“Those were dangerous enough, sir.”
“It was also a controlled response. If the North Koreans pushed too hard, well, we still had the U.S. air units stationed in South Korea and in Japan. We could keep things at a relatively low level, without escalating.”
It certainly hadn’t seemed that way at the time, Magruder remembered.
They’d been worried about the Soviets, worried about Korean reinforcements. And at the end, the Korcoms had launched a desperate attack on the invasion fleet with a number of low-level bombers.
Sometimes, he thought, politicians could have remarkably selective memories. “Yes, sir.”
“This time, it’s totally different. Jefferson and the other ships with her, they’re all we have in the region. All. And the Indians have just called our bluff. My bluff.”
“Nimitz and the Ike will be in the region within another few days.”
“By which time it will all be over. No, I’m beginning to wonder if our best bet might not be to pull back. I feel sure that if I told Ambassador Nadkarni that we were disengaging, breaking off and heading back for Diego Garcia, well … I doubt that New Delhi wants to be perceived as aggressors. It’d be in their best interests to turn back and let us sail away, a bloodless, diplomatic victory.”
“Not quite bloodless, Mr. President,” Magruder reminded him. “There’s the crew of that Indian sub that went down a couple of days ago.”
“True. But if an Indian air strike hits our ships, that will be just the beginning. Maybe now is the time to stop the killing.” The President rose suddenly from his chair. He turned and faced the tinted window, looking out past the Rose Garden toward the up-thrust spike of the Washington Monument. “The point is, I could stop it. Now.”
“But at what cost, Mr. President?”
He chuckled. “It would be political suicide, that’s for damn sure.” The President reached up and pressed his hands over his eyes. “After Grenada … Panama … the Persian Gulf … Wonsan? If I back down in front of the world and some nut starts tossing nukes over there … But I think I’m beyond caring about that anymore.”
“I wasn’t talking about the next election, sir. I think you know that.”
Magruder considered for a moment. “What’s happening with the Russians right now? The ones at Turban Station.”
“Some of their officers are aboard our Aegis cruiser now. There … there’s no word from the Russian carrier. Kremlin is southwest of the Jefferson, farther from the Indian mainland and not in the direct line of fire. I’ve been talking with the Commonwealth representative today.
Reading between the lines, I’d guess they’re still trying to guess which way to jump on this one.” He returned to his chair and slumped back into it.
“What do you think they’d do if we packed up and left? If we left the Indian Ocean to the Indians?”
“Lovely thought. My other military advisors don’t think they could handle the Indians alone. The Kremlin isn’t in the Jefferson’s league.”
“My guess, sir, is that they’d follow through with what they’re there to do. Continue the mission.”
“Which is …?”
“Two-fold, Mr. President. Extend Commonwealth power into the Indian Ocean, if for no better reason than to convince the world that they are still a world power. And, maybe more important, to try somehow to stop a nuclear holocaust near their borders.”
“Holocaust. Such a heavy word. Such an evocative word.”
“That’s still our mission, isn’t it, sir? To stop that holocaust?”
“Doesn’t make much sense if we don’t have a prayer of pulling it off in the first place, does it? I’m running the risk of plunging the United States of America into that same holocaust … beginning with nine thousand boys in CBG14.”
“There’s another reason we’re there, Mr. President.”
“What’s that?”
“Freedom of the seas. Our commitment to our allies in the region, to open sea lanes and right of free passage.”
“I wonder how valuable that really is.”
“It’s principle, Mr. President. How important is a principle? Like freedom?” He took a deep breath. “You know, sir, the Navy has faced this same sort of thing before. The Gulf of Sidra, 1986.”
“That was hardly the same as this.”
“I don’t see how it was that much different, Mr. President. Qaddafi decided the Gulf of Sidra was exclusively his, and he set out to prove it at the point of a gun … or at the point of some Su-27s and Nanuchka corvettes, if you prefer. The Navy challenged him on that, at the orders of one of your predecessors.
“The point was, it’s foolish to lay claim to waters that you can’t control. There was never any question that we could smash the Libyans.
They gave us the provocation by threatening our ships and aircraft. We responded. The Gulf of Sidra is considered to be international waters, case closed.”
The President gave a grim smile. “This is different. We could lose!”
“Could be. We could take the history lesson back farther if you like.
The Mayaguez. World War I and unrestricted U-boat attacks. The War of 1812. The Barbary Wars when Moorish pirates captured our ships and people and held them for ransom.”
“We won those too.”
“Yeah, but they weren’t foregone conclusions at the time. Hell, the odds against us in 1812 weren’t that much better than we’re facing now, and in the case of the Mayaguez, we lost more Marines killed than the number of merchant seamen we rescued. In each case, the only thing that pulled us through was the willpower to finish what we’d set out to do … or what others forced on us in the first place.”
“This thing goes beyond principle, Admiral. Or finishing what we started. A lot of reputations in this town are riding on the big carriers. You know that, don’t you?” When Magruder nodded cautiously, the President went on. “Critics of the nuclear carriers have been saying for years that a single missile could sink one, that they’re big, slow, vulnerable … and expensive. Can you imagine the uproar if Jefferson is sunk or disabled by an Indian attack?”
“And is that why you’d have them pull out, Mr. President?”
The President sighed. “No. Once, maybe. Not any longer.” He appeared to be studying his hands, clasped before him on the desktop blotter, very carefully. “Things could have gone very wrong for us at Wonsan. Or at Bangkok too, for that matter. We could have lost ships there. We did lose men.”
“Maybe the question is whether the men die for nothing. Or if it means something.”
The President looked up at Magruder. “I should hire you to do my speeches. You have my speech writer beat all hollow.”
“I only get passionate when I’m telling the truth, Mr. President. All I know, sir, is that if those big carriers of yours are to have any credibility in the future, you have to use them. Seems to me if you don’t, you risk losing the whole damn fleet, simply because they’re no longer a threat.”
Magruder paused and swallowed hard. He was thinking of Matt. What he was saying now was going to have a very direct bearing on Matt’s future, maybe even on whether he lived or died, and the knowledge was a searing pain in his breast. The irrepressible Tombstone would be in the forefront of the fight, no matter what. Winner of the Navy Cross at Wonsan, of the Raniathepbodi — the Thai equivalent of the Medal of Honor — at Bangkok, the hero … But he had to say what he believed.
“Mr. President, you know as well as I do how important the credibility of our fleet is in the world. You also know as well as I do how much we lose when the world sees us sacrifice principle for … for convenience.
If the Indians attack, we fight. We have to. And if there’s any way on God’s Earth to get in there and separate those two before they start throwing their nuclear toys at each other, well … I think we should.