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

"Easy, Flem," Senator Fowler said.

"I didn't say that, General," Hillenkoetter said.

"That was the implication," Pickering said.

"I'll need the officer's name," Hillenkoetter said.

"I'm not going to give it to you," Pickering said, flatly.

"I can get it," Hillenkoetter flared.

"If you did that, Admiral, this whole thing would prob-ably wind up in the newspapers," Senator Fowler said. "I don't think you want that any more than we do."

Hillenkoetter, while waiting to hear that the recording sys-tem was functioning, had gone over the CIA's most recent "informal biography" of Fowler, Richardson K. (R., Cal.) and was thus freshly reminded that the senator owned the San Francisco Courier-Herald, nine smaller newspapers, six radio stations, and five television stations, including one ra-dio station and one television station in Washington, D.C.

"This is a matter of national security, Senator," Hil-lenkoetter said, and immediately regretted it.

"That's why we're here, Admiral," Pickering said.

Hillenkoetter glared at him, realized he was doing so, and turned to Fowler.

"What is it you would like me to do, Senator?" he asked.

"At the very least, light a fire under your people in Japan and Hong Kong and Formosa and see why they haven't come up with an assessment like this," Pickering said.

"I was asking the senator, General," Hillenkoetter said.

"What General Pickering suggests seems like a good first step," Fowler said. "Followed closely by step two, which would be keeping me advised, on a daily basis, of what your people develop."

"Senator, my channel to the Senate is via the Senate Oversight Committee on Intelligence. I'm not sure I'm au-thorized to do that."

"Well, I certainly wouldn't want you to do anything you're not authorized to do," Fowler said, reasonably. "So what I'm apparently going to have to do is go to Senator Driggs, whom I had appointed to the chairmanship of the Oversight Committee, and ask him to give you permission to give me what I want. I think Jack Driggs would want to know why I'm interested."

"Another option would be to bring this to the attention of the President," Hillenkoetter said.

"Whatever you think is best for all concerned," Fowler said. "I'm going to have lunch with President Truman at half past twelve. Would you like me to bring it up with him then?"

They locked eyes for a moment.

"Senator," Hillenkoetter said, "I mean this as a compliment. You really know how to play hardball, don't you?"

"I've heard that unfounded accusation before," Fowler said.

"May I speak out of school?" Admiral Hillenkoetter asked.

"I thought I'd made it clear this whole conversation is out of school," Fowler said.

"With all respect to General Pickering, and his former subordinate, the officer who prepared this assessment, I'm having a great deal of trouble placing much credence in it."

"See here, Admiral-" Pickering flared.

"Flem, let him finish," Fowler said sharply.

"For one thing," Hillenkoetter went on, "I can't believe that General Willoughby would suppress something like this, and for another, as I said before, I've received nothing remotely approaching this assessment from my own people in the Orient."

"So?" Fowler asked.

"On the other hand, it comes to me not only from a... the former... deputy director of the OSS for the Pacific, but via a senator, for whom I not only have a great deal of respect, but who apparently believes there is something to the assessment. Under that circumstance, I will immedi-ately take action to see what I can find out myself."

"How?" Pickering asked, sarcastically. "By sending Willoughby a radio message?"

"Flem, goddamn it!" Fowler said.

"By dispatching my deputy director for Asiatic Activi-ties-your replacement, so to speak, General-over there as soon as I can get him on a plane, with instructions to- what was your phrase, General? `light a fire'?-light afire under our people in Hong Kong, Taipei, and Seoul to re-fresh their efforts."

"All right," Fowler said.

"It would facilitate things if they could talk with the au-thor of this," Hillenkoetter went on, tapping his fingertips on the assessment. `To do that, I'd have to have his name."

"Flem?" Fowler asked.

Pickering thought it over.

"No," he said, finally, "for a number of reasons, prima-rily because everything he knows is in the assessment. What they would really want from him is his sources, and I don't think he'd be willing to tell them."

"We're supposed to be on the same side, General," Hil-lenkoetter said.

"I'm not entirely convinced of that, frankly," Pickering said. "Anyway, my... friend... would not give up his sources unless I told him to, and I'm not willing to do that. At least, right now."

Hillenkoetter shrugged.

"I may keep this, right?" he asked, tapping the assess-ment again.

"I've been thinking about that," Pickering said. "Could I have your word that you'll use it to pose specific ques-tions-about the order of battle, that sort of thing?-I mean, that you won't turn it over as is to your people? They wouldn't have to be rocket scientists to figure out who wrote it if they had the entire document."

"And we wouldn't want that to happen, would we?" Hil-lenkoetter asked. "It might wind up in the newspapers."

Fowler smiled.

"You have my word, General," Hillenkoetter said. "And would you agree, Senator, that we don't have to worry the President about this just now?"

"Not for the time being," Fowler said, and rose from his chair. "Thank you, Admiral, for your consideration, and for seeing us on short notice. And I'll expect to hear from you shortly, right?"

"Absolutely," Hillenkoetter said, and offered his hand to Pickering.

"It was a pleasure to meet you, General."

"Was it really?" Pickering asked.

Hillenkoetter laughed, a little uneasily, and walked Pick-ering and Fowler to his office door.

As he watched them walk through his outer office, there was an unexpected bulletin from his memory bank.

Christ! The Gobi Desert weather station. The OSS- Pickering-put that in, in the middle of Japanese-occupied Mongolia. Nobody thought he could do it, much less keep it up. But he did, right through the end of the war. The B-29 bombing of the Japanese home islands could not have taken place without it. And we're still using it.

Whatever else Pickering may be, he's no amateur.

Maybe there is something to this assessment.

But why would Charley Willoughby sit on it?

He became aware that Mrs. Warburg, his executive as-sistant, was looking at him, waiting for orders.

"Call Mr. Jacobs, please, Mrs. Warburg," he said. "Ask him to come up as soon as he can. And call transportation and start working on tickets for him to Hong Kong."

"Yes, sir," she said.

He started to close his office door, but she held it open.

Then she stepped inside the office and closed the door.

"Admiral, the tape recorder didn't get shut down," she said.

He looked at her.

"There was something in your voice when you said to shut it down," she said.

"You heard that conversation?" he asked.

She nodded.

"No, you didn't, Martha," he said. "And I want you per-sonally to get that tape, shred it, and burn it. And make sure there are no copies."

"Yes, sir," she said. "Do I get to read the assessment?"

"It's on my desk. You can read it, but I want zero copies made."

"Yes, sir."

"You did the right thing, Martha," Hillenkoetter said. "But this... situation... is extraordinary."

"Yes, sir," Mrs. Warburg said, and walked to his desk to read the assessment.

Chapter Four

[ONE]

THE WILLIAM BANNING HOUSE

66 SOUTH BATTERY

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA

1630 17 JUNE 1950