The next day, President Roosevelt summoned Secretary of State Hull, Secretary of the Navy Swanson, Secretary of the Navy Deen and Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau.
"Everyone, I have already thought of a plan for the next development of United States. If successful, this will allow us to get out of the economic crisis soon." President Roosevelt said.
"Your Excellency, what can we do?" Hull asked.
"From now on, we will increase the expansion of armaments. In a short period of time, our military strength will increase exponentially!" President Roosevelt said.
Several people present were suddenly shocked. They were not fools, so they understood President Roosevelt's intention immediately. No one expressed their opinions. They thought about it for a moment and knew that there was no way around it. If not, the economic crisis will continue, causing greater losses to United States.
"Your Excellency, are we preparing for war?" Secretary of War Ron asked.
More than ten years ago, they were attacked by German fleet on their homeland, causing great losses to United States, which has always been regarded as a great shame and humiliation by Americans. Over the years, they have also been working hard to improve their military strength. However, in order to avoid over-stimulating Germany people, their speed is not fast.
Secretary of the Navy Swanson, was even more excited. Because many of United States East Coast's shipyards were destroyed, United States's shipbuilding strength was severely damaged. Under such circumstances, although American Navy has been developing over the years, there is undoubtedly still a big gap between becoming a powerful navy. If United States can start to expand its armaments from now on, then this undoubtedly means that the great development of American Navy will begin soon.
"Yes, you can say that. This time the economic crisis has caused us to suffer heavy losses. Germany people will not let go of this opportunity. Therefore, we must have more powerful force as soon as possible. In this case, even if If the Germany people want to attack us, we have the ability to protect ourselves. At the same time, we can also use large-scale government procurement to stimulate the domestic economy and help our country get out of the economic crisis as soon as possible." President Roosevelt said.
"But, Mr. President, this requires a large amount of funds. And our finances have long been overwhelmed." Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau reminded. If you don't have money, you can't do anything.
"In terms of funding, we can continue to issue treasury bonds. In addition, we can also borrow from major banks. After all, if the economic crisis continues, it will also be detrimental to major banks. If the economic crisis can be overcome as soon as possible, major banks can also profit from it. More importantly, our large-scale expansion of armaments can bring a large number of orders to those factories. Everything will develop in a good direction." President Roosevelt said.
Morgenthau frowned. As Secretary of the Treasury, he knew how much money was needed to promote all this. If we rely solely on United States's finances, we simply can't come up with that much money. Therefore, we can only rely on issuing government bonds and borrowing from major banks. But will those banks lend to the government? As the representative of major financial groups in Cabinet, Morgenthau knows very well how greedy and stingy those financial groups are.
"Your Excellency, I can give it a try. But I don't know whether it will succeed." Morgenthau cannot guarantee this.
President Roosevelt nodded. "I will contact people from the major consortiums. For the sake of everyone being Americans, I hope they can help our country tide over the difficulties."
"Your Excellency, if we really expand our armaments on a large scale, I'm afraid it will irritate Germany people." Secretary of State Hull is still a little worried about this.
"We no longer need to pay attention to the attitude of the Germany people. Anyway, the war between us and the Germany people has long been unavoidable. In this case, then working hard to develop our military power and ensure our own safety is undoubtedly the most important." Roosevelt insisted. Although he is a person who can listen to opinions. However, once a decision has been made, it is also very difficult to change it.
"Okay, Your Excellency, President." Hull had no choice but to say no more.
Perhaps because Roosevelt personally talked with major financial groups, the government loan went very smoothly. Treasury bond sales are also going well. The people had no choice but to believe that the government raised so much money to protect the country as well as themselves, so naturally they enthusiastically supported it.
Three days later, Army Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur four-star general (interim) submitted an Army Armored Forces expansion plan. He hopes to purchase 3,000 taels of new tanks, 2,000 armored vehicles, and 20,000 Trucks in the next five years, expanding the US Army's Armored Forces from the current three divisions to ten divisions. At the same time, the artillery configuration of Infantry Division will be further increased to strengthen the firepower.
After all, in the next war, US Army might have to fight against the German Army. German Army has always been known for its powerful firepower. If the firepower is too weak, US Army may be beaten to a pulp by the German Army. After all, in terms of the eliteness of the troops, it is obviously impossible for the US Army to be compared with the German Army.
President Roosevelt approved the army's expansion plan with a stroke of his pen.
Subsequently, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral William Harrison Standley also submitted the US Navy's expansion plan.
American Navy plans to start building fifteen aircraft carriers in the next five years, and will continue to build new Battleship.
Now American Navy already has eight aircraft carriers, but the 'Langley' is an experimental aircraft carrier. Moreover, the aircraft carriers equipped with American Navy are far from comparable to German Navy in terms of performance and quantity. Therefore, American Navy only this time proposed the mass construction of a powerful first-class aircraft carrier that can be mass-produced.
Regarding Battleship, Battle of the Azores, American Navy and Battleship from more than ten years ago were all lost. However, now American Navy has rebuilt two 'North Carolina-class' Battleship and four 'South Dakota-class' Battleship, and the other six 'Iowa-class' Battleship are also under construction. The combat plan submitted by the Naval Ministry this time is to add five more 'Montana-class' Battleship to further increase the scale and strength of American Navy's Capital Ships. After all, German Navy still retains a large Capital Ships army.