“Sir, we’ve proved that the Soviets are planning to fly DreamStar out of Nicaragua. Just because we’ve heard from Vilizherchev doesn’t mean that they’ve changed their minds. They can make a deal with us and then go right ahead with their plans. We need to act, Mr. President.”
Elliott, the President thought, was relentless. Twenty-four hours earlier this guy was on the edge of a dishonorable discharge. Tonight he was interrupting senior Cabinet members, calling a credentialed ambassador a liar, and trying to negotiate with the President of the United States. Still, or maybe because of all that, and despite Benson’s warning, he was starting to respect, maybe even like, this veteran Air Force officer. But the man was too ready to hit out with military force. He had no conception of the political realities involved. Generals rarely did.
“I have to disagree, General, at least for now. Brad, the truth here is that we have few realistic options. I just feel the repercussions of an offensive against the Russians would be far worse than the loss of this aircraft, no matter how advanced it is. Let’s at least wait to see what their reaction to my proposal is.”
“I’m not suggesting an offensive, sir. My concern right now is that they’ll go ahead with their plans to take DreamStar out of Nicaragua — that this visit by Vilizherchev was just a smokescreen to get us to relax and drop any plans to retake DreamStar. While we wait for a response from the Soviets, DreamStar could be on its way to Russia, and then we would have no recourse except to begin negotiations all over again. That could drag on for weeks, even months — as long as it took to export the XF-34’s technology to their development bureaus …” Before anyone could interrupt, Elliott continued: “I have a plan, sir, to set up a very small-scale air cordon in the Caribbean — very small, unobtrusive, easily managed but effective. The plan revolves around one AWACS radar plane based out of San Juan, with fighter escort, to cover the eastern Caribbean, and one AWACS operating overwater out of Honduras to cover the northern and western Caribbean.”
“Why couldn’t DreamStar just blast its way out like it blasted its way into Nicaragua, General?” Stuart asked. “You said this XF-34 can fly rings around any other fighter in our inventory. If we put a radar plane and a few fighters right in its way, what’s to stop it from shooting them down?”
“If the Soviets fit those external tanks to DreamStar, she won’t be in nearly as good condition to fight,” Elliott said. He sounded more optimistic than he felt — he was in the realm of pure speculation now. “DreamStar’s wings weren’t designed for external fuel tanks. My guess is that a small interceptor group can defeat DreamStar in this situation — at least the odds would be nearly even …”
“But your plan still calls for an armed response,” Stuart said. “You’re trying to force this government into a confrontation with the Russians. How many times does the President need to say no to you, General?”
“If DreamStar stays in Nicaragua, sir, there won’t be a confrontation,” Air Force Secretary Wilbur Curtis spoke up. “Our interceptor task force will be on just another Caribbean training flight. If DreamStar tries to break out, then the Russians will have violated our arrangement and demonstrated a cynical unwillingness to resolve this matter—” he turned to the President— “in which case, in my opinion, it justifies a much stronger response from us …”
The President leaned back in his chair, massaged his forehead and stared at the chart of Central America. Exhaustion and strain made the colors in the chart begin to dance before his eyes. “What forces do we have in the area?” he asked.
Elliott was already flipping to the page in his notes in anticipation. “Sir, the forces are essentially in place right now to cover the eastern Caribbean. We can step up interceptor activity to identify all low-flying high-speed aircraft that we detect. As for the northern and western Caribbean, that will be tougher. We should be able to arrange a fighter drag into the area in six to eight hours—”
“A what?”
“A fighter drag, a deployment. Nine fighters from Howard Air Force Base in the Canal Zone would deploy to our garrison staging base at La Cieba on the Honduras north coast. Three aircraft would go on station over the Caribbean immediately with the AWACS bird and a tanker, with the rest rotating in shifts. It may be possible to get support from the Cayman Islands for landing rights, but I’m anticipating difficulties with them allowing armed American aircraft to land there, so I’ve planned this without the Cayman Islands.”
The President was impressed that Elliott had already planned this mission in such detail. Still …
“This would continue until we could bring up naval support from New Orleans or the eastern Caribbean, either of which would take approximately forty-eight hours to reach the area,” Elliott pressed on. ‘‘The best we’ve got available is the carrier Theodore Roosevelt, which is deployed north of Puerto Rico on a training cruise. She can be in position in about two days. CVN-73 George Washington is the better choice, but she’s in port in New Orleans and may take several days to deploy. Aircraft would be armed with short- and medium-range air-to-air missiles as well as long-range fuel tanks. They would intercept any aircraft within range and visually identify each one. If they become overloaded with targets, priority would be given to high-speed, high-altitude aircraft. Although it’s possible for DreamStar to make the flight at almost any speed and almost any altitude, the enormous distance he has to go would suggest he’d have to conserve as much fuel as possible, and that means high altitude and as little high-lift, low-speed flying as possible … Our pilot’s orders would be … and this hurts … to destroy DreamStar and any other hostile aircraft that may be escorting her that engage our aircraft. But if possible they would try to harass or divert DreamStar toward a forced water landing.”
Elliott finally stopped his headlong briefing, then glanced at Secretary of the Air Force Curtis. Curtis nodded to Elliott and said to the President: “Sir, I’m recommending adoption of this plan. It’s low profile, and at least the Air Force’s part is easily implemented. We’ll need to confer with Navy and the rest of the Joint Chiefs on the deployment of a carrier group, but I’m afraid this situation warrants an immediate go-ahead on the first phase.”
The President looked skeptical as he studied the chart. “How much danger will it be to our pilots?” he said, pointing to the map. “It looks like they’ll be overwater for a long time.”
Elliott nodded. “Unfortunately, that’s true, sir. The fighters will have to cover eighteen-thousand square miles of open ocean. Tanker support can keep them in the air for as long as necessary. we’ll rotate another flight and another tanker in to take over every four hours.”
“Six-hour missions for them, refuelings every hour, plus the strain of visually identifying and possibly going into combat on each intercept they make,” Curtis summarized. “And all of it overwater — not exactly a fighter pilot’s favorite place to be.”
“Sounds like you’re trying to talk me out of it, Wilbur,” the President said wryly. He held up a hand as the Secretary of the Air Force began to speak. “I know, I know you’re just hitting me with the worst. Well, I think it’s a lousy plan, gentlemen.”