Chapter 66: The Final Hurdle (Please keep reading!)

"A Chinese person? It depends on what the specific position is.

If it's Kennedy, for positions that don't need to pass Congressional review, there is a certain possibility for a Chinese person.

Because Kennedy's attitude toward Chinese people is relatively friendly; considering it from the electoral level, he might appoint one or two Chinese officials because he wants to attract the Chinese-American vote."

After spending a year in the 60s, Lin Ran realized that money was just a number to him, so in 2020, he also used a portion of his savings to hunt for a second-hand, battle-damaged Toyota Corolla.

He specifically drove for a whole day to the Buffalo campus to find Li Xiaoman.

Li Xiaoman was surprised that Lin Ran had traveled so far, covered in the dust of travel:

"Also, if I remember correctly, before Kennedy was elected, he had given speeches regarding Chinese-Americans, expressing a friendly attitude toward Chinese people.

But Randolph, you traveled specifically from the east of Niuyuezhou to the west of Niuyuezhou just to ask me this?"

They were both at the State University of New York, but the distance between different campuses could be hundreds of kilometers.

Lin Ran's Stony Brook campus was on Long Island, Niuyuezhou, right around New York City, while Li Xiaoman's Buffalo campus was in the city of Buffalo in western Niuyuezhou; the driving distance between the two was a full 700 kilometers.

A whole year had passed in the 60s, plus Lin Ran stayed in the 20s from time to time to check materials and read papers, so the 2020 space-time had already entered February, and Li Xiaoman had already returned to Buffalo to continue her studies.

Among the many campuses of the State University of New York, only the Buffalo campus was the only one that offered a Doctor of Law degree.

Lin Ran explained: "I recently found Jerome Wiesner's manuscript online; he was the Chief Science Advisor during the Kennedy era.

Then I had a particularly vivid dream yesterday, dreaming that I appeared in Washington in 1960 and was appointed by Kennedy as the Special Assistant for Aerospace Affairs.

In the dream, Kennedy held my hand and told me to work hard, entrusting me not to let him down."

Li Xiaoman didn't find it strange; it was normal to dream about something when you were immersed in it. She searched with her phone while listening:

"Jerome Wiesner's official title was Special Assistant for Science and Technology, not Chief Science Advisor. Besides, Kennedy had just finished the general election in '60, and his appointments wouldn't start coming down one after another until '61.

Also, because there was a National Aeronautics and Space Council directly led by Vice President Lin Deng at the time, it was unlikely that there would be a need for a dedicated Special Assistant for Aerospace Affairs.

In summary, your dream is not reliable at all."

Seeing Li Xiaoman analyze his dream so seriously, Lin Ran felt a wave of emotion. He stared at her beautiful eyes and asked: "Because the dream was particularly real, I thought I'd come and share it with you.

Sister Xiaoman, for a position like Special Assistant for Science and Technology like Jerome Wiesner's, I'm curious, how is the power of this type of position, and how is its influence?"

Wanting to see her was a white lie; the successive accidents in the 60s were the real reason. The accidents made Lin Ran cautious, and he didn't want to have similar discussions over the phone.

"To be honest, for so-called special affairs assistants, the authority can be big or small; on one hand, it depends on your own status, and on the other hand, it depends on how much power the President is willing to delegate to you."

Li Xiaoman paused for a moment and then continued: "Taking the Kennedy era as an example, at that time they set up an agency called the National Aeronautics and Space Council, led by Vice President Lin Deng Johnson.

If, as you said in your dream, you were to serve as a Special Assistant for Aerospace Affairs, because of Lin Deng's existence, there would actually be no real power to speak of at all.

Lin Deng's power was undoubtedly huge, able to directly influence NASA's finances, personnel, and supplier selection.

I can't quite understand why Kennedy would have any need to appoint another Special Assistant for Aerospace Affairs."

After chatting with Li Xiaoman, Lin Ran even began to doubt life, because the other party's analysis was indeed correct.

With the existence of the National Aeronautics and Space Council, was there any need to do something redundant?

Lin Ran spent the weekend with Li Xiaoman. After staying at the University of Buffalo for two days, Lin Ran felt his heart calm down again:

"With the Gate, what do I have to fear? At worst, I'll run to Xiangjiang or run to Göttingen, or simply stay in Huaguo in 2020 and not go abroad.

Could they possibly cross space-time to hunt me down?"

"Randolph, the matter about the Special Assistant for Aerospace Affairs is true.

Because in the past, NASA's rocket launches had been failing constantly, leading to Kennedy's dissatisfaction with NASA.

He believed that NASA needed to be reorganized, that NASA's executives needed to be replaced, but that still wasn't enough; he wanted to find an expert who was technically professional enough to help manage NASA from the perspective of engineering management.

Perhaps, I guess, he might hope you become the catfish in the catfish effect, changing NASA's ecology.

Also, there is another very important reason: NASA has been too reliant on scientists from former NAZI Germany in the past, including scum like Rudolph Arthur, which reflects the reality that geopolitics is superior to ethics.

But that doesn't mean Kennedy doesn't want to change this status quo; he might want to change this status quo.

Finally, it's because of your Chinese-American identity; whether it's Kennedy or Lin Deng, their attitude toward Chinese-Americans is relatively friendly, and they also hope that Chinese-American faces will appear in the White House to improve the status quo.

As for who told them about your professional level in the aerospace field, I don't know." Professor Horkheimer rambled on, telling his guesses to Lin Ran.

No matter how things developed, Lin Ran confirmed one thing, and that was that he really had to start working as the Special Assistant for Aerospace Affairs in the West Wing office of the White House.

He had thought he would overtake on a curve by relying on General Aerospace, but he didn't expect to ascend to the heavens in one step.

A special assistant—the power could be big or small. With sixty years of information gap in his hands, Lin Ran didn't believe he couldn't make a scene in the White House and NASA.

However, before officially entering NASA, there was one final hurdle to pass, and that was the hearing specifically prepared for his appointment.

Clearly, a Chinese-American entering the White House still faced considerable backlash, especially from conservatives.

"Randolph Lin may become the first senior official in the White House with East Asian ancestry"

"Red scientist about to enter the White House"

"Kennedy's so-called space race with Soviet Russia is actually going to rely on a Chinese-American?"

American newspapers scrambled to report on this matter, especially newspapers that supported the Elephant Party.

Because previously, the White House had never had a Chinese-American bureaucrat.

The first time a Black person held a senior administrative position in the White House was in 1865, when William Slade served as a personal assistant during the era of President Abraham Lin Ken, responsible for managing White House affairs and assisting in arranging the funeral after Lin Ken was assassinated.

And the first time a person of the yellow race held a senior administrative position in the White House was precisely in 1961, when James Tang Musen served as Special Assistant for East Asian Affairs in the John F. Kennedy administration; Kennedy was also assassinated.

One cannot help but sigh that history is a cycle.

(James Tang Musen was born in Nanjing in 1931 and entered politics in 1959, serving as an assistant to Congressman Chester Bowles. After the 1960 presidential election, Tang Musen followed Bowles into the Kennedy administration, first serving as Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of State, and then as Special Assistant for East Asian Affairs.) ===== CHAPTER 67 =====