Admiral Meyers had largely stayed silent during the discussion but stepped in at this point. “Sir, Secretary Castle is right about the importance of this intelligence-gathering program. However, Secretary Landover is also right in that this proposal might be the final nail in the coffin of Xi’s regime. Perhaps we give it another month of using the intelligence we’re gleaning before we move forward with a course of action that will end the intelligence gravy train we’ve been feasting upon,” he offered.
The President smiled. This gave him an out — not outright picking one way over the other, but still keeping both options on the table.
The President had made his decision. He turned to Katelyn Mackie. “I’m going to give the military a bit more time with your current program before we try the State Department’s proposal. Have your team continue to stand by to execute State’s proposal should we need to, but for the time being, we’re going to stick to the military need.”
Katelyn bit her lower lip and nodded. “Yes, Mr. President. We’ll continue to stand by.”
With the decision made, Secretary Landover and Ms. Mackie proceeded to get up and head for the door. Their part of the meeting was over; it was time for the military leaders to discuss the next steps now that they had a couple more weeks of Project Enigma.
While they were leaving the office, the President signaled to one of the White House stewards to bring in a fresh pot of coffee. An aide also ushered in the chief of staffs for the Army and the Air Force, along with the Chief of Naval Operations.
Once the newcomers took their seats, the President asked, “How are the troop deployments going?”
Admiral Meyers took the question. “In the Guangdong Province in the south, the Marines have offloaded another 110,000 men. That brings their total number up to 380,000 Marines. Most of our ANZAC allies are there as well. Between the Australians and New Zealanders, they have 42,000 soldiers. In the last couple of weeks, the Army’s offloaded the rest of their force, roughly two divisions’ worth of men. We’re trying to keep the southern operation mostly a Marine-led operation while the Army focuses on the Shanghai region and northern China.”
The conversation temporarily ended as two of the stewards brought in the tray of fresh coffee the President had requested. Being a bit of a java snob, President Foss insisted on having his favorite coffee served during certain meetings throughout the day — at $79 a pound, the Saint Helena coffee was once a favorite of Napoleon Bonaparte. No one there was complaining about it, to be sure. Once everyone had a cup of the famed coffee the way they liked it and the stewards had left, the meeting continued.
Admiral Meyers took one more big sip of coffee before he placed his cup down on the table between the couches and resumed his explanation. “Now that we have the city of Shanghai and the surrounding area largely secured, we’ve been able to ferry in vast numbers of soldiers via commercial aircraft and bring in heavy equipment through the dozen or so ports we’ve captured. In the last nineteen days, we’ve brought ashore 390,000 soldiers. That number will grow by 90,000 a month until the end of the year. In the north, we have a considerably much larger force. The South Koreans have committed 300,000 soldiers, the Japanese Defense Force has committed 160,000 soldiers, and then we have 670,000 American soldiers along with the 190,000 troops that invaded western China through Mongolia.”
The Army Chief of Staff added, “If you give us the order to capture Beijing, I believe we could have it captured by Christmas.”
“Is capturing Beijing still essential? Hasn’t the capture of Shanghai and Guangzhou negated that necessity?” inquired the President between sips of coffee.
“Yes and no, Mr. President,” said Admiral Meyers. “The issue isn’t so much the capture of Beijing as it is the destruction of the PLA 20th, 27th, and 38th Armies, which have dug themselves in around the capital. The 54th and 65th Armies are facing our forces now. Our soldiers could bulldoze their way through them in a matter of weeks — the challenge is the 100-kilometer-deep defensive network these other three armies have constructed that encircles the capital region.”
Tom McMillan interjected. “What about strategic bombings? Can’t we make heavy use of our B-52 bombers to carpet bomb these positions?”
The Air Force general chimed in. “We would certainly do that. However, we have to continue to work at removing the enemy SAM threat and their remaining air force assets. They’ve concentrated a lot of their remaining fighters to the capital region, along with a lot of their newer SAM systems. While we’re inflicting a lot of aerial losses on them, it’s going to take some time before that gives us the tactical and strategic advantage we need to fully dominate the skies. Now that we have destroyed a large portion of the aerospace industry in Guangzhou, the PLA Air Force won’t be able to replace their losses as quickly or as easily as they have been doing up to this point.”
A few of the other generals nodded. President Foss still wasn’t sure if the Allies would ever be able to fully dominate the skies, considering the sheer number of losses they had sustained in frontline aircraft over the last two years of war.
“I’m not trying to get too far into the weeds here, but how long is it taking us to produce a new fighter plane to be sent to China to replace our own losses?” asked the President.
The Air Force general smiled, not fazed in the least by the question. “Now that we’ve fully repaired the damage to our manufacturing facility in Dallas-Fort Worth, Lockheed is cranking out sixty-four F-16 Vipers a month. They’ve just finished training a full third shift of workers and will now be running a full twenty-four-hour, seven-day-a-week production schedule. Starting in October, the plant will be producing 150 Vipers a month. In St. Louis, the Boeing plant is finally running at full capacity, rolling out 118 F/A-18 Super Hornets a month. Even the F-35 plant is now churning out 130 new fighters a month. For the first time since the war started, we’re finally starting to produce more aircraft than we’re losing.”
Jim Castle placed his coffee cup down and leaned in. “When the war first broke out in Europe and we sustained those horrific aircraft losses, President Gates authorized me to begin a massive procurement order for new fighters and other weapons needed to win this war. It has taken us nearly two years to retool our factories, train workers, and get our supply systems up and running. However, I assure you, they are fully up and running now. As the general just elaborated, we’ve turned the tide. It’s only a matter of time now until the Chinese are defeated,” he asserted.
Foss held up a hand. “OK, Jim, you’ve succeeded in reassuring me that we’re going to win. My only concern is how long will it take. Everyone here knows our country’s past history with wars. For better or worse, the democracies of the West only seem to be able to stomach a war for a short period of time before they demand either victory or an end that they can live with. The next presidential election cycle is going to start in a couple of months, and already my opposition has taken on the mantle of ‘a vote for me is a vote to end the war.’ And while I want an end to this war as well, I want an end that will leave the world in a better place than when we started.”