America 1982-Chapter 643 - 148: Convert to Her Faith
Indeed, just as Microsoft had anticipated, although the AmigaOS launch looked like a perfect fusion of art, entertainment, and business, and received rave reviews in the newspapers, its sales were not impressive. It topped the best-selling business software charts only in the first week after release before quickly declining, whereas the subsequent release of Windows 3.0 garnered countless positive reviews. Despite its high price tag of $149.95, it sold more than 120,000 copies in the first week.
Both competitors rushed to release their new products at this juncture largely because of Gorbachev. The Soviet leader arrived in the United States on June 1st for a visit, and many American entrepreneurs hoped that their products could be gifted to the pro-Western Soviet friend to take back home by the President.
To court this Soviet friend, Microsoft launched an extensive public relations campaign, mobilizing all its connections. When Gorbachev visited cities such as New York, Washington, Los Angeles, and Boston, either Microsoft executives or pro-Microsoft politicians were in attendance, seizing the opportunity to engage and ingratiate themselves with the visitor.
In contrast, Tommy had almost no positive tactics domestically, except for having Ted publish Microsoft’s scandals on the front page of his own newspaper every day to overshadow Gorbachev. There were hardly any other moves, except for the visit to Stanford University when Tommy, Jason, and a host of Stanford alumni paid for expensive tickets to a dinner and listened to a speech by Gorbachev.
Then there was the Guns N’ Roses concert in Boston, where a Soviet rock band that had come to America with Gorbachev performed as guests. This reminded the American people, who had not been optimistic about AmigaOS, that this appearance was possible, seemingly because AmigaOS had helped extend the invitation to Guns N’ Roses, giving a slight boost to the waning popularity of AmigaOS.
"Everyone thinks you might want to talk to them," Stephen Binns said, sitting in the office at VOX News headquarters. Although he was smiling at Tommy, his face was actually somewhat sullen, "I’ve told them you’re here in Washington not to escape, but it seems they’d rather hear it directly from you."
America is so pragmatic. As long as Tommy could bring them an endless stream of wealth, all the shareholders would respond with their most enthusiastic and radiant smiles. But once they felt the costs outweighed the benefits, as they did now, they wanted to hear an explanation from Tommy.
There were four phones on Tommy’s desk. Without even looking up at Stephen, he was flipping through various documents and said, "Because AmigaOS’s sales took a nosedive?"
"Developing it cost a pretty penny, and your financial records show you’re still burning through cash wildly," Stephen sighed as he sat on Tommy’s desk.
He didn’t actually want to come, but business is business. If it were just his own investment, he wouldn’t be here, but he had a bunch of shareholders behind him.
"How long can you keep those shareholders quiet? Or can’t you even for a day? If you can’t, I’ll personally call His Excellency Sargent Schlaefer or Uncle Pete to deal with them. Give me a week, and maybe I’ll be interested in smacking those shareholders’ asses after that," Tommy removed the cigarette from his mouth and flicked off the ash, briefly raising his head to question Stephen before going back to his papers.
"Windows 3.0 sold 270,000 copies in two weeks, Tommy, nobody can stay seated anymore," Stephen said, watching Tommy’s busy figure. "Forget it, I trust you. I’ll handle them for a week, but if you’re not ready after that, I’ll be very upset."
"Zoey, are you safe now? Have you met up with our other crews?" Tommy hadn’t even noticed when Stephen had left as he spoke into one of the phones.
On the other end of the phone, VOX News’ famous journalist Zoey Winters, excited from Germany, replied, "Of course, perfectly safe. I can’t believe it, while other TV reporters are still focusing on West Germans spontaneously dismantling the Berlin Wall, I’m already standing on Bönaul Street in East Germany."
"Stay in touch," Tommy said, then shouted into another phone, "Susy! How’s the site and product preparation doing? I didn’t send you to Germany for a holiday, and if you screw it up, even if I don’t mind, the First Lady will banish you and Jason to Africa to plant cassava with the blacks!"
"All set up, rented the high-speed broadband networks of two universities, plus two floors of conference rooms in the Bonn Building, accommodating hundreds of people. What you need to worry about is the actors not messing up," Susy replied over the phone.
Turning to another phone, Tommy continued to shout, "Mr. Brock! Mr. Brock! Are the most expensive actors ready?"
"Ready," Sandra Block’s father said with equal certainty as he was currently within East German territory. Ordinary people could not easily enter East Berlin, and Block, being a retired US military man, faced the fact that both countries were in the midst of the Cold War. Fortunately, East Berlin was not affected by the Cold War. East Germany firmly carried out the post-war Four Powers Agreement, allowing Allied military and civilian personnel to enter and exit East German checkpoints without diplomatic and passport control. So with a civilian identity provided by the Allies, Block had been selecting actors in East Germany for a while. Even Zoey and her team could freely enter East Germany, all thanks to his arrangements.
"Very good, only one left," Tommy picked up the last telephone handset and dialed a number:
"Charles, are the actors and the production crew ready on your side?"
On the phone, Charles answered crisply, "Of course."
Getting the reply from Charles, Tommy let out a deep sigh, "OK, next up, let the world witness AmigaOS."
It was now June 13, 1990. He turned his eyes to the television set in the office, where the VOX News Network was broadcasting a piece of news that had the whole world’s attention.
The East German border troops had laid down their weapons and picked up various demolition tools to officially begin dismantling the 168-kilometer-long Berlin Wall.
Although the world had witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall back in November 1989, that was not an official dismantling. Instead, it happened because Gunter Schabowski, the First Secretary of the East Berlin Regional Party Committee, mistakenly announced that East Germans could cross the border between the two Germanys without conditions. This led to several checkpoints in the city center being temporarily opened, allowing a large number of East Berliners the chance to enter West Germany.
Afterward, West Germans began to destroy parts of the Berlin Wall with tools, creating multiple openings that allowed East Germans to directly crawl through into West Germany without inspections.
This blunder led to tens of thousands of East Germans illegally entering West Germany. For his mistake, Gunter Schabowski was expelled from the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, and the checkpoints were closed again. Although some openings were not repaired, the presence of over twenty thousand border troops guarding the hundred-plus kilometers of the Berlin Wall meant that apart from the initial population who crossed the border and some young people who took a risky leap for freedom, a large number of ordinary people chose to stay and watch, without a widespread occurrence of people crawling through holes in the wall. Firstly, they feared being shot by border troops, and secondly, a sudden influx of people into West Berlin caught West Germany unprepared, with many of the district’s essential supplies being purchased empty and even people being left homeless in the streets, to the extent that the West German government even called East Germany asking them to control the movement of people for the time being, as they were not mentally prepared for a full opening.
The previous collapse of the Berlin Wall had already earned Zoey a big news award. But for her, obviously, that was not enough. This time she led VOX’s team of journalists, entering East Germany through the checkpoint during a live broadcast, leaving journalists from other media without military identity to only watch her figure in desperation.
VOX News Network’s correspondents from the London, Paris, East Berlin, and West Berlin stations were almost taking turns appearing in the live broadcast.
Subscribers around the world watching VOX News saw on their TVs both the demolition of the Berlin Wall in East Germany and the British Prime Minister Thatcher holding a news conference. Of course, Thatcher’s appearance on British screens was because she had privately expressed that East Germany’s dismantlement of the Berlin Wall was an irresponsible act. The demolition of the wall would completely change the post-World-War-II situation in Europe, potentially having a serious impact on international peace and the safety of Britain, but she hypocritically welcomed East Germany’s right choice on stage.
The French government’s stance was similar to that of Britain, with a spokesperson from the French Foreign Ministry regretfully stating that Germany’s dismantling of the Berlin Wall and attempts at unification bore historical significance comparable to Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. All of Europe would have to bear the consequences of the chain reactions brought on by German unification.
VOX even obtained a previous internal speech from Gorbachev’s visit to America at a Boston dinner, which they broadcast directly on the network. In it, Gorbachev said that Thatcher had specifically called him, hoping he, as the Soviet leader, would take a leading role and directly interfere with the German unification to keep East Germany forever in the Soviet camp. This would be beneficial to both the Soviet Union and Britain, as Germany, a defeated power, should not have the luxury of freedom and independence.
The people in the VOX News Studio were not sure why they had to emphasize the British and French attitudes toward the Berlin Wall’s dismantlement while the world was focusing on it, but Jason, who took a moment to glance at the news, said:
"If she can still calmly make Microsoft enter the British market after being exposed by an American news network to an audience of peace-loving people around the globe, resulting in worldwide scorn, then I won’t believe in Jesus anymore, nor will I believe in Tommy; I’ll start worshiping her instead."
