“What about inner defenses? Didn’t Ranger have any guns to protect itself?”
“Ranger's fighters shot down one of the aircraft carrying the antiship missiles and took shots at the missiles themselves, but F-14 Tomcats are not really designed for chasing down cruise missiles, especially with enemy fighters in the area. Ranger itself had two operational short-range RAM launchers — heat-seeking missiles mounted on a steerable box launcher — plus two Phalanx automatic Gatling-gun defense systems, but although both systems were functioning neither could hit the incoming missiles. We’re investigating.”
“We also lost two fighters. Why?”
Curtis bristled at the notion that he was responsible for explaining the vagaries of aerial combat, but he explained. “Sir, the fighters faced multiple enemy aircraft at all times — at no time did we have better than a one-on-two match-up. The fighters were responsible not only for protecting themselves and their ship, but the Air Force aircraft as well…”
“But why did we have such poor odds?” the Vice President, Kevin Martindale, asked. “Why did we have only eight fighters airborne? We should have had sixteen or twenty…”
There was a hushed tension in the room; Martindale followed the furtive glances of those around him to the President. “We authorized only two escorts per aircraft,” Taylor explained to the Vice President. Everyone could tell that the President’s admission was a stab wound for him. “They were talking about thirty-plus fighter escorts up there…”
“Sir, our objective from the beginning was not to get into a big furball with dozens of aircraft in this area,” Curtis explained. “If we had huge waves of fighters up there, it might’ve looked like an invasion force. Besides, we had no way of knowing the Chinese would not only send fighters to chase down our recon planes, but launch antiship missiles as well…”
“I should have known.” The President sighed. “I should have erred on the side of protecting our troops…”
“Perhaps it would have been better to have more fighters up initially,” Curtis allowed, “but our aircraft were in international airspace and outside the established Philippine air-defense zone at all times. Our reconnaissance plane came no closer than forty miles to a Chinese vessel that was fifty miles offshore — well within the law. Our aircraft broadcast identification signals, they were in constant contact with international overwater flight-following agencies, and they used no type of jammers whatsoever. The Ranger was over three hundred miles away and never entered the Celebes Sea. We behaved as nonthreatening as we possibly could…
“It seems that we underestimated the Chinese, then,” Thomas Preston said. “This is no mere foray they’re involved in — this is a major military operation. They are prepared to defend their positions with everything they have and do whatever it takes — including attacking a United States aircraft carrier.”
“And that should not be tolerated,” General Curtis added. “They’re professing their innocence and at the same time blasting away at our reconnaissance aircraft and carriers—”
“Hold on, hold on, Wilbur,” the President interrupted. “I understand your anger — believe me, I share it. I need to hear some more options first before I consider a military response.” He turned to Secretary of State Danahall. “Dennis, you said you had something for us on the ASEAN meeting?”
“Yes, sir,” Danahall replied. “The Association of South East Asian Nations concluded its emergency session in Singapore yesterday. We’ve got Deborah O’Day over there as our observer.” Curtis glanced quickly at Thomas Preston and detected a slight edge in his expression. O’Day was once Preston’s Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Pacific — one of a multitude of positions she held in two White House administrations — and had been fired from that post for her outspoken advocacy of expanded involvement in Pacific affairs in general and specifically her opposition to the U.S. pullout of the Philippines. Curtis could imagine the reception O’Day got from the predominantly Moslem and generally anti-female men.
“Miss O’Day reports,” Danahall continued, “that the vote to bring sanctions against China was defeated in the ASEAN assembly.”
“What?” the President asked, alarmed. “But they can’t… The Chinese are tearing up the Philippines and ASEAN isn’t going to do anything about it…?”
“That’s not all, sir,” Danahall said. “After the meeting, O’Day was briefly kidnapped…”
The room crackled with tension.
“Kidnapped!” The President found himself sitting straight up. “Jesus, is she all right? What happened…?”
“She’s all right, sir. Not a scratch. Her assailant says he was sent by Second Vice President Samar to officially request military assistance from the United States — and O’Day reports that Samar had delivered a warning not to enter the Celebes Sea region because the Chinese Fleet Admiral was ready to attack.” He held up a sheet of paper. “Here’s her communique from the embassy in Singapore, dated sixteen hours before the attack began.”
The President scanned the communique quickly, then returned to his chair stiff with shock. He turned to Preston, then to Curtis. “Did you know about this?”
“Yes, sir,” Preston replied. “I immediately issued a message to Admiral Walheim about the warning, but we gave this warning little credence at the time.”
“Why?”
“Because the Ranger group was never scheduled to enter the Celebes Sea in the first place, per your orders,” Preston explained. “I decided to go ahead with the aerial surveillance, since the risk was far less and because we needed the ‘eyes’ up there to see what the Chinese were doing. We never expected the Chinese to attack our reconnaissance aircraft, let alone the Ranger carrier group.” Preston looked decidedly uncomfortable, then added, “Miss O’Day has had a… uh, reputation for sensationalizing a situation, sir. I’m afraid I have to admit I gave her warning little credibility. It sounded like a fanatical tirade by a Filipino guerrilla soldier…”
“We did everything we could do to protect the fleet, sir,” Curtis said. “The proper warnings were issued, the commanders in the field knew the situation…”
“I take full responsibility, sir,” Preston said uneasily. “I should have brought the matter to your attention immediately.”
The President stared at Preston but his eyes seemed dead. After a moment he shook his head and waved a hand at Preston. “It’s not your fault, Thomas. If you had told me that the Chinese were ready to attack the fleet, I would’ve said you were crazy and told you to continue as planned.” He paused, then said, “All right. We’ve got several dozen dead sailors, a damaged aircraft carrier, and apparently a live Filipino vice president asking for our assistance. What do we do about it?”
“JCS has devised an operation that we think can send a clear message to China, sir…”
The President was obviously still hesitating. That single nuclear explosion, a relatively small burst that occurred ten thousand miles away, was hamstringing this President, casting doubts that only served to increase his anger and frustration — like Reagan’s inner torment about the American hostages held in Lebanon, the nuclear explosion and the fear of an escalating conflict between the United States and China was plunging the President into indecision.