Griffin W.E.B. - The Corps 09 - Under Fire

U.S. AND BRITISH CASUALTIES ZERO KILLED AND ZERO WOUNDED.

ENEMY CASUALTIES SEVEN KILLED SIX WOUNDED NINE PRISONERS.

IT IS THE INTENTION OF CAPTAIN K. R. MCCOY, USMC, TO INVADE THE IS- LAND OF TAEBU-DO AS

SOON AS TIDAL CONDITIONS PERMIT. HE REPORTS WHITE FLAGS HAVE BEEN HOISTED PRE-SUMABLY INDICATING A DESIRE OF THE ENEMY TO SURRENDER. CAPTAIN MCCOY REQUESTS THAT BRIGADIER GENERAL

PICKERING, USMC, BE APPRISED BY YOU OF THESE DEVELOPMENTS.

MOST RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED

DARWIN JONES-FORTIN, RN COMMANDING HMS CHARITY

TOP SECRET

[FOUR]

the residence of the supreme commander un command/allied forces in japan

the embassy of the united states

tokyo, japan

1930 25 AUGUST 1950

"Oh, Fleming," Mac Arthur said, rising from an armchair in the upstairs sitting room, "there you are. Thank you for coming."

"It was good of you to receive me on such short notice," Pickering said, "and even kinder to ask me to supper. I know I'm intruding..."

He walked to Jean MacArthur and kissed her cheek.

"Don't be silly," she said. "We don't see enough of you socially, Fleming."

"This isn't exactly social, Jean," Pickering said.

"For the next ten minutes, it will be, while we have a cocktail and hors d'oeuvres," MacArthur said.

A Filipino steward offered Pickering a tray, on which sat a squat crystal glass dark with whiskey.

"Your health," Pickering said, as he picked it up.

"Do you hear often from Patricia?" Jean asked.

"I call her, or she calls me, just about every day," Picker-ing said.

"And how, poor dear, is she bearing up?"

"The tough part is not knowing," Pickering replied hon-estly.

"And there's still no word about your son?" MacArthur asked.

"Only in the sense that my station chief in Pusan reports that there is no word that Pick has been captured."

"And would he know?" Jean MacArthur asked.

"He would," Pickering said. "Actually, he's very good at what he does."

"Forgive me," MacArthur said. "He didn't-the CIA didn't-seem to be able to give us advance knowledge of what happened on June 26."

My God, if I get into that, I'll really be in trouble.

"Yes, I know," Pickering said. "That's one of the reasons I was sent here, to see if I can prevent a blunder like that from happening again."

"And I can think of no one better able to do that," MacArthur said. "Your report will be to Admiral Hillenkoetter, I presume?"

"I haven't even begun to prepare a report," Pickering said. "But when I do, it will go to the President."

"Despite the perhaps unkind things I have said about the OSS in the past, I questioned President Truman's deci-sion to abolish it immediately after the war," MacArthur said.

"He seems to have quickly realized his mistake," Picker-ing replied. "He formed the CIA several months later."

"I sometimes wonder..." MacArthur said. "Let me phrase it this way: President Truman seems to understand what a threat Joseph Stalin and company pose to the world. Frankly, I have often wondered if many of those close to President Roosevelt were similarly concerned. Many of those were still in the upper echelons around President Truman when he abolished the OSS."

"I'm sure it pleased those people, General," Pickering said. "But my best information was that it was senior offi-cers of the military who wanted to bury the OSS, and suc-cessfully urged Truman to do so."

"Why would they want to do that?"

"Because they couldn't control it themselves."

"That's a hell of an accusation, Fleming," MacArthur said, "and let me quickly and emphatically disassociate myself from any group of senior officers... I was never asked what I thought should happen to the OSS. Had I been asked, I would have said I felt it to be quite valuable to the nation. And when the CIA was formed, I was de-lighted when they sent their experts to assist me here."

Oh, what the hell. I'm going to infuriate him anyway. Why put it off for ten minutes?

"General, the point there is that the CIA wasn't here to assist you," Pickering said. "Not in the sense you're implying. You're suggesting that you considered them part of your staff, and that implies you controlled them."

"And you find something wrong with that?"

"To do their job properly, CIA people cannot be subor-dinate to the local commander," Pickering said.

"Even to someone like Douglas?" Jean MacArthur said loyally. "I can understand your position, I think, at division level, or corps level, but Douglas is the Supreme Comman-der!"

"That's the point, Jean," Pickering said. "The more im-portant, the more imposing, the local commander is-and I submit that your husband is the most important and most imposing of all the commanders I know of-the less likely the CIA man is to challenge his judgment. And he is sup-posed to think, and act, independently."

"Would you say that applies to our relationship?" MacArthur asked.

"Yes, sir, I would," Pickering said. "Our friendship aside, I really think you were happier before I came here, when the CIA station chief thought of himself-and you thought of him-as a member of your staff, and you both behaved accordingly."

"You apparently don't think much of your CIA station chief," MacArthur said.

"Or maybe Douglas, either," Jean said. "Fleming, I never thought I'd hear you talk like this-"

"Jean, you know better than that," Pickering interrupted. "My admiration for Douglas is bottomless, as an officer and a man."

"It certainly doesn't sound like it," she said.

Pickering turned to face MacArthur.

"The only reason I haven't relieved the station chief is that I'm afraid his replacement might be even worse."

"In what sense?" MacArthur said icily. "That he would be even more cooperative with the local commander?"

"I think it's perfectly natural for any senior officer-in-cluding you-to be uncomfortable with the notion of hav-ing people playing on their fields whom they do not control. And to do whatever they can to get that control. In the case of the Tokyo CIA station chief, you did just that. Or Charley Willoughby did, which is the same thing."

MacArthur stared at him icily for a moment.

"Granting, for the sake of argument, that I did, or Gen-eral Willoughby did, manage, so to speak, to bring your station chief to think of himself as a member of the team, what harm was done?"

"I was less than completely honest a moment ago when I implied I'm going to relieve the station chief for having allowed himself to be sucked into Charley Willoughby's- and your-orbit. The fact is that he was derelict-even criminally derelict-in the performance of his duties."

"That certainly deserves amplification," MacArthur said.

"In his case, it was an act of what I have to believe was intentional failure to do his job properly. It was either that, or he was, literally, so inept or so stupid that he didn't know what was going on."

"And what was going on?"

"A report was prepared by an intelligence officer on the staff of the Naval Element, SCAP, strongly indicating that the North Koreans had prepared an invasion force."

"I know of no such report, and, frankly, Pickering-"

"General, there was a report. I've seen it. You apparently didn't get to see it because General Willoughby ordered it destroyed."

"That's an outrageous accusation!"

"Unfortunately, it's true," Pickering said.

"What intelligence officer?" MacArthur said. "What we are going to do right now, General Pickering, tonight, is get General Willoughby and this intelligence officer of yours in here and get to the bottom of this. After which I will take whatever action seems appropriate."

"You can get Charley Willoughby in here, General, if you like, and I will repeat to him what I just told you. If that is your desire, I would suggest that you also summon Captain Edward C. Wilkerson-"