“More aid to Turkey?” Secretary of State Harlan Grimm retorted. “Sir, Greece is crying bloody murder about our support for Turkey after the Islamic Wars — they think we’re arming Turkey so they can retake Cyprus. Besides, we banned high-tech-weapon exports to Turkey for a reason — if they don’t get what they want, they try to steal it. We caught them red-handed with truckloads of Patriot missile technology they tried to steal from Israel.”
“Sir, we need to stand by our allies,” Freeman repeated earnestly. “If we don’t, not only the allies, but Russia as well, will think we don’t care what happens in that part of the world. And that invites disaster.”
“If I can’t get a consensus in my own Cabinet,” the President interrupted, “it must mean we haven’t got a solution yet. I need more information — on Turkey, on the state of the alliance, on what Velichko has in mind. I think a NATO ministers’ meeting in Brussels is in order.”
“Let’s bring them over here and down to Miami Beach, where it’s warm,” the First Lady chimed in. She got an appreciative chuckle from that remark.
“Good idea, honey,” the President said. “And I need a face-to-face with Velichko, in Europe. Can you make it happen, Harlan?”
“Unlikely, Mr. President,” Grimm replied, “but I’ll work on it.”
“All right. Anything else I need to consider?”
“Excuse me, Mr. President, but there’s a whole list of things we need to consider,” General Freeman said. “I’m really disturbed about the latest Russian air attack in Europe. The Russians appear to be using their heavy bombers for much more than antishipping and maritime reconnaissance — they had ground attack weapons on board. This is a whole new threat being posed by the Russians, and I think we ought to respond to it.”
“How?” asked the President, interested.
“I, and several members of the Joint Chiefs, feel the Russians’ actions in Europe warrant Strategic Command gaining the bomber alert force and … going back into the nuclear strategic deterrent mode again.”
Freeman could have taken off all his clothes and mooned the entire National Security Council and gotten a more muted reaction than he received just then — and the most vocal voice was that of the Steel Magnolia. “Have you lost it, General?” she sneered. “You want to go back to round-the-clock alert with nuclear bombers and missiles? You want to start orbiting the Arctic Circle with B-52 bombers again? I thought the Strategic Air Command was dead.”
“Ma’am, let me explain.”
But the room was in complete dismay. Donald Scheer leaned over to Freeman and whispered, “Nice try, Phil.”
“I think everyone’s voiced their opinion on that idea,” the President said with a smile. “Now, is there anything—”
“Mr. President, I do think this is important,” Freeman pressed on, surprised by the completely negative reaction. “Sir, I’m not talking about going to war, and no, ma’am, I’m not talking about airborne alert — we did away with that in the sixties. I’m talking about sending a credible, rapid, and powerful message to President Velichko — back off or we’ll be back in the Cold War business again. I’m talking about taking one-third of our long- and medium-range bombers, about one hundred aircraft, plus three hundred single-warhead Minuteman III land-based missiles, and putting them on alert. We practice it, it’s very safe, and my staff has been gathering data on how rapidly we can accomplish this.”
The members of the National Security Council quieted down a bit after hearing some of the actual numbers. Not long ago, there used to be over three hundred bombers and over a thousand land-based missiles on alert — Freeman was suggesting a much smaller number, about one-third of what used to be a common thing. “How exactly would we accomplish this?” Michael Lifter, the President’s National Security Advisor, asked.
“We’re already putting out feelers to the units that will be affected,” Freeman replied, “getting hard numbers about what they have available and how fast they can get it all together. Right now the book says four days from whenever the President says ‘go.’
“An order comes down from here to Strategic Command in Omaha — the Strategic Air Command has gone away,” he said pointedly to the First Lady, “but it’s been replaced with Strategic Command, which is the Joint Strategic Target Planning Staff in peacetime and in effect transforms into the Strategic Air Command in wartime. They execute the war plan that we approve. Strategic Command gains aircraft and crews from the Air Force Air Combat Command and other major military commands and assumes operational control of all the nuclear weapons in our arsenals. The commander in chief of Strategic Command, General Chris Laird, reports directly to the President. General Laird becomes responsible for the survival of his forces and for carrying out the emergency war plan, called the Single Integrated Operational Plan, or SIOP.”
“World War Three,” the First Lady declared.
“We hope not, ma’am,” Freeman said. “The primary purpose of the alert force is deterrence. We’re hoping that having nuclear-loaded bombers on round-the-clock alert will keep President Velichko from trying anything against NATO.”
“So it’s MAD all over again,” the First Lady interjected again. “Mutually Assured Destruction. The balance of terror.”
“It’s also a way to assure our allies that we’re ready to act in case an attack occurs,” Freeman said, looking right at the Steel Magnolia, not the President. “And it is a response to the Russians’ newest threat of putting land-attack long-range cruise missiles on their reconnaissance and maritime aircraft. As you know, there are Backfire bombers stationed again in Cuba — the Russians claim these are only long-range patrol planes, but we know now that they could have a land-attack capability and could very easily strike half of the continental United States.”
“All right, General,” the President said. “I think I’ve heard enough. I think it’d be a very wise precaution to investigate putting bombers on alert again. At the very least, it’s a bone we can toss to Dalon and the other allies.”
“Sir, with Russia knocking at Turkey’s front door, do you think it’s wise to just be tossing bones?” Scheer asked. “Perhaps a more positive move is warranted.”
“You-all put together what you think that move should be, and I’ll look at it,” the President said. “Like I said, I need information. The General has given me plenty to think about, but I need more input from the other members before I can decide.”
“At the very least, Mr. President,” Freeman said quickly, guessing that the President was on the verge of ending this meeting, “allow my staff to brief you on the emergency-action procedures, including responding to the airborne command post and establishing remote and mobile communications with the National Military Command Center.”
“Sure, Philip,” the President replied, winking away a very concerned glare from his wife. “I think we can squeeze it in tomorrow morning. How about a power breakfast meeting, say, after the First Lady’s Health and Human Services breakfast meeting?”
“I’m sorry, sir, but the First Lady doesn’t have Top Secret-SIOP-ESI clearance,” Freeman said firmly. “She can’t attend these briefings.”
“She can’t?” the President asked incredulously. “How do you figure, General? She can sit in on NSC meetings, she can come and go in the Oval Office at any time — but she can’t sit in on a briefing on how to use the doohickey in the briefcase that Navy officer follows me around with all the time?”