From San Francisco, the Independence flew across the Pacific to the Barber's Point Naval Air Station, which is about fifteen miles from Honolulu.
As they were making their approach to the airfield, Pickering idly wondered if they would wake the President—there were beds in all three compartments— for the landing. The question was answered immediately after the airplane stopped moving when Truman, obviously freshly shaved, appeared in the rear compartment and went around making small talk with everyone there from Army Secretary Pace through Brigadier General Pickering to a young man in civilian clothes whom Hart had identified to Pickering as an Army Warrant Officer Cryptographer.
Truman went down the stairway to both greet Admiral Arthur W. Radford, Commander-in-Chief, Pacific, and to stretch his legs a little while the aircraft was being fueled and fresh food brought aboard. His walk was cut short when another batch of messages requiring his immediate attention was brought to the aircraft.
They were on the ground less than an hour.
Pickering had just about made himself as comfortable as possible in his seat for the Hawaii-Wake Island leg of the flight when one of the Air Force stewards touched his shoulder.
"The President would like to see you, General," he said. Truman, now in his shirtsleeves, was alone in his compartment when Pickering entered it. The Presidential bed had been returned to its couch function, and Truman was sitting on it before a table covered with documents. "You wanted to see me, Mr. President?" Truman held out two sheets of message paper.
"Have a look at this, please, and tell me what you think, please," the President said.
TOP SECRET/PRESIDENTIAL
OPERATIONAL IMMEDIATE
DUPLICATION FORBIDDEN
FROM SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
VIA WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS CENTER
0905 WASHINGTON TIME 14OCTOBER1950
TO COMMANDER IN CHIEF PACIFIC
EYES ONLY ADMIRAL RADFORD
PLEASE INSURE FOLLOWING MESSAGE FROM CHIEF PRESIDENTIAL MISSION TO FAR EAST TO THE
COMMANDER IN CHIEF CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET/PRESIDENTIAL IS DELIVERED TO THE PRESIDENT ONLY
REPEAT TO THE PRESIDENT ONLY ON ARRIVAL AT BARBERS POINT
BEST PERSONAL REGARDS
GEORGE C MARSHALL
BEGIN PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM MAJOR GENERAL HOWE
1235 TOKYO TIME 13OCTOBER1950
DEAR HARRY
WONSAN ON EAST COAST OF KOREA FELL TO CAPITAL ROK DIVISION SEVERAL HOURS AGO
MACARTHUR NEVERTHELESS INTENDS TO CONTINUE WITH PLAN TO MOVE X CORPS BY SEA TO WONSAN AND TOLD ME THAT DESPITE QUOTE BRILLIANT PERFORMANCE ENDQUOTE OF ROKS THEY DO NOT HAVE THE NECESSARY TRANSPORT AND HEAVY ARTILLERY HE FEELS IS NECESSARY TO SUPPORT RAPID MOVEMENT TOWARD CHINESE BORDER AT YALU RIVER
IN MY OPINION HE IS CORRECT AS ROK FORCES ARE STILL EQUIPPED MOSTLY WITH HAND-ME-DOWNS
I ALSO HAVE THE FEELING THAT HE WANTS A STRONG AMERICAN PRESENCE THERE TO INSURE (A) THE CAPTURE OF PYONGYANG AS SOON AS POSSIBLE (B) THE ROKS DO NOT GO ANY FARTHER THAN THE YALU AND (C) THE ROKS PAY MORE ATTENTION TO THE GENEVA CONVENTION THAN THEY PROBABLY WOULD IF AMERICANS WERE NOT AROUND
WHAT THE NORTH KOREANS DID TO THE SOUTH KOREANS DEFIES DESCRIPTION AND THEY WILL CERTAINLY SEEK VENGEANCE UNLESS HE SITS ON THEM
MACARTHUR ALSO SAID HE IS QUOTE THINKING ABOUT ENDQUOTE TRYING TO FORM AN ARMORED COLUMN TO TAKE PYONGYANG EVEN SOONER THAN X CORPS COULD GET THERE
HE SAYS HE IS REASONABLY CONFIDENT ORGANIZED RESISTANCE WILL END BY THANKSGIVING AND THAT HE HAS QUOTE REASONABLE HOPES ENDQUOTE OF BEING ABLE TO WITHDRAW EIGHTH ARMY TO KOREA BY CHRISTMAS
THE REPORTS OF AGENTS INSERTED BY CIA (MAJOR MCCOY)IN THE EAST AND LTCOL VANDENBURG IN THE WEST IN WHICH I PLACE MORE FAITH THAN INTEL MACARTHUR IS GETTING FROM HIS SOURCES ALL REPORT (A) BREAKDOWN OF NORTH KOREAN EFFECTIVENESS (B) THAT NORTH KOREANS MADE STRONG EFFORT TO TAKE OUR POWS WITH THEM
VANDENBURG TELLS ME HE THINKS RESCUE OF GENERAL DEAN BECOMES MORE UNLIKELY BY THE DAY ALTHOUGH HE AND MCCOY ARE PREPARED TO STAGE RAID USING HELICOPTERS IF HE CAN BE LOCATED
MCCOY INSISTS NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS ABOUT PICKERING'S SON I CAN ONLY HOPE HE'S RIGHT
MCCOY SAYS HE IS GETTING QUOTE UNCONFIRMED AND THUS UNRELIABLE ENDQUOTE REPORTS OF EXTENSIVE MOVEMENT OF CHINESE TROOPS TOWARD YALU
REMEMBERING HOW RIGHT MCCOY WAS THE LAST TIME I CAN ONLY HOPE HE WILL BE WRONG NOW
GENERAL WILLOUGHBY AND MACARTHUR FEEL INTERVENTION IS NOT EVEN A REMOTE POSSIBILITY
I STILL THINK PICKERING WOULD HAVE BEEN BEST CHOICE TO STRAIGHTEN OUT THE CIA BUT I UNDERSTAND YOUR CHOICE OF BEDELL SMITH WHO VERY MUCH IMPRESSED ME THE FEW TIMES I MET HIM
RESPECTFULLY
RALPH
END PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM GENERAL HOWE
TOP SECRET/PRESIDENTIAL
Pickering read it and handed it back to the President.
"Anything in there you don't agree with?" the President asked.
"I don't think General Howe is right about me and the CIA, Mr. President."
Truman smiled.
"Anything else?"
"No, sir."
"I'm sorry there's no better news about your son, General," the President said. "But I'm one of those people who believe that the opera isn't over until the fat lady sings."
"I've heard that, Mr. President," Pickering said.
"That'll be all, General," the President said. "Would you ask one of the sergeants to ask General Bradley to come up here?" "Yes, sir."
Chapter Ten
[ONE]
No. 7 Saku-Tun Denenchofu,
Tokyo, Japan
O915 14 October 195O
Clad only in underpants and brassiere, Miss Jeanette Priestly, of the Chicago Tribune, bent over a bed while stuffing an Army-issue rucksack. She looked up as Mrs. Ernestine Sage McCoy—whose exquisitely embroidered kimono almost but not quite concealed the evidence of her advanced pregnancy—came into the bedroom.
Jeanette smiled as Ernie carefully lowered herself onto the foot of the mattress.
"I used to have one of those," Ernie said.
"A rucksack?" Jeanette replied, surprised. "You were a Girl Scout?"
"I meant a flat belly, with a cute little navel that used to drive the boys wild when I wore a bikini," Ernie said. "Now look at me!" She patted her stomach. "I look like a boa constrictor that just swallowed a whole pig."
Jeanette laughed. "Not quite that bad," she said.
"Bad enough," Ernie said.
Jeanette's tone turned serious. "Can I offer a word of advice?"
"No," Ernie replied sharply, then softened the edge. "Thank you, but no. I know what you're going to say: Go home and have the baby."
"I feel like a shit leaving you alone in your condition," Jeanette said.
"I'm not due until the middle of December," Ernie said. "You'll be back before then, right?"
"I'll be back in a week," Jeanette said. "But I don't want to walk in here a week from now and . . . hear something unpleasant."
"You want to be here when something unpleasant happens, right?"
"That's not what I meant, and you know it," Jeanette said. "But yeah, if something does go wrong—and so far you have a lousy record of going all the way through the childbearing process—I'd like to be here."
"What'll happen will happen," Ernie said. "I'm doing everything the doctor told me to do, which really means not doing anything on a long list of things I'm not supposed to do. I'll be all right."
"If I say, reassuringly, 'Certainly, you'll be all right,' you'll use that as an excuse not to go home. If I say—"
"Jeanette, this is home. This is the first house Ken and I have ever owned."
"A fact—you told me—you carefully concealed from him until very recently."
"I thought of it as my house, our house," Ernie said. "You know why I couldn't tell him. He was trying to be a good Marine officer."