October,
2022
Chapter 39 Retired General "Shy-Rock" (4)
His
second assignment to the United States, after growing in age and experience,
opened his eyes to the outside world. He was expected to pay his attention to
the outside as a military attaché even though his rank in the embassy was
relatively low. His main task was to collect the latest information on the
military affairs of the foreign countries and the US arms industries. Another
important mission was to establish close relationship with US military
personnel, especially those in the Pentagon. They were very cooperative with
Israeli officials.
He
enjoyed his job of collecting military information from various foreign countries
and the US arms industries. He originally had acquaintance with executives of
the US Air Force and private companies because once he was a trainee of fighter
pilot. To get the military information, he invited the foreign military
attachés to parties held at the Israeli embassy, or he was invited to parties
by foreign embassies. He collected the information from time to time. If he
heard the rumors that bothered him, he directly interviewed military officers
in Western countries such as the United States and U.K. to confirm it.
During
the Cold War, most concerning issue of Israel was the large-scale deal of
weapons between U.S.S.R and Egypt or Syria. Shy-Rock, therefore, frequently
exchanged information with the Iranian military attaché. At that time, the
pro-American Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi held absolute power in Iran. And Iran
was called the "Police in Persian Gulf." Iran was a close ally of Western
countries.
Iran
and Israel had different religions and ethnicities. Their relationship was not
so good in principle. However, both of them had strained relationship not only with
the U.S.S.R. but also Arab countries. They shared a critical view that the
enemy’s enemy was ally. And they were interrelated through the U.S. United
States led its allies during the Cold War. Iran and Israel were closely
exchanging information in Washington. Shy-Rock" usually worked in the office
late into the night and sent reports back home.
Compared
to collecting military information, he was not good at companionship with
civilians such as Jews living in the United States. He was fluent about
military-related topics, but he could not speak fluently for the ordinary topics.
He was a quiet guy by nature. When dealing with Americans who were talkative
and liked jokes, he became a one-sided listener. When someone asked him his
opinion on a popular TV show, his answer was beside away from the point. In
brief he had no interest in noisy TV sitcoms. He had no time to watch TV
because he was busy writing reports. He thought it was the job of professional
diplomats of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to check American TV programs.
(cont’d)
Areha
Kazuya
(From
an ordinary citizen in the cloud)
To
previous chapters: http://ocininitiative.maeda1.jp/OcinNovelEnglish.html
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