not consider that this betrayed any undue greed for power. Ac-
cused by an American in June of having been something of
an egotist, he would reply, “The jobs were assigned to me, and I
worked like a horse to get things done. I didn’t ask for them.”
Of course, he still hankered after Hitler’s old title of Reich
chancellor. Still thwarted by Hitler and cheated of that rank, he
decided to become Germany’s greatest statesman since Bismarck
anyway; and when his rivals’ botched diplomacy finally resulted
in war, Göring began reading for his most difficult role yet
the multiple role of Mightiest Warlord cum Most Honest Broker
in All German History.
He was not lazy this was a popular and hurtful miscon-
ception. He just could not be everywhere at once. Inevitably, as
he discovered his hidden entrepreneurial skills, his devotion to
the new air force declined. After the new Air Ministry building
opened in , he rarely set foot in this imperious structure of
concrete, glass, and marble. It was ruled by his stocky, rubicund,
businesslike Staatssekretär, Erhard Milch. No lions roamed
through Milch’s purposefully furnished Berlin apartment, no
jewels glittered on his fingers, but it was Milch who signed the
orders and made the major decisions which planes to build,
where to erect the factories. Göring was content with the walk-
on roles so long as they gave him adequate occasion to wear the
full-dress uniform, buckle on the swords, and deliver great ora-
tions.
Occasionally Milch perambulated Göring around Rechlin
Field to see the latest bomber or fighter prototypes, and it did
not escape his watchful master’s eye that Milch was the complete
master of this domain. Göring began, that spring of , to
dismantle some of Milch’s sub-empire. When General Wever
was killed in a plane crash at Dresden on June , Göring over-
rode Milch’s judgment to appoint Kesselring as the new chief of