Chen Qiang went to Washington in person to visit Senator Harry Truman.

Chen Qiang originally thought that Truman should be in a busy state, and the days of the presidential election were getting closer and closer. Truman is definitely working hard to win the nomination of the vice president and is busy with campaign activities everywhere.

However, what Chen Qiang did not expect was that Truman was not very busy. When Chen Qiang met Truman, he realized that Truman did not intend to win the nomination for vice president within the Democratic Party. The reason for this was mainly because of Henry Agard Wallace.

Henry Agard Wallace is the current vice president, and he has not made any major work mistakes in the past four years as vice president. Under normal circumstances, he will continue to run for the next term as Roosevelt's partner.

Among the previous vice presidents in the United States, resigning or being replaced during their term is not rare, but when the current president seeks re-election, it is almost impossible to replace his partner. The current vice president will often become the candidate for the vice president of the next term.

Roosevelt was a special situation, he received four presidency, so he had three vice presidents and had two experiences of changing partners when seeking re-election.

When Roosevelt first ran for president in 1932, his partner was John Nance Garner. Garner assisted Roosevelt for eight years and served as two vice presidents of the United States. He chose to retire after his term in 1941. Garner was 14 years older than Roosevelt, so when Garner retired, he was already a 74-year-old man. As World War II broke out, it was indeed difficult for him to have enough energy to continue to serve as vice president of the United States at such an age.

Garner's successor is Henry Agard Wallace, the current vice president of the United States. Wallace is six years younger than Roosevelt. If there is no accident, he will continue to become Roosevelt's partner and accompany Roosevelt to complete the next four-year term. Even if four years later, Wallace is only 60 years old. Even if he stands up for president, it will not be surprising.

In terms of age, Truman is four years older than Wallace. With Wallace here, Truman has no plans to compete for the nomination of the vice president within the Democratic Party, so Truman has no great expectations for the nomination of the vice president.

However, when Chen Qiang gave the campaign funds in the name of Nike, Truman happily accepted them. Even if Truman did not plan to fight for the vice president nomination, it would still require money to run for the senator in the future. Some people are willing to provide campaign funds, Truman of course refused everyone.

Chen Qiang promised to remit campaign funds to Truman's campaign account, and mentioned the matter of mentioning rubber.

When it comes to rubber, Truman frowned. The United States' control over rubber resources is too strict. Even Truman, as a senator in Congress, does not easily get a large amount of rubber.

"Mr. Chen, how much rubber does your sporting goods company need?" Truman asked.

"At present, my products are still in the R&D stage and there is not much rubber required, but according to my estimates, after my products are officially put into production next year, the demand for rubber will be relatively large." Chen Qiang replied.

"As far as I know, the US rubber quota this year is already full, and I can help you get some of the rubber quota for next year," Truman replied.

Chen Qiang is waiting for this sentence. If you only do the research and development of sports shoes, Chen Qiang can buy some rubber at a high price. However, if you want to mass-produce sports shoes, you must not use high-priced rubber, and you can't sell them at a cost. Chen Qiang needs the rubber raw material quota given by the US government and purchase rubber raw materials at a fair price to produce sports shoes on a large scale.

Truman continued: "Our US military offensive in the Pacific and Southeast Asia is progressing very smoothly. It is estimated that the battle to recapture the Philippines will be launched by the end of this year. Once the Japanese army is driven out of Southeast Asia, the pressure on rubber raw materials will be much lower. It is foreseeable that next year's rubber raw materials quota will definitely be more than this year. So you can rest assured about rubber quota, and it should not delay your company's launch of new products next year."

At this time, on the Pacific battlefield, after several years of attrition, the number of ships and tonnage of the US Pacific Fleet had long exceeded that of the Japanese army. Under the command of Pacific Commander-in-Chief MacArthur, the US military gradually gained strategic advantages.

In February, the US military captured the Marshall Islands and obtained this strategic location in the South Pacific. With the Marshall Islands as a barrier, it was difficult for the Japanese Navy to threaten Hawaii. Next, the US military recaptured Saipan, Guam and Tinian Islands one after another. The Japanese nails in the South Pacific were removed by the US military.

The US military has now advanced to the so-called "second island chain" in the future, and it can be said that it has formed an encirclement of Japan, which is very strategically advantageous. Therefore, the US senior management has become optimistic about the situation on the Pacific battlefield, and the plan to recover the Philippines has even entered the Pacific Fleet's agenda.

Once the United States regains the Philippines, Japan will not be able to defend the Netherlands East India region, which is now Indonesia and Malaysia. At that time, Southeast Asia's rubber resources can be supplied to the United States. Therefore, Truman said that it would give Nike some rubber raw material quotas, not a short check.

However, the top American leaders were still too optimistic about the Pacific War, and they ignored the Japanese army's fighting will. In the American concept, if it was a decisive end, they should surrender immediately and not make unnecessary sacrifices. Moreover, if they surrender, according to the Geneva Convention, prisoners of war will also be protected as they deserve.

However, the Japanese launched suicide attacks, one by one who was desperate to do his best to the emperor, and they had to take a custody of an American before dying. No one surrendered at all. The Americans had never seen such a way of fighting, which also greatly increased the casualties of the US military in the Pacific. It was not until after paying a heavy price that the US military understood that no matter how he surrendered his gun, he would raise his hands to surrender, only the dead Japanese were good Japanese.

During the Mariana Navy, although the Japanese army was pale, the suicide attack of the "Kamikaze Special Forces" shone brightly. When it came to the Battle of Iwo Jima, the Japanese army had various ways of fighting, which had a 1-1.23 casualties compared with the US army. In the future, there is a movie called "Bloody Battle of Hacksaw Ridge", which made people shocking the scenes about the war, but in fact, the battle on Hacksaw Ridge is more tragic than the movie describes.

...

Since Truman was given a sum of campaign funds, Chen Qiang also began to pay attention to the situation of the US presidential election.

Roosevelt has always been troubled by various diseases, of course, the most fatal of which was of course cerebrovascular disease. At that time, doctors did not realize the harm of hypertension at all, and even believed that hypertension was a good thing and could promote blood circulation. They did not effectively control Roosevelt's condition, which made Roosevelt's physical condition worse and worse. At the end of 1944, many "insiders" had realized that Roosevelt might not survive his fourth term.

Once Roosevelt dies during his term, according to US laws, the vice president will be replaced. Therefore, in the 1944 US presidential election, the nomination of the vice president is also particularly important for the Democratic Party.

Polls from various institutions have shown that the current Vice President Wallace is the most popular candidate and the most likely person to be nominated for the vice president. Some even hope that Roosevelt will not run for the election again and let Wallace run for president.

In fact, within the Democratic Party, most people do not want Wallace to be nominated for the vice president. Because Wallace's policy proposals are more biased towards the working class, this will definitely make many big capitalists feel unhappy. Therefore, although Wallace's poll market is very good, there are many political enemies within the Democratic Party. In May and June, the most critical thing to fight for the party's nomination, Roosevelt even sent Wallace to China for a visit. After more than a month of back and forth, Wallace could not conduct an election campaign.

Wallace ended his visit to China, and not long after returning to the United States, the Democratic Party convened the Democratic National Convention. Since it was a foregone conclusion that Roosevelt could run for the election, this time the Democratic National Convention mainly elected the Democratic nominee for the vice president.

The four candidates for the nominees for the vice president are current Vice President Wallace, Senator Truman, Senator John Bankhead, and Senator Scott Lucas. In the vote, Wallace won 429 votes, while Truman only received 319 votes. The other two candidates have less than 100 votes. Wallace's advantage is still very obvious.

However, according to regulations, candidates must obtain more than 50% of the votes to be nominated, so the top two votes, namely Wallace and Truman, still need to participate in the second round of voting.

At this time, something very interesting happened. The Democrats who opposed Wallace lobbed overnight, hoping that everyone would not support Wallace and instead supported Truman. As a result, in the final vote, Truman, who was originally behind in the vote, received more than 90% of the votes, while Wallace only received less than 10% of the votes. Truman also successfully became a candidate for the Democratic Vice President and partnered with Roosevelt to participate in the 1944 US presidential election. It can be said that one of the reasons why Truman was nominated for the vice president was because the Democratic Party hated Wallace.

After learning that Truman was successfully nominated for the Democratic Vice President, Chen Qiang also breathed a sigh of relief. Chen Qiang was still worried that he would change history. If Truman was not the one who nominated the vice president, it would be awful. But judging from the results, Chen Qiang still thought too much. His little butterfly really doesn't have the ability to change the trend of history.

In Chen Qiang's view, there is no suspense at the end of the year's presidential election. No one can match Roosevelt's prestige. No matter who joins the Republican Party, it is impossible to defeat Roosevelt.

Moreover, the war is developing in the direction of victory. After the Normandy landed, the voices of victory were constantly heard on the European battlefield, and the Germans were retreating step by step, especially in August, when the Allies attacked Paris and liberated France, the overall situation of the European battlefield was decided. These good news will allow Roosevelt to get more votes.

...

The streets of New York are full of advertisements for presidential candidates from both parties. Democratic candidates are Roosevelt and Truman, while Republican candidates are New York Governor Thomas Dewey, whose partner is Ohio Governor John Brick.

As the governor of New York, Thomas Dewey often appears in New York newspapers, and Chen Qiang has had several encounters with him. As for Ohio Governor John Brick, Chen Qiang really doesn't know him anymore.

Chen Qiang looked at Thomas Dewey's campaign advertisement on the street and said to himself: "I didn't expect that the Republican Party would actually ask Thomas Dewey to compete with Roosevelt. Is this an egg hitting a stone or a broken can? Thomas Dewey is so young and his opponent is Roosevelt again, so there is definitely no chance!"

Thomas Dewey is a candidate for the post-00s and the first post-00s candidate in the history of the US presidential election. The "post-00s" mentioned here does not mean that he was born after 2000, but after 1900.

In the presidential election four years ago, Dewey sought a Republican nomination. According to US law, those who participated in the presidential election must reach at least 35 years old. Dewey was only 38 years old at that time. He did not receive an internal nomination for the Republican Party because he was too young. Four years later, he made a comeback. This time he defeated his competitors and received a nomination from the Republican Party. He was only 42 years old this year. Even in 2019, Dewey was still the youngest presidential candidate nominated by the Republican Party.

The young Thomas Dewey met Roosevelt, the greatest president in American history. This contest was doomed before it even started. But the result was that Roosevelt, who had an unparalleled reputation, almost failed in the election.

In the final voting result, Roosevelt won 25.61 million votes, with a vote rate of 53.4%, and Dewey won 22.01 million long votes, with a vote rate of 45.9%, and the two sides were only 3.6 million votes apart. If it were someone else, it would be very happy to lead 3.6 million votes, but that was Roosevelt! With Roosevelt's prestige, he had only a 7.5% lead, which surprised countless people. Dewey handed over such a report card, which was enough for him to brag for the rest of his life.

However, the US presidential election is an electoral system. Although Roosevelt's votes are only 7.5%, he has won more than 80% of the electoral votes. Among the 48 states in the United States, Roosevelt also won 36.

In 1944, there were only 48 states in the United States, and Alaska and Hawaii were both founded in 1959, so before 1959, there were no electoral votes in Alaska and Hawaii.

...

During this period, Chen Qiang also negotiated another business, which was to sponsor the 1944 US Open.

During World War II, although the US Open was not suspended, it was also due to a state of persistence. There were fewer contestants, the attention to the competition was reduced, and there were even fewer sponsors. 1944 should be the lowest year for the US Open. By the time the US Open was in 1945, the war had ended and the US Open got better in an instant.

At this time, Chen Qiang was willing to pay for sponsorship, and the organizers of the US Open were of course offering Chen Qiang as their grandfather.

Chen Qiang's sponsorship is also conditional, that is, to make the new tennis racket the official designated racket of the US Open, and it will take five years to sign it.

Of course, this so-called "official designated racket" does not force every player to use a new tennis racket, but it is more like a game title, but this "official designated" gimmick is enough for Chen Qiang to promote it.

Chen Qiang also generously donated hundreds of new tennis rackets to the US Open, providing them to the participating players for free, which can be regarded as expanding the publicity effect.

The new tennis rackets were also collectively replaced by Nike's logo and became a product under Nike.
Chapter completed!