He turned to Freeman and motioned to the thick document they had been discussing earlier. “Green-light this project, Philip. What is he calling it?”
“General McLanahan calls it Operation Battle Born, sir,” Freeman replied. “That’s the Nevada state motto, I believe.”
“I saw something in the daily report from Chastain’s office about a Nevada bomber unit, Air National Guard, I believe, being decertified following some crazy-ass stunts they pulled during an evaluation,” the President remarked. “This plan wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with them, would it?”
“I think General McLanahan was conducting an evaluation at that very same unit to determine the suitability of their bomber unit to accomplish his operation,” Freeman said. “Given the nature of it, I think the general was looking for a very aggressive, rather unconventional fighting force to implement this plan.”
“In other words, he was looking for a bunch of military barnstormers — and he found them,” the President said with a smile. “Shades of Brad Elliott, all right. I just hope there’s an Asia left to implement the plan.”
“Unfortunately, that aspect of General McLanahan’s project may not be implemented,” Freeman said. “The Air National Guard unit has been decertified and disbanded.”
“Can he do the job with a single bomber?”
“I think so, sir,” Freeman responded uneasily. “We still have a constellation of those small reconnaissance satellites — the ones we know as NIRTSats. At the very least, we can still evaluate the plan with one bomber, add a second when it comes on-line, and then perhaps add a frontline unit or another Guard bomber unit later, if things heat up. Admiral Balboa hasn’t signed onto the plan, but he has suggested some alternate strike units from the Navy’s weapons and aircraft research labs at Patuxent River and China Lake that can assist if it gets too much for HAWC. But HAWC is ready to go now, so I think it’s a good idea to get the plan under way and the forces set up as soon as possible.”
“Then let’s do it,” the President said. “Let’s make it happen, and hope to hell it’s not too little, too late.”
The photographs were the most terrible thing Chi Haotian, minister of defense of the People’s Republic of China, had ever seen in his life. Even though they were taken from a helicopter more than a hundred meters above ground, the human carnage was clearly visible and dreadful.
“What was the casualty count again?” Chi asked his aide. The aide looked at the final report and murmured a number. “Speak up, damn you.”
“Four thousand eight hundred thirty-one dead, sir,” the aide replied. “Eight thousand forty-four wounded, two hundred missing.”
“And every death should be avenged threefold, sir!” Chief of Staff of the People’s Liberation Army General Chin Zi-hong said angrily. “It was a dastardly sneak attack, the most heinous I have ever witnessed in my life!”
“Our president has stated to the world that he will never use weapons of mass destruction again unless we ourselves are attacked with such weapons,” Minister Chi said. “We will no doubt be world outcasts for an entire generation for what we did to Taiwan and the United States, and we have no wish to extend that one day longer.”
“So we become the world’s whipping boy now?” Chin shouted. “Do we now roll over and play dead and watch as country after country around us arms itself with weapons of mass destruction and uses them against us without provocation?”
“Calm yourself, comrade Chin,” Chi said. “All I am saying is that the president has warned us not to present a plan to him or the Politburo involving first use of special weapons — nuclear, chemical, or biological — unless we are attacked first. I expect you to have contingency plans available in case we are so attacked by the United States, Taiwan, Japan, or Korea. But in response to this unholy atrocity, the president will not accept a plan that uses nuclear weapons. Now speak: tell me what our response to this tragedy should be.”
General Chin took a deep breath and thought for a moment; then: “Our major concern, sir, is the Koreans’ nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons,” he said. Chi nodded, urging him to continue. “We know where the major bases are located in North Korea, and we can predict with great certainty where most are located in the South — only a few bases, mostly ex-American bases, have the apparatus to handle them.”
“Full invasion of the South will not meet with approval, comrade General,” Chi said. “Although the president and the Politburo support President Kim Jong-il, they will not authorize an invasion of the South below the thirty-eighth parallel. Such an action will certainly create additional world condemnation and action by the United States.”
General Chin shook his head in exasperation. Chi glowered at him. “You need to understand, comrade, that the world is enchanted by a united Korea. That is a very, very powerful force. Our country is trying to regain its rightful place as a world power. As much as we may believe that the fall of Communist North Korea is a disaster to the people and our way of life, we must accept it because the world embraces it. Half the world even believes that the rocket attack against our troops on the border was justifiable; the other half believes it was wrong but nonetheless understandable and excusable. Simple retaliation will not be effective.
“No. We need a plan to strike at the heart of what is wrong about United Korea. Tell me: what is wrong with United Korea?”
“Its nuclear weapons, of course.”
“Of course,” Minister Chi said. “The world loves United Korea because they won their reunification, but they hate them for not giving up the captured nuclear weapons. We can therefore take away Korea’s nuclear weapons and not suffer world condemnation, yes?” A nod of heads around the conference table. “We have already determined that we cannot hope to take all of the weapons, but what is it we can easily take?”
“Kanggye,” General Chin said.
“Not just Kanggye,” Chi said with a pleased smile. “Ten years ago, perhaps, before we put the North Korean missile development program into full worldwide production. But today? You are now permitted to think bigger.”
“The entire province?” Chin asked excitedly. “Do you think the president will approve an operation to take Chagang Do province in its entirety?”
Chi Haotian smiled. Kanggye Research Center was one of the former North Korea’s most sensitive weapons research centers. Only twenty miles south of the Chinese border, it was originally the site of a Russian-built nuclear reactor, similar to the doomed Chernobyl reactor in Ukraine, constructed shortly after the end of the Korean War. The plant produced some power for North Korea and Manchuria, but its primary purpose was as a uranium-processing plant. The plant had been built in North Korea so Manchuria could take advantage of Soviet nuclear knowledge while the dangerous reactor itself was in North Korea. When the China-USSR split occurred, the facility was taken over by Chinese engineers, with cooperation from Iranian and Pakistani weapons scientists.
Soon, most of Chagang Do province was converted to weapons research, development, testing, and construction. Chagang Do was the second largest province in the old North Korea and the most sparsely populated. Like the state of Nevada in the United States or Xinjiang province in China, the land was large and inhospitable enough and the population small enough so as to escape attention or scrutiny. Over twenty research centers, test sites, manufacturing plants, and dump sites made Chagang Do province almost totally uninhabitable and unusable except by the military — and a prime target for any power wishing to capture valuable nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons data.