“Shit!” Lindley pounded his fist onto the table. “Taylor, call the Pentagon and tell them they have a leaker! We can’t let word of this get out now.”
Taylor picked up a phone to call the Defense Department.
Lindley continued on his tear, “What the hell were those cargo aircraft doing so close to Taiwan, anyway? Ken, get the President on the line, I need to talk with him immediately.” Lindley turned to Donna and said quietly, “So, you think the Chinese may be invading Taiwan. What next? What do you think they’ll do?”
Donna paused. What she said next might well determine America’s opening moves in the most important military action of the 21st Century, “China will attempt to conquer Taiwan as quickly as possible. They will also strongly warn us not to interfere in their internal affairs. They will probably threaten nuclear attack on our cities as they last did in 1996.”
“What do you mean, ‘nuclear attack’?” the NSC staffer asked.
“In March of 1996 when China was launching missiles into the waters off Taiwan to bully them before their presidential elections one of the PRC’s generals threatened to nuke Los Angeles if we intervened,” Donna coolly replied.
“You can’t seriously think they’d do that? We outnumber them better than 100 to one in nuclear missiles,” the staffer protested.
Donna shot back, “I take everything the Chinese say seriously. Nothing they ever say officially is by mistake. The leadership in Beijing had the general threaten Los Angeles to see what our reaction was. Our reaction was no reaction — we didn’t disappoint them. They took this as a signal that we would not abide by the Taiwan Relations Act and come to Taiwan’s aid in the event of an attack.”
Lindley looked at his young staffer, “I think Ms. Klein’s point is well-taken. China has attacked Taiwan. Let’s keep an open mind towards her views right now.”
Donna knew she didn’t have much time and continued quickly, “As I was saying, they will also seek to intimidate Japan and South Korea. It is important to note that China’s invasion effort is extremely vulnerable to a U.S. naval blockade. China knows this and will seek to delay our response by a week or two. That’s probably why they attacked the Panama Canal — to delay our ability to surge additional naval forces into the Pacific. Anyway, within a week or two they no doubt expect to have secured the island.” Donna’s eyes were intense, “It is critical that we have a strong response. We also need to initiate a diplomatic offensive with Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, Australia, Thailand and India.”
Maus now had the President on the secure line, “Mr. Lindley, the President.” Maus gravely handed the phone to Lindley.
“Sir, we have a growing problem over here… Yes. I suggest you get over to the White House as soon as possible… China looks to have attacked Taiwan… No, not Quemoy, Taiwan itself. They probably used nuclear weapons in the attack and U.S. forces may be in the middle of it… No, the news is only reporting the explosion in the Panama Canal and the mysterious loss of civilian and U.S. Air Force aircraft in the vicinity of Taiwan… The CIA representative here thinks the Chinese deliberately destroyed the Canal… Yes, of course… Yes, sir… Yes… Goodbye.” Lindley gently hung up the phone and looked at Taylor and Klein. “The President wants to establish a Taiwan crisis ops center. He also wants to prevent any premature leakage of information from the military or anyone else. He wants the White House to control the information flow. He’s concerned this could get out of hand very quickly. Taylor, you talked to the Pentagon, right?”
“Yes sir.”
Lindley looked at Donna, “Klein, tell your boss at the CIA that we’re short handed over here and could use your assistance for a while. In fact, who’s your boss?”
“Jack Ramsey.”
“Tell Mr. Ramsey that I want him over here too. The two of you will be on 14-hour shifts until we don’t need you anymore. I want you to be here tomorrow morning and ready to go at five o’clock. You’ll work until seven. I want Ramsey to work from five in the evening through seven in the morning. Call him now and tell him to get over here. He can track the day’s events in Asia and brief you on them before we give the President his morning briefing at seven-thirty.”
“Yes sir.” Donna should have been happy. She would be briefing the President every morning. Instead, she felt as if she was about to play a minor role on the losing side. Tonight was the Sabbath. She decided she’d go home and pray — something she hadn’t done for too long.
24
Grapple
Fu placed the SATCOM phone on the table for General Wei to hang up. Wei told him he had a phone for him too, but Fu was embarrassed to ask the general how to use it. Fu remained content to have the general to serve as his secretary. I’m sure the Chairman doesn’t answer his own phone, Fu smugly thought.
The call to Beijing went well. He spoke to the Chairman, Premier and Interior Minister for three minutes, then spent another five minutes speaking with Soo, the Chairman’s military affairs advisor (with the others no doubt listening in on the speaker phone). They were all pleased by the progress and seemed not at all concerned about the unexpected appearance of the American Marines on Taiwan. Detecting their nonchalance about the Americans, Fu decided to press an aggressive idea to further show his martial ardor, “We should demand the Americans surrender their forces. If they comply, Japan and South Korea will be shaken to their foundations and Asia will be firmly in our grip!”
The Chairman loved Fu’s advice. Fu wondered what it would be like to rule the world’s most powerful nation.
The 287 uninjured crewmembers onboard the USS Curtis Wilbur had never worked so hard nor so ingeniously in their careers. Seamen, many barely 20-years-old, made decisions and repaired key components without being told to do so. They knew their situation was tenuous at best and did all they could to enhance their chances of survival.
Unfortunately, the massive electronic destruction caused by the E-bomb attack disabled much of the ship’s advanced automatic fire suppression and damage control systems. Fortunately, after the Chinese missile hit the engine room, much of the potential for more serious damage onboard was precluded by two members of the ship’s crew. They risked their lives, making their way through fire and smoke to activate the engine room’s fire suppression system manually. The two seamen were now in sickbay along with ten other sailors. Their actions allowed the crew to restore power to one of the four GE LM 2500-30 gas turbine engines. The propeller shafts were still damaged by the missile attack, but the working engine restored some electrical power to the ship.
After working to rescue 807 sailors and 312 Marines from the USS Belleau Wood and USS Dubuque, the USS Germantown hooked a towline to the Curtis Wilbur. Together, the two ships began making their way to Kaohsiung at eight knots. Within another hour they’d be just off shore.
A little more than an hour after the attack, lookouts spotted several fast movers heading east at high altitude. If they were enemy reconnaissance birds it would only be a matter of time before they got some more unwelcome attention.
The Curtis Wilbur’s skipper, Commander Meade, desperately wanted back both eyes and fang. The crew exhausted themselves, but couldn’t get any of the major radar systems up and running. The damage to the receiver circuitry was too extensive to repair at sea. The only functional radar-guided defensive system was a solitary 20mm Phalanx mount. Without a targeting radar, the ship’s Harpoon, Tomahawk and Standard missiles were virtually worthless. Commander Meade conferred with his Fire Control and Strike/Missiles Officers on the bridge (with nothing but the Phalanx operational, the Combat Information Center yielded precious little information).