, through the Irish Revolutionary War, had caused Britain considerable trouble.
Ultimately, Ireland successfully gained independence from Britain with the support of several countries, which was considered by most British people to be the greatest humiliation, even more humiliating than Spain's recapture of Gibraltar.
After all, Gibraltar was originally Spanish territory, and it's too far from the British mainland. Ireland, on the other hand, is right on Britain's doorstep, and British rule over Ireland has lasted for many years.
If given the chance to instigate a civil war in the United States today, the British would be the first to agree.
If a civil war breaks out in the United States, this would become the best pretext for the international coalition to use force against the United States.
Instigated by the four permanent members of the League of Nations, a large number of European immigrants in the United States began to hold extensive anti-government demonstrations.
Americans were already quite dissatisfied with the current situation at home, and after these protests broke out, a large number of Americans also participated in the protests organized by European immigrants, which made the situation in the United States even more chaotic.
With the situation in the United States spiraling out of control, the Republican Party was forced to initiate impeachment proceedings against President Wilson, demanding that Congress remove him from office and appoint the Vice President as acting president until the presidential election. In any country, impeachment of a president is a serious matter. The Republican impeachment of President Wilson sparked a full-blown confrontation between the Republican and Democratic parties.
Although it was clear that President Wilson had little to show for his efforts, the Democratic Party, even if only for their own benefit, had to do everything in their power to protect him.
After all, President Wilson's reputation was related to the reputation of the Democratic Party, which in turn was related to the next US presidential election, which would determine whether the US would be ruled by the Republican Party or the Democratic Party for the next four years.
In truth, President Wilson was really unlucky.
President Wilson's ability to win the presidency through an election demonstrates his competence and popularity. Furthermore, his success in serving two terms as one of the few U.S. presidents signifies his high prestige within the Democratic Party.
President Wilson's current tarnished reputation is actually a consequence of the aftereffects of the World War.
Before the outbreak of World War II, President Wilson enjoyed an excellent reputation. Even his actions in pushing the United States into the war by suppressing German and British immigrants did not significantly affect his approval ratings in the United States.
Americans do not oppose the United States joining the war, but only if the United States gains a positive return from the war, rather than rushing into the war only to be defeated by the enemy.
Unfortunately, the United States met the latter fate in the World Wars.
President Wilson was determined to push the United States into the World War, but what did the United States gain from joining the World War?
The result was a naval defeat, heavy army casualties, and massive war debts. The United States was also forced to pay war reparations to Britain, setting a record as the only Allied power to pay reparations to the Central Powers.
Unfortunately, just a few years after the end of World War II, the Great Influenza broke out in the United States.
If the flu outbreak had only occurred in the United States, it wouldn't have had much of an impact. However, just before the major flu outbreak in the US, a chemical plant leak happened.
The combination of these two events is not good news for the United States.
Regardless of whether the US government was actually involved in the US flu pandemic, the severe impact of the pandemic on the US alone confirms a terrible fact: since the outbreak of World War II, the US industry and economy have been in decline.
This is quite rare for the United States, after all, apart from economic crises, American industry and economy have always been in a state of rampant development, and have never experienced such a long period of recession.
The large number of demobilized soldiers turned into millions of unemployed people, and coupled with the decline in industrial scale, the number of unemployed people not only did not decrease, but increased.
According to incomplete statistics from the U.S. government, there are currently millions of unemployed people in the United States, and this number is still increasing.
The once bustling New York City has changed dramatically, and homeless people can be seen everywhere on the streets. Just a few years ago, these people might have been wealthy middle-class individuals.
It would be impossible for these people not to hate President Wilson. After all, it was during President Wilson's reign that their lives underwent such tremendous changes.
Many Americans have a hunch that if the United States hadn't joined the World War, would its development have been the same as before the war, with rapid industrial and economic growth and people not having to worry about finding jobs?
This hatred towards President Wilson became one of the reasons for the opposition to the government after the protests broke out.
Perhaps even countries like Britain and France didn't expect that this massive demonstration would soon be the death knell for the United States.
Upon learning that the Republican Party had initiated impeachment proceedings against him, and that large numbers of immigrants across Europe had organized protests against the U.S. government, President Wilson was so angry that he was speechless.
He held back for a long time, and finally managed to squeeze out only four words: "Heaven has doomed America!"
No matter how frustrated President Wilson was, he could not change the fact that the United States was now in complete chaos.
On January 30, 1921, the League of Nations' diplomatic spokesperson formally issued an ultimatum to the United States. The US government had to agree to the League of Nations' demands for an investigation by the end of January, or it would be implicated in the US government's crimes.
Given the devastating impact of the U.S. flu pandemic on the world, which killed tens of millions of people, the U.S. government has a responsibility and an obligation to cooperate with the international coalition's investigation.
If the U.S. government continues to refuse the League of Nations' request for an investigation, the League of Nations will initiate sanctions against the U.S. and consider using force to push for the investigation to proceed.
At the end of his speech, the diplomatic spokesperson also posed a profound question to the United States.
If the chemical plant leak in the United States is truly unrelated to the outbreak of the flu in the United States, then why did the US government refuse the international coalition's request for an investigation?
What is the US government trying to hide? Does the US government's behavior do justice to the millions of Americans who died in the flu pandemic?
(End of this chapter)