“Any reports about Taiwan’s defense posture?”
“Virtually nothing from Taipei at all, sir,” the briefer replied. “Lots of reports of Chinese troop movements, but nothing regarding their own forces. No sign of the sixteen F-16 fighter-bombers that hit Juidongshan earlier. AWACS radar planes report formations of fighters, believed to be F-5s, over northern Taiwan, but Air Combat Command and the Navy want to get a better picture of the situation over Taiwan before moving radar planes closer.
“Now, over to the east, something else broke out between North and South Korea about an hour after the attacks over Taiwan began,” the briefer went on. “The ROK air force detected a ballistic missile inbound from the west-northwest, possibly from the North Korean naval base at Haeju or from a surface ship off the coast. Air defense missile units at Inchon and Seoul successfully engaged and destroyed the inbound. The ROK then reported a second missile headed north over the border. Moments later, a hot nuclear detonation was detected over Wonsan, the army and navy headquarters base in the eastern DPRK. The ROK denies it fired any missiles, although it does admit they returned artillery and rocket fire with the North at many different locations along the DMZ after the nuclear explosion.
“The ROK is on full military alert, as is the North.” The intelligence officer ran down a summary of the military deployments on both sides— almost two million troops and thousands of tanks, military vehicles, artillery pieces, and rockets were staring at each other all along the 140-mile-long frontier, with about a dozen clashes already breaking out in various parts of the DMZ. “Of course,” the briefer summarized, “all nations in the region are on a high state of alert.”
“No shit,” Admiral Henry Danforth, the commander in chief of U.S. Strategic Command, gasped aloud. “Any idea at all who launched against the Koreans?”
“Both sides are denying it, as are the Chinese,” the briefer responded. “We have polled our naval and air forces in the Yellow Sea and western Korean Peninsula region, and no one fired anything — the Navy is conducting an audit of all its forces, but that will be hampered by the alert. We’ve ruled out the Chinese ballistic missile subs — one has been in dry dock for some time, and the other two Chinese boomers are being shadowed by American attack subs, and they report no activity. The only possible explanation is one or two Chinese missiles that were supposed to hit Taiwan somehow veered six hundred miles off course and accidentally hit Korea, but that’s unlikely. We’re still investigating.”
“Sweet Jesus, I can’t believe it,” Danforth muttered. “China actually went ahead and pushed the button.” Admiral Danforth swiveled around in his seat until he could see General Samson, sitting behind him in the second row of the Battle Staff Room. “Still think we should recommend to the President that we take the bombers off nuclear alert, General Samson?” he asked.
“Admiral, the invasion of Quemoy, Taiwan, and perhaps even South Korea was going to occur no matter how many nuclear weapons we put back on alert,” Samson said. “The Chinese destroyed an American aircraft carrier, launched a nuclear bombing raid on Taiwan, and I believe tried to instigate a second Korean War by shooting missiles over both North and South Korea — but are we any closer to declaring war on China, let alone a nuclear war?”
“I think we are, and the National Command Authority apparently agrees,” Danforth said. “Tm recommending to the NCA that we go to DEFCON Three, deploy the ballistic missile sub fleet, put the bombers on restricted alert, and MIRV up all of the Peacekeeper and Minuteman ICBMs.” The fifty LGM-118A Peacekeeper missiles were America’s largest and most powerful nuclear weapon. Headquartered in Wyoming but based in underground silos in Colorado and Nebraska as well, the huge 195,000-pound missiles, when fully “MIRVed up,” could carry as many as ten Mk 21 nuclear Multiple Independent Reentry Vehicles to targets as far as ten thousand miles away. The five hundred LGM-30G Minuteman III missiles now on alert at bases in North Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana carried up to three Mk 12 nuclear warheads.
“Sir, I believe that would be a mistake,” Terrill Samson said earnestly. “I’ve got to restate my position for the staff.”
Danforth looked very perturbed — Samson could see a jaw muscle flexing in the dim light of the Battle Staff Room. But CINCSTRATCOM motioned for Samson to step down. “Let’s hear it, Terrill,” he said. Samson gathered up a folder of notes and stepped down to the podium in front of the auditorium-like seats of the Battle Staff Room.
“Admiral, I’ll be as blunt as I can — the Chinese won’t believe we will use nuclear weapons against them because I don’t believe we would,” Samson said, “and if you can’t make me believe it, they certainly won’t.” “The President, the Secretary of Defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and me say you’re wrong,” Danforth said irritably. “Part of the problem is, General, is that the bombers aren’t coming up fast enough to make the Chinese think we’re serious about putting a nuclear strike force on alert. That’s your responsibility.”
“With all due respect, Admiral, I think you’re wrong,” Samson said. “The bombers are taking twice as long to come up as we planned because the crews practice all year for conventional bombing missions, but almost never for nuclear missions. The Chinese know this. We are just now discussing moving up the generation schedule for the bombers, several hours after we lose six thousand troops in a nuclear attack — if we were serious about using nuclear weapons, our counterattack would have been launched long ago.” -
“I don’t appreciate your talking in absolutes about things we have no way of knowing, General,” Danforth said. “Make your point.”
“Sir, my staff and I have prepared a target list and strike plan for central and eastern China that I would like approval for issuance of a warning order,” Samson said. “I want four B-2s, twenty B-1B bombers, and eight KC-135 or two KC-10 tankers, plus a list of non-nuclear weapons. The target list includes Chinese long-, intermediate-, and short-range nuclear missile sites, known nuclear weapon storage and maintenance bases, air defense sites, and communications centers… virtually the same targets we have at risk under the SIOP, sir, but targeted with bombers carrying conventionally armed cruise missiles, precision-guided cruise missiles, and satellite-guided gravity bombs.
“We can halt the SIOP generation of the bombers I need and reconfigure them easily for the conventional mission,” Samson continued. “I plan to launch all twenty-four aircraft, pick the best twelve and have them continue to their targets, and recover the remaining twelve on Guam for refueling and launch them as a follow-on attack. Within twenty-four hours, we can have the bombers launched; within eighteen hours, the bombers will be striking targets in China and recovering at Guam, ready to begin round-the-clock attack operations. Commit the remainder of the bombers, and we can begin surge operations that can hold China’s entire military at risk and even assist in air operations over North Korea at the same time if needed. I can guarantee—”
“Frankly, General Samson, your management of the Air Force bomber fleet up to this point has been something far less than adequate,” Danforth interrupted, with a definite note of exasperation in his voice, “and I don’t think you’re in a position to guarantee anything.”