“Now I get it. How many British soldiers were there?” “Two teams. Sixteen Marines, Sir. All lost at sea.” “And the Russian crew? Are they all gone?”
“We received a report just before we came here, from our own USS Iowa, which is also in the area, saying that there is one Russian survivor. He’s in good condition and the British, who fished him out of the water, agreed to transfer him to the Iowa for questioning. We have a Russian-speaking interrogator there, so we should know more very soon.”
The President turned to his aide seated behind his chair.
“Since this is an emergency, tell the Iowa that they have my approval to skin this Russian alive if need be, if it gets him to start talking, and pretty damn quickly.”
“Yes, Mister President”, the aide said, and hurried out of the room.
“Now go on, General.”
“It stands to reason that this vessel was in the vicinity of the event when it took place, and that it even participated in creating the event. The fact that a Russian submarine followed the trawler and blasted it to smithereens just as the British were boarding it, proves that they had a very good reason to make this vessel disappear, and especially to silence the crew permanently. What we have so far is that the Russian survivor is in good condition and he was wearing a Russian Navy coat. And several minutes ago, Radio Moscow reported that, following the so-called American aggression of this morning, British and American warships sank a Russian trawler in the North Sea.”
President Butler nodded and turned to his Secretary of Defense, Mr. Manning.
“After the nuclear missile that they attributed to us, this is really quite benign. I want us to move forward. What’s our intelligence assessment regarding the nuclear explosion and the vast forces that they’re deploying around East Germany?”
“Mister President, I’ll get straight to the point. Our intelligence community all agree that they plan to attack us in the near future in Europe, and more precisely, in West Germany. There are several obvious reasons. The forces they’ve mobilized so far are several times larger than what they need to suppress the insurgency in East Germany. Our assessment is that since it is impossible to conceal the presence of all the divisions that have been concentrated there, but not the reason for which they are concentrated there, they decided to execute a small nuclear explosion that would achieve two goals, a small one and a big one. The small goal is to divert the world’s attention, and ours, from the area of potential conflict in the German Democratic Republic to another, more remote region. The other goal, which is the primary one in our opinion, is to frame us, to attribute to us an attempt to annihilate a large city, Murmansk, with a nuclear weapon, thereby justifying their invasion of West Germany as a legitimate punitive action. They estimate that even then, we would not be eager to use tactical nuclear weapons to stop the advance of the massed Soviet armor.”
President Butler thought to himself for a moment, and then addressed Secretary of Defense Manning again.
“This is definitely an analysis that I can accept. But then, what do you think the motive is for this insanity by these goddamn Communists?”
“Mister President, there is no question here that they want to save their homeland. That’s exactly how they see it. We have indications that even in the Soviet Union itself, some unrest has started among some restive labor unions and industrial complexes. In their view, all evil and fermentation originates in the free states of Western Europe, and therefore, in order to nip this agitation and insurrection in the bud, they must neutralize those states. They also believe that by doing this they can put a stop to outside agitation, and also, judging from history, when the motherland is at war against an external enemy, the whole nation unites behind the regime and its leaders. As they see it, it’s like killing two birds with one stone.”
A junior naval officer entered the room. He saluted, and General Abramson snatched from his hand, almost violently, a sheet of paper fresh from the teleprinter. The Admiral read it intently.
“What is it, General? Has the Russian fishermen started talking?”
“No, Sir”, General Abramson replied, still reading the paper. “I’m afraid, Sir, that our time is running out. Both our Intelligence and our allies in West German Intelligence are detecting a general rush of activity over the radio networks in the past half hour, unprecedented in its scope, to hundreds of Soviet troops, especially the armored divisions. It appears that they are receiving orders to move forward.”
A stunned silence descended upon the Situation Room.
“Mister Manning, Secretary of Defense”, President Butler said softly in a subdued voice that was nonetheless sharply authoritative. “The Reds are waging war and we are still talking ourselves to death here. I want to hear plans of action right now. But first of all, General”, he turned to the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff, “If they start moving now, how long will it take them to reach the antitank positions between the Germanys?”
“Mister President, it will take them a day and a half, maybe two days at most. In East Germany, they are on friendly territory, all their tanks can move freely on the highways, just like in a military parade. The only thing that can slow them down, in my opinion, is traffic congestion. Nothing else”.
The President turned to his aide, who had returned to the Situation Room.
“Secretary of State Peter Perry is sitting outside with the Russian ambassador. Tell Secretary Perry to get rid of the Russian and come here at once.”
The aide hurried out of the room.
A minute later, the aide returned with the Secretary of State in tow.
“Sit down, please”, the President ordered the Secretary. “Mister President, the Russian Ambassador said that…” The President interrupted him unceremoniously.
“This communist’s lies don’t interest me right now”, said the President.
The Secretary of State was astounded. He had never been treated like this by the President and had never seen him in such a combative mood. The President disregarded his Secretary’s offended expression and went on.
“Mister Perry, half an hour ago, the Red Army’s masses of tanks and armored personnel carriers started their engines and are moving towards us. The time for diplomacy is over and the time for action has begun. Within thirty-six hours we will be at war against enormous numbers of tanks that can flood the European continent in a few days. I want you to be an active participant in the decisions that we will be taking now.”
Secretary Perry nodded, acknowledging the gravity of the situation. The President quickly turned to the Secretary of Defense.
“Secretary Manning, what can we do now except sit on our hands waiting for them to overrun us?”
“Mister President, there are quite a few targets that we can attack in
East Germany, but we will then be perceived as the belligerent party”.
“I can live with that”, the President replied irritably. “We are at a huge numerical disadvantage against their tanks. So I understand that you’re referring to an aerial assault, right?”
“Yes, Sir. We have qualitative superiority in the air, in both aircraft and ordnance.”
The President now turned to the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General James Cannon.
“All our planes are armed and ready. What can we achieve by attacking, General?”
“Mister President, we are in the middle of winter, so it’s almost impossible to operate at night. In addition, East Germany has the densest and most effective anti-aircraft array in the world with thousands of antiaircraft missiles in almost one hundred batteries. This is sure to cause us significant losses.”
“I didn’t ask about losses, General”, the President rumbled. “If they breach the West German border, there will be many more losses. What can you do?”