Chapter 3638

When the spokesperson rushed to the White House at breakneck speed, the news that the United States had secretly deployed troops to Antarctica and mistreated Japanese scientific expedition members had already made front-page headlines worldwide.

This scandal was truly too shocking and outrageous, so global attention reached an absurd level.

The United States had previously acted against others, and often with even harsher methods than those used against the Japanese expedition team—for example, the globally infamous Guantanamo Bay detention camp, where inhumane acts were rampant; yet even the combined heat of multiple related incidents paled in comparison to this event's intensity.

The main reason is that this situation is simply too bizarre—Japan can be said to be the United States' most solid ally and junior partner, and Japan's national strength surpasses that of the U. S.'s old European ally England, exceeds that of old neighbors Canada and Mexico, and is the top-ranking junior partner of the United States; even he was treated this way by the United States, which is truly eye-opening.

Moreover, this time the United States has brought the flames of war to the last continent on Earth untouched by their warfire—Antarctica—from the moment U. S. troops parachuted onto the Antarctic ice cap, the U. S. war machine's iron hooves have, in effect, trampled the entire globe.

Precisely because of these many special circumstances, the nature of this incident has continuously been escalated to more serious levels.

On the way, the car sped along.

But at this moment, the spokesperson's inner state was extremely anxious; she couldn't wait for the vehicle to reach the White House, so she began a video conference with her team.

When the call connected, everyone was in the car at that moment, and many were still wearing home pajamas, making it clear they were all in a flustered state.

The spokesperson spoke: "OK, now let me outline our current work priorities. First, we must as soon as possible devise a way to conduct global public relations, issuing warnings to all media and self-media platforms reporting this matter, demanding they immediately cease all coverage and delete any related content online."

After saying this, the spokesperson sighed: "I know this is basically impossible to achieve, but we must still adopt this attitude and successfully convey it to all media and self-media platforms, so that if the president investigates later, we can at least say we took remedial measures immediately."

Everyone present expressed agreement.

Although we all work in the lofty White House, fundamentally we are just office workers grinding for a living, so everyone clearly knows that in such times, the thing to do is to as much as possible avoid or reduce one's own responsibility—the decision to deploy troops to Antarctica was not made by us staff and PR spokespersons, so essentially we bear no responsibility for this incident.

But we are responsible for PR and external affairs, so we must bear responsibility for the subsequent development of this matter; if we do nothing and let its influence keep fermenting, that would certainly be our dereliction of duty.

Therefore, we must implement the most comprehensive response immediately, even if these responses are actually ineffective.

This is very like in an emergency room, facing a brain-dead patient, yet still having to perform a round of resuscitation for the family to see—though the outcome cannot be changed, what should be done must still be done.

Immediately after, the spokesperson said again: "Your work must leave a trace—whichever platforms you contacted, however you contacted them, you must leave a record: if you sent emails, print out the email information; if you sent text messages, take screenshots; if you made calls, record the phone calls."

Everyone immediately agreed.

The spokesperson continued: "I still have fifteen minutes to reach the White House; we tentatively set a press conference for one hour from now at the White House, so you now notify all journalists stationed in Washington to arrive at the White House press briefing room within one hour; we will use the extra forty-five minutes to discuss the best excuse to explain the behavior exposed in the video."

"No problem!" Seeing her so clear-headed and composed under pressure, everyone felt as if they had found their backbone.

The spokesperson then said: "Immediately notify the military to designate a responsible person to connect with us in twenty minutes! Before the press conference begins, we must know what the military plans to do next—whether they can withdraw troops immediately or must continue staying in Antarctica; also, tell them it's best to pass the buck to the Japanese, whether it's the management department of the research station or the defense department or even the cabinet, giving them no chance to refuse."

……

When White House staff called the military, the military was already in a flustered state at this time.

The decision to deploy troops was made by them, and the mistreatment of Japanese expedition members was carried out by the troops they dispatched, so they are currently under the greatest pressure.

Normally, the military does not take the White House PR team seriously, but now, even the mighty U. S. military ranked first in the world can only act like a shrinking turtle, hiding away and leaving all crisis PR to the White House PR team.

In this PR matter, the White House team is undoubtedly the most professional, and their advice is highly valuable: that is, to pass the buck as much as possible, and to pass it forcibly even if needed!

Pass the buck to whom? Naturally, to the Japanese scientific expedition members and the Japanese government.

Thus, they immediately contacted Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and Japan's defense authorities; in the video conference, the U. S. military representative proposed: "We will hold a press conference in one hour, at which time we will explain to the world what happened in Antarctica, so I need your cooperation."

The responsible person from Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology asked embarrassedly: "What was exposed is the U. S. military's actions, harming our expedition members—this kind of thing, how should we cooperate?"

The U. S. military representative coldly said: "You must publicly announce to the world that your expedition members have all defected and are illegally conducting large-scale exploration activities in Antarctica."

After saying that, he turned to the responsible person from Japan's defense authority and said: "As for you, you must also publicly admit to the world that you invited our U. S. military to deploy troops to help you suppress the rebellion, and that our troop deployment was not aimed at the Antarctic continent but only at your expedition members! Moreover, our mistreatment of your expedition members was also carried out at your request, as a sudden interrogation of your defected expedition members!"

The person from Japan's defense authority said embarrassedly and angrily: "Mr., we did request your help in suppressing the rebellion, but we never asked you to mistreat our expedition members; you treating our expedition members this way and making us bear this blame—how are we to explain this domestically?!"

The military representative shouted sternly: "Bastard! How you explain it is none of my concern—I only care about how I am to explain myself!"