“Have you read this?”
“Yes Gospodin President, but I don't see how it affects us.”
“It does my friend, in many ways. Not least of which, a strong alliance to the south of Japan bars the route to any further expansion in that direction. We, the Americans and us, bar the way north, Japan is contained, still very powerful and very dangerous but it is contained.”
“I do not see any great signs of strength in this Triple Alliance. It seems a very limited pact. Adequate for the purpose yes, but there is no great strength to it. All three countries together have forces that do not equal those of the Second Karelian Front and we have others as well”
“It will be a strong alliance because it has to be a strong alliance. The members have no choice but to make it so whether they wish it or not. Remember the saying of Catherine the Great. 'Strong alliances are like strong steel. They are not forged on a mattress of desire but on the anvil of necessity.' It will take them time to realize that but, yes; it will be a strong alliance.”
“And the Americans? Their talk of trade and offer of mediation?”
''President Dewey told me that America has a new policy now. They will not make war upon their enemies, they will simply destroy them. This is an announcement of that policy and contains a warning to Japan, They will back off this attack or they will be destroyed as thoroughly as Germany was. And there is nothing they can do to stop it. Now, the question is, how do we make ourselves felt in this 'mediation'?”
“Is it so necessary that we should?”
Zhukov looked affectionately at his deputy. Cherniakhovskii was one of the younger men he was grooming as his successor. This one showed initiative, asked questions, expressed his opinions, all attributes that would have got him killed a decade earlier. He shook himself, had Stalin's great purges been only a decade ago? It seemed like a lifetime. For far too many Russians it had been their lifetime.
“Indeed it is. Our greatest weakness is that we need the Americans. We need their nuclear firepower, we need their economic strength, their skills, their expertise. We need their endless cornucopia of weapons and the tools to make weapons. We need their knowledge of how to run an economy so that it produces enough to feed and clothe our people. We need the Americans, Russia has been so terribly hurt by this war that we cannot survive without them. But, they do not need us. We are useful to them certainly, but they do not need us. So we must never let them think they can do things alone.
“Every time they make a move, we must be there, helping them, supporting them. We must make ourselves so useful to them that usefulness become approximate to need. And, remember this, the Americans are generous to a fault and they hate to be under obligations. Offer them bread, they will return with meat and think nothing of it. If we aid them as much as it within our power to do so, they will return the aid tenfold.”
:'So the anvil of necessity drives us together as much as it does the Triple Alliance.”
“Indeed it does. But also remember this. The Americans, for all their strength and power, need a friend in the world. That one friend will be a very privileged entity indeed, for the shadow of American power will make it seem many times stronger than it is. I tell you this. To survive, Russia must be that friend. So I ask again. How do we help the Americans?”
There was a long silence. Then, Cherniakhovskii tentatively, almost as if he was speaking to himself, broke it. “We could always offer to host the meeting. Neutral ground, away from the scene. Emphasizing that we are also independent, honest brokers. And we could add that the ruins of Moscow are fitting place for the conference since it would highlight the destruction of modern war.”“
Zhukov laughed, the barking grow! that usually meant somebody's army was about to get destroyed. “In that case we should offer to hold the conference in Berlin. At least there, the radiation levels wilt ensure they reach agreement quickly before the delegates start to glow in the dark,”
Cherniakhovskii joined in the laughter, “Shall I contact President Dewey then on your behalf? Advise him that we intend to make the offer of conference facilities to support his initiative.''
A beam of pride spread across Zhukov's face. The young Marshal had got the message. “Yes indeed. Do that.''
The Ambassador's Office, Supreme Command Headquarters, Bangkok, Thailand
The night had seemed infinite, eternal. It reminded her of another night, long ago, when she'd stood at another window watching the glow on the horizon as the old Capital of Ayuthya burned to the ground, A traitor had finally done what siege couldn't. The city had fallen and every man, woman and child had been killed. It had been under siege for 18 months before it fell but that didn't make her failure then any the less. Nor did the fact that it had taken two Burmese armies, each 100,000 strong to defeat Ayuthya's armies and besiege the capital. The capital had fallen, the country had been defeated and occupied.
She'd been outside, gathering new armies, mobilizing more troops until one night the glow on the horizon had told her it was too late. Then had followed more years, of guerrilla warfare, of resistance, then of a renewed war that had driven the Burmese out. She had feared that, once again, her country would be occupied and, once again, she would have to fight the invader from the jungle.
It almost seemed to her that the glow had returned, a rich, red glow lightening the eastern sky. It was dawn, not fire, and as she watched the sun lifted over the horizon and started its arc in the sky. She stood there, still, unmoving as dawn lit the city and slowly brought it to life. An uncertain, apprehensive life as people searched for news of the fighting on the Mekong. Then she moved, turning around as there was a knock on the door. A messenger.
She read the message, a brief communiqué from Tokyo accepting the offer of American mediation and the Russian offer of a location for the conference. Also, agreeing to the cease-fire, the few remaining troops on the south bank of the Mekong withdrawing over the river.
The crisis was over. There was no need to plan a new guerrilla war, no need to plan resistance in the countryside against the day the Japanese could be driven out. She walked to her office door and locked it. Then, she quietly sat at her desk and wept with relief.
Administrative Building, Nevada Test and Experimental Area
The airfields were empty at last, six weeks of testing and evaluation had finally ended. Colonel Pico stopped typing and looked out of his office window at the runway, the glare from the concrete blinding in the mid-day sun. The lesson learned from the first Red Sun exercise was simple. Air defense had failed completely; the United States was as vulnerable to high-altitude nuclear bombers as Germany had been a year earlier. The B-36s had overflown the best fighters in the United States Air Force. They hadn't fought their way through the defenses, they'd simply ignored them. It was what he had feared, what his nightmares had warned him of. The United States could not defend itself against the sort of attack that had destroyed Germany.
His eyes returned to the paragraph he had just finished typing. “Present generations of fighters have proved incapable of reaching the altitudes routinely used by B-36-type aircraft for the penetration of hostile airspace. Only the German Go-229 fighter had any capability to reach these altitudes and its lack of maneuverability meant that it was unable to successfully engage the B-36. In any case, this type of aircraft is, as far as is known, now extinct and its deficiencies in other areas are such that we find it most unlikely that any nation would wish to copy its layout. Field modifications to the types of fighters used during the Red Sun trials proved unsuccessful and the representatives of the aircraft companies attending cannot hold out any hope of future modifications improving the situation. New types of aircraft must be developed to provide a high-altitude intercept capability. Until then, the unexpected ascendancy of the turbocharged, piston-engined bomber is complete.”