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

"As I understand my role, Mr. President, I report directly to you."

"Yeah," the President said. "You do." He paused. "Have you had any more radios? Even of `no great significance'?"

"My Seoul station chief believes Seoul will fall, Mr. President. He is moving his base of operations to the south."

The President nodded but said nothing.

"Mr. President, there is something else," Hillenkoetter began.

"Let's have it," the President said.

"Several weeks ago, on June eighth, Mr. President, Sen-ator Fowler asked for an appointment as soon as possible. The next morning, he came to my office with a man named Fleming Pickering."

Truman shrugged, showing the name meant nothing to him.

"And what did the head cheerleader of Eisenhower-for-President want, Admiral?" Truman asked. "The last I heard, he was not on the Senate Intelligence Oversight Committee."

"The name Pickering means nothing to you, Mr. Presi-dent?"

"Not a damned thing," the President said.

"He was Deputy Director of the OSS for the Pacific in World War Two. He's quite a character."

"Never heard of him," the President said. "One of Dono-van's Oh-So-Socials?"

"Well, that, too, sir, I suppose. He owns Pacific and Far East Shipping, and he's married to the daughter of the man who owns the Foster Hotel chain."

"And that, obviously, made Donovan decide he was OSS material?"

"Mr. President, President Roosevelt commissioned Pickering a brigadier general in the Marine Corps, and named him, I have been reliably informed, Deputy Chief of the OSS for the Pacific over Mr. Donovan's strong ob-jections."

"The Marines must have been thrilled to have some so-cialite millionaire shoved down their throat as a brigadier general," Truman said.

"There was not, as I understand it, much problem with that at all, Mr. President. Not only did Pickering win the Navy Cross as a Marine enlisted man in France in World War One, but he'd gone ashore with the First Marine Divi-sion on Guadalcanal, and become-when the G-2 was killed in action-General Vandegrift's intelligence officer."

"He was a reserve officer between the wars?" Truman asked.

Hillenkoetter was aware that Captain Harry Truman had gone into the Missouri National Guard after World I, and risen to colonel.

"He was a Navy reserve captain when he went to Guadalcanal, Mr. President, working as sort of the eyes of Navy Secretary Knox. And when Secretary Knox ordered a destroyer to take him off Guadalcanal, it was attacked, her captain killed, and Pickering assumed command of the vessel, despite his own pretty serious wounds. Admiral Nimitz gave him the Silver Star for that."

"I really am tired, Admiral," Truman said after a mo-ment. "Can we get to the point of this?"

"Mr. Pickering-General Pickering-and Senator Fowler are very close, Mr. President."

"I suppose every sonofabitch in the world has one friend," Truman said.

"General Pickering had just come from Tokyo, Mr. Pres-ident," Hillenkoetter said, "with an intelligence assessment concluding the North Koreans were preparing to invade South Korea."

"How did he get an intelligence assessment like that? Whose intelligence assessment?"

"He wouldn't tell me, Mr. President, but I have every rea-son to believe that it was prepared by a Captain McCoy, who was on General Pickering's staff when they were both in the OSS."

"Another Oh-So-Social, this one a Navy captain?" "A Marine Corps captain, sir. He'd been a major and was reduced to captain after the war." v

"I don't have a thing in the world against captains," Tru-man said. "But wasn't this one out of his league? Captains usually don't prepare assessments predicting the beginning of a war."

"This one did, sir," Hillenkoetter said. "And so far, everything he's predicted has been on the money."

"Why didn't this assessment... You're telling me you knew nothing about this assessment?"

"I had never seen it before, Mr. President. And when I read it, it went counter to everything my people had devel-oped, Mr. President."

"Who did he do this assessment for?"

"Captain McCoy was assigned to Naval Element, SCAP, sir. He submitted it to his superior, who passed it on to General Willoughby, General MacArthur's G-2...."

"And?"

"According to General Pickering, General Willoughby ordered it destroyed."

"He didn't place any credence in it?"

"Apparently not, Mr. President."

"And now it turns out this captain was right on the money?"

"It looks that way, Mr. President."

"And when General Willoughby ordered this assessment destroyed, this captain gave it to General Pickering?"

"Yes, sir."

"Who brought it to you? Accompanied by Senator Fowler?"

"Yes, sir."

"Which means Senator Fowler's seen it, knows the story?'

"Yes, sir."

"Which means, if we've just gone to war, and I'm very much afraid that we have, that the story is going to get out that we should have known it was coming, because of this captain's assessment, which MacArthur ignored. My God, it'll be another Pearl Harbor scandal!"

"I'm afraid that's a real possibility, Mr. President."

"And what did you do when this assessment came to your attention?"

"I decided that it deserved further investigation, Mr. President."

"Meaning you sat on it?"

"I sent my Deputy for Asiatic Activities, David Jacobs, to Hong Kong on the next plane with orders to light fires under everybody we have over there to check it out."

"And?"

"Well, there hasn't been much time, Mr. President, but what feedback I got tended-until yesterday-to make me question the assessment."

Truman looked at him for a long moment.

"I appreciate your honesty, Admiral," he said. "Thank you."

He looked as if he was in thought, then asked, "Where is this captain now? What else has he got to tell us that no one wants to hear?"

"That was some of the first feedback I was given, Mr. President," Hillenkoetter said. "Captain McCoy was re-turned to the United States for involuntary separation from the service."

"Kill the messenger, huh? That sounds like something Emperor MacArthur would do."

"Mr. President, General Pickering led me to believe that General MacArthur is unaware of the assessment."

"How the hell would he know that?"

"He and MacArthur are friends, Mr. President. He had dinner with the MacArthurs when he was in Tokyo."

"Then, since he had it, why didn't he give the damned assessment to MacArthur?"

"The way General Pickering put it, Mr. President, is that General MacArthur's loyalty to those officers who served with him in the Philippines and throughout World War Two is legendary."

"The `Bataan Gang,'" the President said. "I've heard about that, about them." He paused and looked at Hil-lenkoetter. "Where is the captain now?"

"I have no idea, sir. In the States, someplace. Maybe at Camp Pendleton, that's a separation center."

"What about General Pickering?"

"He lives in San Francisco."

The President looked at his watch.

"It's half past ten here," he said. "What'll it be in San Francisco?"

Hillenkoetter did the arithmetic.

"Half past seven, Mr. President."

Truman turned to the sideboard behind him and picked up the telephone.

"This is the President," he said. "In this order, get me General Fleming Pickering, in San Francisco, California."

He looked at Hillenkoetter.

"Have you got a number?"

"No, sir. And I should have one. I'm sorry, Mr. Presi-dent."

Truman waved a hand to show that it didn't matter, and turned his attention back to the telephone.

"Start looking for him at Pacific and Far East Shipping. When I'm through talking to him, get me Senator Fowler. I don't know where he is."

He put the telephone back in its cradle.