The Collision of Ideas

By this point in the war, the US Government could barely be said to have thrown everything it had into the fight.

The Army under the Federal Government alone had already surpassed 500,000 men, while the total number of troops committed to the war had even exceeded 600,000.

More than 300,000 of those 500,000 troops were stationed across the northeastern states, resisting the assault of the Combined Army's main force.

The remaining 200,000 were split into two groups. One prevented the French people from advancing north and threatening the eastern states, while the other guarded against the Australasian people's advance eastward.

Leaving aside the stalemate on the main battlefield, the whole of America—even the whole world—was currently watching the advances of Australasia and the French people.

This was America's final chance. If America could successfully withstand both countries, the remaining states might put their plans for independence referendums on hold.

But if America failed to stop either one of them, it would very likely face an even more serious crisis.

For one thing, the central states already under threat from the war certainly had no wish to continue fighting.

After all, the United States Army was fighting in the east, leaving the central region with very weak defenses. The central states alone had no hope of resisting.

Once central America fell, all that remained of the United States would truly be the original 13 Colonies and the Great Lakes industrial zone. Those regions alone could never withstand the Combined Army.

If America failed to seize this final lifeline, perhaps the situation it faced would be a wave of states declaring independence, followed by its being torn apart into multiple countries.

General Pershing naturally understood the dire situation America faced. The army under his command had never rushed recklessly forward; it