Griffin W.E.B. - The Corps 08 - In Dangers Path

Obviously, El Supremo wants the subject changed

, Pickering thought, but as soon as his wife had left the room, MacArthur proved him wrong.

«And that, presumably, is what your officers are going to tell the people in Washington?» MacArthur asked. «That this Fertig fellow knows what he's doing?»

«Yes, sir.»

MacArthur raised his expressive eyebrows and shook his head.

Pickering thought it over for half a second and decided he was obliged to make the Supreme Commander even unhappier.

«Fertig made quite an impression on both McCoy and Lewis, General. What Lewis thinks, of course, he will report to Admiral Wagam, and more than likely to Admiral Nimitz. And just before I went back to Espiritu Santo, there was a Special Channel message from Colonel Fritz Rickabee, suggesting I prepare McCoy to brief the President just about as soon as he gets off the plane in Washington.»

«Who is Rickabee? How would he know what the President wants'? For that matter, why would Franklin Roosevelt want to hear what a captain thinks?»

«Rickabee is my deputy—

was

my deputy—before this OSS thing came up. I don't know this, but I suspect the President told Frank Knox that he wants to talk to McCoy.»

«Why would he want to do that?»

«McCoy is held in high regard by Jimmy Roosevelt; they were both on the Makin raid.»

MacArthur snorted.

«And Frank Knox told his assistant, Captain Houghton, who told Colonel Rickabee,» Pickering finished his thought.

MacArthur considered that for a moment. «Don't misunderstand me, Fleming,» he said. «I admire this Fertig fellow. And I will move heaven and hell and whatever else has to be moved to see that he gets the supplies he needs.»

Sergeant Donat, in a crisp white jacket, arrived with a tray holding glasses, ice, and a bottle of Famous Grouse.

«Good to see you again, General,» he said.

«Thank you, Manuel,» Pickering said.

Donat poured two stiff drinks, then looked at Mrs. MacArthur, who smiled and shook her head, «no.»

«A toast, I would suggest, is in order,» MacArthur said. «To your brave young officers, Fleming.»

«And the enlisted men they had with them,» Pickering responded. «Better yet, to all the brave men who are carrying on your fight in the Philippines.»

MacArthur considered that, then sipped his drink. «So what are you going to do now, Fleming?» he asked.

«Now that my nose is under your tent flap?»

MacArthur smiled and nodded.

«I'm going to meet with Colonel Waterson first thing in the morning,» Pickering said.

Colonel John J. Waterson was OSS Brisbane Station Chief, which is to say head of the Office of Strategic Services detachment assigned to Supreme Headquarters, South West Pacific Ocean Area.

«In your new role as Deputy Director for Pacific Operations of the OSS?»

«Yes, sir.»

«You have not previously met the gentleman?»

Pickering shook his head, «no.»

«Coast Artillery Corps. Class of '22 at West Point,» MacArthur recited. «Resigned in 1934, with twelve years of service, after failure of selection for promotion to captain. Commissioned as major artillery, reserve, in 1939. Called to active service October 1940. Instructor—mathematics—at the Artillery School, Fort Bliss. Detailed to the OSS January 1942. Promotions to lieutenant colonel and colonel came shortly after he joined the OSS. In his civilian career, Colonel Waterson was a vice president of Malloy Manufacturing Company—they make hubcaps for automobiles—which is owned by his wife's family.»

It was not a very impressive recitation of military credentials, and both men knew it.

MacArthur, looking very pleased with himself, smiled at Pickering.

«You know more about him than I do,» Pickering confessed.

«I thought that might be the case,» MacArthur said.

«What was that? 'Know your enemy'?» Pickering asked.

«Your phrase, Fleming, not mine,» MacArthur said, smiling. «And I certainly don't think of you as the enemy.»

«Thank you.»

«Unfortunately, I was never able to find time to receive Colonel Waterson,» MacArthur said, obviously pleased, «and now it won't be necessary, will it?»

Pickering suddenly understood why Douglas MacArthur was pleased that the President had appointed him OSS Deputy Director for Pacific Operations.

He thinks I'm going to get Roosevelt and Donovan off his back.

And in his shoes, I would think the same thing. He knows he's right about the OSS; and he knows I think he's right, and I can plead his case in Washington better even than he can.

Just before Pickering left Washington for his current Pacific trip, the President of the United States had personally given him a subsidiary mission: to convince General Douglas MacArthur to find time in his busy schedule to receive Colonel Waterson.

OSS Director William Donovan had complained to Roosevelt that following a very brief meeting with General Charles A. Willoughby, MacArthur's G-2, shortly after his arrival in Brisbane seven weeks before, Waterson had been waiting in vain for the meeting with MacArthur Willoughby had promised to arrange «just as soon as the Supreme Commander can find time in his schedule.»

When Pickering had raised the subject to MacArthur soon after his arrival in Brisbane, he was told that MacArthur had decided that the OSS was going to bemore trouble than it was worth. Receiving Colonel Waterson would therefore be tantamount to letting the nose of an unwelcome camel into his tent. MacArthur had no intention of doing that.

Pickering thought MacArthur was right. The OSS probably would be more trouble than it would be worth in the kind of war MacArthur was fighting. The situation here was completely different from Europe and Africa, where the OSS had proven very valuable.

It was a relatively simple matter to infiltrate OSS Jedburgh teams into France and other German-occupied areas of the European landmass by parachute or even by small fishing boats setting out from England. Once inside enemy-held territory, agents who spoke the language and were equipped with forged identification papers could relatively easily vanish into the local society, aided by in-place resistance movements. Once in place, OSS agents in Europe could go about their business of blowing up railroad bridges and harbor facilities, of gathering intelligence, and of arranging for resistance groups to be armed and equipped with communications equipment.

None of the conditions that made the OSS valuable in Europe prevailed in the Pacific. For one thing, there was no contiguous landmass. The war in the Pacific was already becoming known as «island hopping.» Hundreds—often thousands—of miles separated Allied bases from Japanese-occupied islands.

Simply infiltrating OSS teams onto a Japanese-held Pacific island would pose enormous—probably insurmountable—logistical problems.

And, with the exception of a few Americans and Filipinos who had refused to surrender when the Philippine Islands had fallen to the Japanese, there was no organized resistance in Japanese-occupied territory anywhere in the Pacific. In other words, there would be no friendly faces greeting OSS agents when they landed. Furthermore, no matter how well he might speak Japanese, no matter how high the quality of his forged identification papers, a Caucasian agent stood virtually no chance of passing himself off as a Japanese soldier, or making himself invisible in a society whose brown-skinned citizens often wore loincloths, filed their teeth, and spoke unusual languages.

And finally, on the Pacific Islands where MacArthur intended to fight, there were very few railroad or highway bridges or industrial complexes to blow up, and really very little intelligence to gather.