Dale Brown - Sky Masters

“Wait a minute, ” the President said in complete surprise. “You want to take on fifteen thousand Chinese troops with only two thousand men? That’s it?”

“Sir, numbers don’t make the difference here, ” Curtis ex plained. “The Air Battle Force has the striking power of two, perhaps three aircraft-carrier battle groups, and they have speed and flexibility that the carriers themselves don’t. We have the air power to force the Chinese out of Zamboanga and perhaps out of the south Philippines altogether. We need to activate this unit as soon as possible. I recommend to you that we activate the Air Battle Force and deploy them to Guam. Once they’re there, we can present a more detailed plan to you. “I object to General Curtis characterizing this group as the ultimate solution to this problem, ” Preston said. “I am very much in support of the Air Battle Force concept, but General Curtis is fantasizing, sir.” To Curtis he said, “I’m on your side, Wilbur. I believe in the work you’ve done. The Air Battle Force concept is great, and you’ve implemented it superbly. No one is questioning it or you. But we have to be more realistic or optimistic-we have to be ultraconservative. We’ve been surprised so many times in this conflict that we have to increase our requirements that much more to compose a credible picture.” To the President he said, “We can build a fighting force to take the Philippines, sir, but do you want to pay the price to do it?”

“The Air Battle Force doesn’t fight alone, Thomas, ” Curtis said. “WINTER HAMMER includes the Wisconsin battle group. Six ships, led by the battleship Wisconsin, are at Pearl Harbor ready to go. This group has trained with the Air Battle Force in maritime operations, so when you do decide to send the ABF, they’ll operate well together. In the meantime they can act as an escort for the Ranger when they’re ready to pull out of Indonesia, and they can monitor ship and submarine activity in the Celebes from long range. They also carry Tomahawk cruise missiles, which will be important if we do start hostilities with the Chinese. “The task force also includes the Second Marine Pre-positioning Force based on Mariana Island near Guam. One amphibious assault carrier, one tank landing ship, two escorts, two support ships, twenty helicopters, thirty armored vehicles, five thousand Marines and naval personnel. Half of the force is there now-the other half deployed by air from Hawaii, pick up their ships on Mariana, then embark to their standby positions in the Philippine Sea. It will take at least five days for this group to arrive on station. We send a flight of P-3 Orion sub hunters from Japan or Guam with them until they get some air support from shore or from a carrier group.”

“An invasion force, ” the President said. “You’re recommending a full-scale invasion… A telephone in front of the President buzzed; Cesare picked it up and listened, then replaced it on its cradle. “Press release from the Chinese government, coming in from the wire services, ” he told the President. “Communications is sending down a copy. A few moments later a Secret Service agent on duty arrived and passed a computer printout to Cesare, who remained standing as he read it to the National Security Council: “‘The Chinese government is claiming that an American military strike force was detected and intercepted over the Celebes Sea, ‘ “Cesare read.” ‘The strike force, composed they say of several large subsonic bombers believed to be B-52 bombers from the island of Guam, was escorted by fighters from an aircraft carrier. They claim the Philippine government requested that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force, some of whom were stationed at military bases in the southern Philippines at the request of the Philippine government, help defend them. “‘The Chinese claim they launched a small defense force of fighters, which managed to drive the bombers away. They claim four Chinese fighters were downed and two American fighters were shot down Cesare read ahead, then added, “‘No mention of the strike against the Ranger, except that American warships also threatened several Filipino coastal towns with bombers and rocket attacks, and that an unarmed Chinese supply ship carrying medicine and food to Filipino refugees in western Mindanao came under attack by an American bomber. They go on to charge that the United States is trying to retake the Philippines by force and blames us again for the nuclear-weapon detonation near Palawan and for threatening the world with thermonuclear chaos.’”

“Those bastards, ” the President grumbled angrily. Then, almost as an afterthought, he turned to Curtis: “We did not have any B-52s involved in this mission over the Celebes Sea, did we, General?”

“Absolutely not, sir. We have no bombers of any size stationed in Diego Garcia, Australia, Japan, or anywhere west of Guam… “Could it have been someone else? The Australians? Brunei? Vietnam? Australia has F-1 11 bombers, right . . .?”

“Unlikely, sir. Our AWACS radar plane picked up no other aircraft in the area. “What about ground forces? It wasn’t a Marine or special operations attack? Anything like that?”

“Nothing authorized by me or any of my staff, sir, ” Curtis said. His mind began running through a multitude of other possibilitiesmercenaries, a rogue combat unit, perhaps even the downed Tomcat crews blowing things up to mask their escape-but he quickly discarded each one. “Sir, it’s an obvious propaganda story. When the CIA investigates the story, they’ll discover it wasn’t a bomber attack-they’ll probably find there was no attack at all. The Chinese released the story because of its propaganda value-they want to be the first to complain, because it shifts blame on the other party.” The President had also discarded all other possibilities, for his face became darker and angrier by the second. “Those bastards, ” he muttered. “They attack our unarmed reconnaissance aircraft and an aircraft carrier, then claim we ye trying to start a war. And even if we admit that the Ranger was attacked by Chinese antiship missiles, it makes us look even worse-we’re going to get blamed for trying to start a war, then criticized for not doing a good job of it. Bastards . . The President fell silent, as did the rest of the Council. This was the turning point, Curtis thought grimly: this was the point at which all presidents facing a conflict had to decide whether to explore more peaceful, less hazardous options, or go ahead with preparing for battle. Like his famous relative, this President wanted to avoid a conflict-he would do almost anything to avoid going to war, or even doing something that might threaten war. It was simply not in his nature. But he had sixty dead sailors and two damaged warships to think about as well. When the American people learned about this incident, which was bound to happen at any minute, what would they say? Would they expect a military response? Would they understand if the President of the United States still tried to pursue a peaceful solution? “Mr. President, I’m ready to brief you at any time on WINTER HAMMER…”

“General, I can’t consider sending in more bombers and fighters now, ” the President said angrily. “I’m supposed to stand up in front of the American people and deny that we sent bombers to attack the Philippines-and then the press learns of all those bombers sitting over there on Guam? I look bad enough as it is.”

“We can disprove each and every accusation by the Chinese, ” Curtis said. “We can prove we had unarmed reconnaissance planes up there, not bombers, and that the Chinese fighters attacked first. We can also prove that the Ranger was hundreds of miles from the Philippines and no threat to any coastal towns or Chinese positions, and that their antiship missile attack on the fleet was unprovoked.” But the President seemed distant, worried, unreachable. “You don’t have to submit to this blackmail, sir. We’ve got dozens of options. “I know, I know . . . He paused, his gaze scanning his advisers arranged around him, although it was obvious he didn’t notice any of them-it was his way of making tough decisions. He made another glance at Thomas Preston, who was grim-faced but remained silent. The President was alone with his decision: “I know I’m being too cautious, Wilbur, but you’ve got to understand, ” he said, “I need cooperation with the other countries in the region before I commit American troops to fight the Chinese. The world is touchier than a warm bottle of nitroglycerin right now. If I send your bombers and fighters into the Philippines to square off against the Chinese, I need to make sure that the American people realize we’ve exhausted every possible option first. . “We’ve got the authorization you need, sir, ” Curtis said. “Second Vice President Samar.”