preserve its independence. With continuing the alliance with France, after March 1936 Carol also began a policy of attempting to improve relations with Germany. On the domestic front, in the summer of 1936 Codreanu and Maniu formed an alliance to oppose the growing power of the Crown and the National Liberal government. In August 1936, Carol had Titulescu fired as foreign minister and in November 1936, Carol sent the renegade National Liberal politician Gheorghe I. Brătianu to Germany to meet with Adolf Hitler, the Foreign Minister Baron Konstantin von Neurath and Hermann Göring, to tell them of Romania's desire for a rapprochement with the Reich. Carol was much relieved when Brătianu reported that Hitler, Neurath and Göring had all reassured him that the Reich had no interest in supporting Hungarian revanchism, and were neutral on the Transylvania dispute. The decoupling of Berlin's campaign to overthrow the international system created by the Treaty of Versailles, from Budapest's campaign to overthrow the system created by the Treaty of Trianon, was welcome news to Carol, creating the possibility that a greater Germany would not mean a greater Hungary. Göring, the newly appointed chief of the Four Year Plan organization designed to have Germany ready to wage a total war by 1940 was especially interested in Romania's oil, and talked much to Brătianu about a new era of German-Romanian economic relations. Germany had almost no oil of its own, and throughout the Third Reich control of Romania's oil was a key foreign policy goal. Reflecting the changed emphasis, Carol vetoed in February 1937 a plan promoted by France and Czechoslovakia for a new alliance which would formally unite France with the Little Entente and envisioned more much closer military ties between the French and their allies in Eastern Europe. Because of its oil, the French were keen to keep the alliance with Romania strong, and because Romania's manpower was a way of compensating the French for their lower population vs. Germany's (the French had 40 million people while Germany had 70 million people). Additionally it was assumed in Paris that if Germany invaded Czechoslovakia that Hungary would also attack Czechoslovakia to regain Slovakia and Ruthenia. French military planners envisioned the role of Romania and Yugoslavia in such a war as invading Hungary to relieve the pressure on Czechoslovakia. Up until 1940, Carol's foreign policy teetered uneasily between the traditional alliance with France and an