human
What did you wish to ask El Hassan? I will translate.
gpt
Never mind that, Jack, Homer said.
human
We'll get tougher about using our official language when we've gone a little further in building our new government. He said to Ostrander,
gpt
What can I do for you? Obviously, my time, is limited.
human
I've been gathering material for reports to my superiors. I've been doing a good deal of questioning, and, frankly, even prying around.
gpt
I've also read the various press releases, manifestoes and so forth that your assistants have been compiling.
human
We know, Homer said.
gpt
We haven't put any obstacles in your way. We haven't any particular secrets, Mr. Ostrander.
human
You disguise the fact that you are an American,
gpt
Only because El Hassan _is not_ an American, Mr. Ostrander. He is an African with African solutions to African problems. That is what he must be if he is to accomplish his task.
human
See here, Crawford, the State Department is not completely opposed to the goal of uniting North Africa. It would solve many problems, both African and international.
gpt
You mean, you're on our side?
human
Possibly more than you'd think, he rapped. He turned back again to Homer Crawford.
gpt
The question becomes, why do you think that _you_ are the man for the job? Who gave _you_ the go-ahead?
human
Hold it, he said. Then to Ostrander.
gpt
It doesn't work that way. It's not something you decide to do because you're thirsty for power, or greedy for money. You're pushed into it. Do you think Washington, a retired Virginian planter wrapped up in his estate and his family, wanted to spend years leading the revolutionary armies through the wilderness that was America in those days? He was thrust into the job, there was no one else more competent to take it. Men make the times, Ostrander, but the times also make the men. Look at Lenin and Trotsky. Three months before the October Revolution, Lenin wrote that he never expected to see in his lifetime the Bolsheviks come to power. Within those months he was at the head of government and Trotsky, a former bookworm who had never fired a gun in his life, was head of the Red Army and being proclaimed a military genius.
human
It's not always an easy thing, to have power thrust into your hands. Not always a desirable thing. His voice went quieter still.
gpt
Only a short time ago it led me to the necessity of ... killing ... my best friend.
human
And mine,
gpt
Abe Baker,
human
Did you know Abe?
gpt
I've heard several of you mention him from time to time. He was a commie, wasn't he?
human
Yes, Homer said without inflection.
gpt
And a man. He saved my life on more than one occasion. As long as we worked together with only Africa in mind, there was no conflict. But Abe had a further, and, to him, greater alliance.
human
A man does what he must do, he finished simply.
gpt
I did not ask to become El Hassan.
human
Your motivation is possibly beside the point. The thing is that the battle for men's minds continues and your program, eventually, must align with the West.
gpt
And get clobbered in the stampeding around between the two great powers,
human
You've got to take your stand, Ostrander said.
gpt
I'd rather die under the neutron bomb, than spend the rest of my life on my knees under a Soviet Complex government. Wouldn't you?
human
No, even though that was the only alternative, which is unlikely. Not if it meant finishing off the whole human race at the same time. He shook his head.
gpt
If it were only me, it might be different. But if it was a matter of nuclear war the whole race might well end. Given such circumstances, I'd be proud to remain on my knees the rest of my life. You see, Ostrander, you make the mistake of thinking the Soviet socio-economic system is a permanent thing. It isn't. It's changing daily, even as our own socio-economic system is. Even if the Soviet Complex were to dominate the whole world, it would be but a temporary phase in man's history. Their regime, in its time, right or wrong, will go under in man's march to whatever his destiny might be. Some day it will be only a memory, and so will the socio-economic systems of the West. No institutions are less permanent than politico-economic ones.
human
I don't agree with you,
gpt
Obviously, Homer shrugged.
human
However, this is another problem. El Hassan deals with North Africa. The other problems you bring up we admit, but at this stage are not dealing with them. Our dream is in Africa. Perhaps the Africans will be forced to taking other stands, to dreaming new dreams, twenty or thirty years from now. When that time comes, I assume the new problems will be faced. By that time there will probably be no need for El Hassan.