Chapter 178: Meddling in Foreign Elections
While the Italians and Ottomans were fighting to determine the ownership of Libya, major events were beginning to stir across the Atlantic. In the United States of America, the press was in full force, shifting public perception in favor of their chosen candidate.
That's right, it was that time again. Every four years, the USA elected a Presidential candidate into office. Normally, Bruno would not be interested in such a dull and dreadful matter-at least not from the perspective of his past life.
But the election in the United States, which would be concluded in November 1912, was a matter of global security. Depending on who won, the USA would either do everything it could to stir the public toward guaranteed entry into the Great War, or it would do everything possible to stay out of it.
Isolationism vs. Globalism-that was what the current U.S. election meant. And Bruno would do everything in his power to prevent Woodrow Wilson's rise to the Presidency. There were few men in modern history, even among those who waved the banner of Marxism, that Bruno detested more than the 28th President of the United States.
After all, Woodrow Wilson did everything he could to ensure Germany's destruction in 1918 and in the years that followed. He was the sole world leader who utterly refused any peace in Europe unless the Kaiser abdicated.
In doing so, Wilson effectively forced the Weimar Republic into existence, which, by extension, led to the rise of the Nazi Party- a result of the Republic's monumental and catastrophic failures as a nation-state.
Since Woodrow Wilson was at least partially responsible for the woes of the German people and their fall from grace, Bruno had a certain level of disdain for him. Preferably, peaceful means could be used to prevent his rise to power. And while peace was preferable, violence was always an effective solution for any problem. Resorting to it when all other options were exhausted was something Bruno had no qualms about.
However, Bruno doubted he would need to take such underhanded and covert actions like assassination. He held significant control over American society, mostly in subtle ways that few truly understood.
The media was a powerful tool for swaying the masses, who were often too ignorant to come to a conclusion on their own. One simple headline was all they needed-no matter how outlandish and beyond the boundaries of truth it was-to fully form an opinion on
something.