Promise of Joy (60 page)

2

“Members of the Senate—” Arly Richardson said gravely at 9 a.m. next day, even as Jawbone Swarthman was saying with equal gravity, “Members of the House—”

“I have in my hand a message just received, addressed jointly to the President of the United States of America, to the Majority Leader of the United States Senate and to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, from the President of the United States of Russia.”

There was a gasp of astonishment, a sudden tensely humming silence. In both chambers the television cameras slowly swung from face to troubled face.

“It reads,” Arly said, and in the House Jawbone simultaneously began its transmittal, “as follows:

“‘Distinguished and honorable friends of the West!

“The Russian peoples and their government address you in their hour of deepest peril and greatest need. We appeal to you for help!

“‘As you know, the mongrel hordes of China are at this very moment moving toward Europe across the face of Mother Russia. We have met them on the ground. We have met them in the air. We have bombed their cities and their supply lines. And still they come, in untold millions.

“‘It is so even in the dead of winter.

“‘It is inhuman.

“‘They are no longer people, they are animals.

“‘Many, many of them have died.

“‘And still they come.

“‘In the face of this, as you know, the peoples of Russia have made a determined and gigantic effort to turn the tide. But we are outnumbered two, four, sometimes eight or ten, to one, all along the line. We have tried to hold but we have been unable to hold. We do not apologize for our failure, because we have done our best. In the face of such millions from the alien world of China, it has not been enough.

“‘At the very moment you read this, our government is in hiding. Our peoples are taking tremendous blows. We are returning tremendous blows. But they are not enough, and we are falling back.

“‘We have already retreated almost a thousand miles into European Russia.’”

A groan of dismay, fear, anguish, broke almost unnoticed from many lips in both houses, and from wherever, in America and around the world, frightened men and women listened.

“‘Because of this, the government of Russia faces immense dangers, not only from the Chinese but from some evil elements within our society which seek to profit from our distress. It may not be possible to suppress much longer the outbreak of civil rebellion which could destroy the last vestige of organized control in Russia.

“‘Thus the doors will be opened completely to the onrushing hordes of alien China as they advance inexorably upon all of Europe.

“‘Next will come the Pacific and your own shores.

‘“We have already retreated a thousand miles. We are unable to hold much longer. We hope to regroup and make a further stand at some point further back to be determined by our military leaders. But unless we receive immediate help from you, the great American Republic with whom we have always had such close fraternal bonds of friendship, mutual trust and common culture, we cannot succeed. We cannot win.

“‘We will fail, and with us, you will fail.

“‘Then the yellow hordes of China will sweep over Europe as well. Then they will swarm across the Pacific and eventually to your own shores. Then you, too, will stand outnumbered two, four, eight or ten to one, and there will be no one—
no one—
to answer your cries for help.

“‘Russia is dying. Europe is dying. Western culture and civilization are dying.

“‘Help us, we beg of you! Help us! Help us!

“‘(signed) Shulatov, President,

United States of Russia.’”

At approximately the same moment, Arly in the Senate and Jawbone in the House finished reading. And at approximately the same moment in the Oval Office, the President of the United States of America looked at the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense and said grimly, “That does it.”

Yet even then he would not yield, or deviate from what he honestly believed to be best for his country and the world. He would not believe that Russia was really that weak or that the Chinese could possibly still be that strong. He knew the effect Shulatov’s words would have upon the world. He understood the impact they would have upon him personally. But he would not yield.

When the decision came an hour later—

Congress passes Aid-Russia resolution after direct appeal from president Shulatov. Vote narrow but decisive in both houses. Enormous pressure building on Knox to intervene as Russian leader tells world, “Russia is dying. Europe is dying. Western culture and civilization are dying. Help us!”

—he still would not yield.

“The President,” he said in a one-sentence statement issued immediately through the press secretary, “finds in the action of the Congress no reason to change his views on intervention.”

An hour after that, refusing all calls from the Hill, all importunings from the press, all contact for the time being with anyone but Bob Leffingwell and Blair Hannah, he was studying the disposition of American forces and going over such fragmentary intelligence reports as were coming in from the war zones, when there came suddenly a great stir and bustle in the halls. Excited Signal Corps officers hurried in, microphones, screens, tape recorders, transmitters, were set up. Within ten minutes all was completed. Five minutes later, on a blurry signal that faded shakily in and out but remained reasonably clear for the duration of their brief conversation, he found himself face to face via satellite with the man he had last seen a week ago in New York.

Even through the flickering transmission it was apparent that he was desperately tired, strained and tense. But in him, too, there was something unyielding, even in so desperate an hour.

“Mr. President!” Shulatov said. “When will you begin to help us?”

“Mr. President,” he said, “when will you realize that there must be a fundamental change in Russia if we are to do so?”

“It is too late for that,” Shulatov cried with an angry anguish. “It is too late for such bargaining!”

“But it was not too late in Moscow two weeks ago, or at the UN a week ago,” he said in a cold, cold tone. “It was not too late then to save you from what you are undergoing now. Why didn’t you believe me when I warned you then?”

“You wanted to destroy our sovereignty!” Shulatov cried in the same angry, anguished voice.

“I wanted you, I wanted all of us, to modify and curtail it,” he said. “I wanted to destroy it for no one, only to place upon it bounds within which the world could live. You would not do that. You were too arrogant. You had other plans. You were not afraid of war. Well,” he said, and his tone was colder still, “you have war. Are you happy with it?”

“Save us!” Shulatov said, and for a moment a genuine desperation filled his voice.
“Save us, save us!”

“I cannot plunge in as you would want,” he said, more calmly. “The situation must become clearer, it must stabilize. I believe it will stabilize. I believe
you
believe it will stabilize. I believe you want to involve us irrevocably on your side instead of letting us act as I believe we should act, as mediator, peacemaker, stabilizer.”

“You want to rule the world,” Shulatov said bitterly. “You want us to be destroyed so you can rule the world alone.”

“Goodbye, Mr. President,” he said, reaching forward to turn off the transmitter. “Good luck.”

“Mr.
President!”
Shulatov cried for the last time, on an angry, anguished, upward wail.
“Mr. President?”

But the President’s hand went forward and the machine went off. A shaky image of a contorted, desperate face lingered for a split second, then was gone.

He found that he was trembling all over with the terrible uncertainties of what he had just done and the things he must yet do; but he still did not honestly see that he had any choice but to do them.

President vetoes Aid-Russia resolution, says he will continue course of “prudent non-intervention until such time as the belligerents again seek our mediation.” Claims this is “only course consistent with my oath, the constitution and the safety and future well-being of America and the world.”

Congressional leaders admit votes insufficient to override veto. Some talk of impeachment.

Bitter outcry breaks over country as Knox pursues unyielding policy while Russia retreats toward possible surrender.

“The situation of Russia has now almost passed desperation,” the
Times
declared in a front-page editorial appearing in an almost unprecedented extra that reached the streets in early afternoon. “With it has gone, or is going, what may be the last hope of preventing the pagan hordes of China from carrying their alien domination successfully across the map of Europe, and then in due time across the Pacific to our own endangered shores.

“Civilization itself is at stake—that Western civilization which over the centuries has come to carry almost all that men know of dignity, of beauty, of intelligence, of grace. At stake also is the very existence of the Western European nations, all those other nations that generally draw their traditions and culture from the West, and of the United States of America itself.

“In this crisis, the President tragically has once again justified the unhappy suspicions many of his fellow citizens have long harbored concerning his judgment. After a brief period of statesmanship lasting approximately three weeks, he has reverted to type: obstinate, reactionary, destructive of human freedoms and the desire of all true liberals to save mankind—and in the present case, very likely destructive of the life of the planet itself.

“He has vetoed the Congressional resolution calling for aid to Russia, and he is safe from political reprisal in doing so. The veto cannot be overridden, and it was, in any case, simply an advisory to him, not a mandatory requirement.

“But it
was
mandatory in the sense that it represented the overwhelming desire of the American people to stand with our gallant Russian friends in defense of all the traditions, the history and the culture of our mutual civilization. It was mandatory in the sense that it represented the firm belief of most Americans that it is absolutely vital that Russia be saved and the yellow hordes of China be driven back within their own borders.

“This newspaper now believes that the West, unless the President changes his stand within the day or possibly even the hour, is doomed, and with it, this land we love.

“We beg Orrin Knox—for that is all that is left us, to beg, since he will apparently not listen to our most urgent admonitions—to save Russia, to save the West, to
save
us.

“Do not let us go under, Mr. President! Help us! The need is terribly desperate and the hour is desperately late.…”

“Orrin Knox, stubborn to the end—and the end looks to be just around the corner—” the
Post
said in a similar extraordinary extra that afternoon, “is apparently adamant in his refusal to take America into the war in time to save our gallant Russian allies.

“In so doing he is condemning not only Russia but the West, including his own country, to death at the hands of the pagan hordes now swarming out of China toward the very gates of Europe.

“If Russia goes down, as now seems very likely, those gates will stand open. Through them will pour the yellow tide. Once Europe has been subjugated the tide will flow into the Pacific Basin. And then will come the turn of the United States of America, which no one, as President Shulatov so accurately said in his eloquent appeal to Congress, will be left to save.

“No one at all.…

“The President was within his rights to veto the purely advisory Congressional resolution urging aid to Russia. His veto cannot be overridden, and there is no time for the cumbersome process of impeachment some are advocating, even though we agree that in all justice it should be done.

“Apparently he will impose his will. But what a will it is!

“If he has his way—

“Russia will be lost.

“The West will be lost.

“We will be lost.

“The world will be lost.

“Aside from the brief period when he was showing true statesmanship in his journey to Moscow and Peking and in the United Nations, we have always been actively opposed to Orrin Knox. We believe we were justified, and we believe our temporary endorsement of his policies was a sad mistake, since underneath he was apparently the same old reactionary illiberal conservative we always saw in him.

“But today we beseech him, if he has an ounce of feeling left for his own country and for Western civilization—

“Save Russia from the onrushing yellow hordes of China, pagan, heathen, illiterate, barbarian!

“Save the West!

“Save the world!”

“Save us!…”

“Here on Capitol Hill,” Frankly said in a special late-afternoon roundup on Congressional opinion, “it can only be said that enormous apprehension, possibly even terror, grips a majority of the Congress. Based on the phone calls and telegrams members are receiving, the same can undoubtedly be said of a majority of the American people. This country and most of its leaders are scared to death, and with complete justification. For the hordes of Genghis Khan are descending once more upon the West.

“Gallant and alone, Russia at this moment holds the frontiers of Western civilization against the advancing yellow tide from China. Even as I talk, those frontiers are crumbling all along the vast, chaotic battle line. Russia is being pushed back—and back—and back—and back. If the rout continues, it can only end very swiftly in her complete surrender. And after that, Europe lies open to the terrible tide.

“Once Europe goes, most here are convinced, the Pacific will go, and then, in due course, an isolated and completely alone America. And thus will the policies of Orrin Knox have borne their last, bitter fruit.

“Congress did what it could when it passed the resolution of aid to Russia just vetoed by the President. It does not have the votes to override his veto, it does not have the time to impeach him, as some demand. It cannot force his hand further. For whatever outcome fate has in store, Orrin Knox is in complete and unchallengeable command of the destinies of Russia, America and the world.