Brown, Dale - Patrick McLanahan 03 (55 page)

           
“Winter?” Vice President Martindale
retorted. “You’re going to wait until winter to do something?” The Vice
President was not known for being too swift.

           
“The name was simply a random
combination of words made by his war-gaming computer, and its use is strictly
internal. We can pick a different name for media purposes if you wish . . .”

           
“Just let me know what you’re proposing
to send over there,” the President said irritably. “How much equipment, how
many men.”

           
“The first Air Battle Wing, which is
the only one currently organized,” Curtis replied, “consists of eighteen B-52
bombers, ten F-111G bombers, twenty F-15B, C, and E-model fighters, twelve F-4
fighters, three KC-10 tankers, six KC- 135 tankers, one E-3C AWACS plane, one
RC-135 radar plane, one EC-135 airborne command post, three C-5 cargo planes,
and ten C-141 cargo planes. It totals about two thousand men and women. The
current force includes three B-2 stealth bombers as well, which have been
training for use with the Air Battle Force. We also have the use of the
destroyers
Hewitt
and
Fife
and the cruiser
Sterett,
which were part of the
Ranger
battle group; the two destroyers carry Tomahawk cruise missiles that can go in
ahead of the bombers and take out seaborne radars and large vessels. The Second
Air Battle Wing has about twice as many troops and equipment, but can’t be
assembled for another thirty to sixty days.

           
“According to our intelligence
figures, the Chinese have approximately ten thousand troops in Zamboanga
itself, plus another five thousand afloat in the
Celebes
,” Curtis continued, “including a full
Marine regiment on
Mindanao
and another afloat.

           
“They have the equivalent of three
surface action groups in the
Celebes
,
which is twelve capital warships including submarines in
each
group. We have mapped out at least twenty different possible
surface-to-air missile sites surrounding the
Celebes
. They have closed off or actively patrol
all sea-lanes and all air routes around the southern
Philippines
for a radius of a thousand miles from
Zamboanga.

           
“In addition, they have another
twenty thousand troops, thirty more ships, and at least a hundred more aircraft
in Puerto Princesa, only five hundred miles away. And this is only a quarter of
what they have sent to
Luzon
:
Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Base both have as many Chinese troops and
machines there as the
United States
once had there at the height of the Vietnam
War—”

           
“Wait a minute,” the President said
in complete surprise. “You want to take on fifteen thousand Chinese troops with
only two thousand men? That’s
it?”

           
“Sir, numbers don’t make the
difference here,” Curtis explained. “The Air Battle Force has the striking
power of two, perhaps three aircraft-carrier battle groups, and they have speed
and flexibility that the carriers themselves don’t. We have the air power to
force the Chinese out of Zamboanga and perhaps out of the south
Philippines
altogether. We need to activate this unit
as soon as possible. I recommend to you that we activate the Air Battle Force
and deploy them to
Guam
. Once they’re there, we can present a more
detailed plan to you.”

           
“I object to General Curtis
characterizing this group as the ultimate solution to this problem,”
Preston
said. “I am very much in support of the Air
Battle Force concept, but General Curtis is fantasizing, sir.” To Curtis he
said, “I’m on your side, Wilbur. I believe in the work you’ve done. The Air Battle
Force concept is great, and you’ve implemented it superbly. No one is
questioning it or you. But we have to be more realistic or optimistic—we have
to be ultraconservative. We’ve been surprised so many times in this conflict
that we have to increase our requirements that much more to compose a credible
picture.” To the President he said, “We can build a fighting force to take the
Philippines
, sir, but do you want to pay the price to
do it?”

           
“The Air Battle Force doesn’t fight
alone, Thomas,” Curtis said,
“WINTER
HAMMER
includes the
Wisconsin
battle group. Six ships, led by the
battleship
Wisconsin
,
are at
Pearl Harbor
ready to go. This group has trained with
the Air Battle Force in maritime operations, so when you do decide to send the
ABF, they’ll operate well together. In the meantime they can act as an escort
for the
Ranger
when they’re ready to
pull out of
Indonesia
, and they can monitor ship and submarine
activity in the
Celebes
from long range. They also carry Tomahawk
cruise missiles, which will be important if we do start hostilities with the
Chinese.

           
“The task force also includes the
Second Marine Prepositioning Force based on
Mariana
Island
near
Guam
. One amphibious assault carrier, one tank
landing ship, two escorts, two support ships, twenty helicopters, thirty
armored vehicles, five thousand Marines and naval personnel. Half of the force
is there now—the other half deployed by air from
Hawaii
, pick up their ships on Mariana, then
embark to their standby positions in the
Philippine Sea
. It will take at least five days for this
group to arrive on station. We send a flight of P-3 Orion sub hunters from
Japan
or
Guam
with them until they get some air support
from shore or from a carrier group.”

           
“An invasion force,” the President
said. “You’re recommending a full-scale invasion . . .”

           
A telephone in front of the
President buzzed; Cesare picked it up and listened, then replaced it on its
cradle. “Press release from the Chinese government, coming in from the wire
services,” he told the President. “Communications is sending down a copy.”

           
A few moments later a Secret Service
agent on duty arrived and passed a computer printout to Cesare, who remained
standing as he read it to the National Security Council:

           
“ ‘The Chinese government is
claiming that an American military strike force was detected and intercepted
over the
Celebes Sea
,’ ” Cesare read. “ ‘The strike force,
composed they say of several large subsonic bombers believed to be B-52 bombers
from the
island
of
Guam
, was escorted by fighters from an aircraft
carrier. They claim the Philippine government requested that the Chinese
People’s Liberation Army Air Force, some of whom were stationed at military
bases in the southern
Philippines
at the request of the Philippine
government, help defend them.’

           
“ ‘The Chinese claim they launched a
small defense force of fighters, which managed to drive the bombers away. They
claim four Chinese fighters were downed and two American fighters were shot
down . . .’” Cesare read ahead, then added, “ ‘No mention of the strike against
the
Ranger,
except that American
warships also threatened several Filipino coastal towns with bombers and rocket
attacks, and that an unarmed Chinese supply ship carrying medicine and food to
Filipino refugees in western Mindanao came under attack by an American bomber.
They go on to charge that the United States is trying to retake the Philippines
by force and blames us again for the nuclear-weapon detonation near Palawan and
for threatening the world with thermonuclear chaos.’ ” “Those bastards,” the
President grumbled angrily. Then, almost as an afterthought, he turned to
Curtis: “We did
not
have any B-52s
involved in this mission over the
Celebes Sea
,
did we, General?”

           
“Absolutely not, sir. We have no
bombers of any size stationed in
Diego Garcia
,
Australia
,
Japan
, or anywhere west of
Guam
...”

           
“Could it have been someone else?
The Australians?
Brunei
?
Vietnam
?
Australia
has F-lll bombers, right . . .?”

           
“Unlikely, sir. Our AWACS radar
plane picked up no other aircraft in the area . . .”

           
“What about ground forces? It wasn’t
a Marine or special operations attack? Anything like that?”

           
“Nothing authorized by me or any of
my staff, sir,” Curtis said. His mind began running through a multitude of
other possibilities—mercenaries, a rogue combat unit, perhaps even the downed
Tomcat crews blowing things up to mask their escape—but he quickly discarded
each one. “Sir, it’s an obvious propaganda story. When the CIA investigates the
story, they’ll discover it wasn’t a bomber attack—they’ll probably find there
was no attack at all. The Chinese released the story because of its propaganda
value—they want to be the first to complain, because it shifts blame on the
other party.”

           
The President had also discarded all
other possibilities, for his face became darker and angrier by the second.
“Those bastards,” he muttered. “They attack our unarmed reconnaissance aircraft
and an aircraft carrier, then claim
we’re
trying to start a war. And even if we admit that the
Ranger
was attacked by Chinese antiship missiles, it makes us look
even worse—we’re going to get blamed for trying to start a war, then criticized
for not doing a good job of it. Bastards . . .”

           
The President fell silent, as did
the rest of the Council. This was the turning point, Curtis thought grimly:
this was the point at which all presidents facing a conflict had to decide
whether to explore more peaceful, less hazardous options, or go ahead with
preparing for battle. Like his famous relative, this President wanted to avoid
a conflict— he would do almost anything to avoid going to war, or even doing
something that might threaten war. It was simply not in his nature.

           
But he had sixty dead sailors and
two damaged warships to think about as well. When the American people learned
about this incident, which was bound to happen at any minute, what would they
say? Would they expect a military response? Would they understand if the
President of the
United States
still tried to pursue a peaceful solution?

           
“Mr. President, I’m ready to brief
you at any time on
WINTER HAMMER . . .”

           
“General, I can’t consider sending
in more bombers and fighters
now, ”
the President said angrily. “I’m supposed to stand up in front of the American
people and deny that we sent bombers to attack the
Philippines
—and
then
the press learns of all those bombers sitting over there on
Guam
? I look bad enough as it is.”

           
“We can disprove each and every
accusation by the Chinese,” Curtis said. “We can prove we had unarmed
reconnaissance planes up there, not bombers, and that the Chinese fighters
attacked first. We can also prove that the
Ranger
was hundreds of miles from the
Philippines
and no threat to any coastal towns or
Chinese positions, and that their antiship missile attack on the fleet was
unprovoked.” But the President seemed distant, worried, unreachable. “You don’t
have to submit to this blackmail, sir. We’ve got dozens of options . .

           
“I know, I know . . He paused, his
gaze scanning his advisers arranged around him, although it was obvious he
didn’t notice any of them—it was his way of making tough decisions. He made
another glance at Thomas Preston, who was grim-faced but remained silent. The
President was alone with his decision: