how Einstein secretly manipulated Roosevelt

In the summer of 1939, a group of scientists, including several who fled Hitler’s Germany, met to discuss their fears of Germany developing a uranium based weapon.

They decided that the President Roosevelt should know about their concerns ASAP.

Because Einstein had previously communicated with the president, and because he was somewhat of a celebrity already, he was nominated to send Roosevelt a letter.

President Roosevelt’s response after reading the letter?

He told his military general Edwin M. Watson “This requires ACTION” (capitalisation mine)

This gives us a peek into Einstein’s secret skill — direct response copywriting.

There are two types of advertising:

Brand campaigns — TV or magazine ads etc that simply makes you aware of the product or company’s existence. Exposure to brand campaigns will make you familiar with the product and more likely to buy, but over time.

Direct response campaigns — Sales letter, ads, emails etc that ask for a direct ACTION right after exposure. Eg: “Buy 1 Get 1 Free Until 5PM”. This asks you to take a direction action of buying.

Both types of advertising have their respective uses. But direct response is where the power and profit is.

Imagine being able to write an ad that immediately compels the reader to BUY… then showing it to millions of people.

Entire business empires can be built on one effective direct response ad.

So how did Einstein manipulate Roosevelt into taking action?

Whether he did it knowingly or not, he used many of the basic blocks of a direct response ad.

The letter:

First, he elicited an emotional response from the president — FEAR. To be fair, he didn’t have to try very hard. The Germans developing a uranium based ultra-bomb is scary enough on its own. But Einstein implied the consequences of this quite tactfully.

Then, he established credibility. His name on its own carries weight, but he also refers to his colleagues in the scientific community sharing his concern.

Most importantly, he ends the letter with a CTA — a Call To Action — for Roosevelt to task someone specific to act as a liaison and facilitator of the US carrying out their own Uranium research.

Direct response copywriting is powerful. Think about it.

Einstein wrote some WORDS… that caused the president to take actions he otherwise wouldn’t have… And changed the history of the world.

Now that’s a skill worth practicing.

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“Pay $11 billion or die”.

That’s basically what the Vietnamese prosecutors told property tycoon Truong My Lan, who has been sentenced to death by lethal injection.

Her crime? Embezzling $12.3 from Saigon Commercial Bank — as well as bribing half of Vietnam and unapologetically disregarding the laws of Vietnamese commerce.

Of course, Lan is appealing. After all, she used to be a billionaire (trillionaire if you count in Dong), and knows how sweet life can taste.

Well — at least while you’re getting away with shady financial practices.

Lan’s lawyer Thanh says that ‘overseas investors’ have agreed to lend Lan $400 million so far. Bit short of $11 billion, but Thanh is optimistic that Lan can return the required ¾ of embezzled assets to potentially avoid the death sentence, per Vietnamese law.

This is not a typical case by any standards.

Lan is basically being thrown into the “Blazing Furnace” campaign, a ruthless anti-corruption effort led by the government. And this case is one of their headliners.

Some feel that the sentencing is too harsh given the financial nature of the crime, including of course Lan herself.

But the gravel has already fallen, and her energies would probably be better spent raising money.

Fortunately for her, that seems to be one thing she’s quite good at.