A call from the press office interrupted the discussion. The President instructed a statement to be issued saying that he and his advisers would not be evacuating the White House. However, no details were to be given of the nuclear bunker facilities being prepared. On Capitol Hill, members of Congress were only leaving their offices for their homes. Without revealing the security details, several told interviewers that there was no way they would go without taking their families with them. And there was no facility for that. Both the White House and the Congressional Buildings were, in effect, under siege from demonstrators. The security staff had given a warning of the danger of helicopter flight. Agents in the crowd had reported people with firearms, including high-powered automatic weapons which could shoot down aircraft.
The Secretary of State, Larry Gillchrest, took up the argument on the other side. `I don't think this is a time to take the easy option and cave in to China at the point of a gun,' he said. `Other non-democratic governments around the world would regard the United States as a paper tiger. If China succeeded in facing us down there would be no democratic government with both the will and ability to police global affairs. A China unchecked will invade Taiwan's already begun to. It will seek to control Korea and Indochina. The ethnic Chinese business communities of Asia will support it and undermine our own influence. The end result will be international chaos, Mr President, not only in the balance of power, but also in the economies and in the dozens if not hundreds of smaller wars which will be ignited. Inevitably, they will lead to wider conflict, probably beginning in the Middle East or Europe, into which we will be drawn, as we were drawn in the First and Second World War, into Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf, and Bosnia. If this discussion is about an option to escape conflict, then, gentlemen, we are living in dreamland. Men will die. Cities will be destroyed. The best option open to us is to retain control of the conflict throughout and emerge as the winners. If we do that, we will probably secure peace and the security of America for generations. If we don't, other men, or perhaps even we will be in this room in five years' time, threatened maybe by a nuclear alliance of China and Iran, or India and Russia, with better missiles and bigger warships which we would have difficulty defeating even in a conventional conflict. Is it that we can't win, Mr President? Or is it that the American soul is too vulnerable for the fight?'
`Marty,' said the President talking directly to his National Security Adviser. `Do we have any evidence at all that China will settle if we back off and that after a time the policy of constructive engagement will see in a group of more reform-minded leaders with whom we can deal?'
`I believe that is possible. But we don't know how much more turmoil we have to go through to get there. Constructive engagement, a policy of the nineties, led to the situation we are in now. If we strike a deal with them and continue that policy, then it could go either way. China launched Dragonstrike for three reasons. One was to lay claim to the oil and gas reserves of the South China Sea and prevent it from being so reliant on international markets. The second was to consolidate the power of the Communist Party within China. The third was to proceed along what the Chinese see as an inevitable course of history, a return to their role as the greatest and oldest civilization in the world.'
`Do they want to be it, Marty? Or be recognized for it?'
`I think they would be happy with the latter, Mr President. If we want to stop a nuclear conflict today, we back down. If we want to try to mould the future for the next hundred years, we can go either way. If we want to keep China in line for say twenty or thirty years we launch a nuclear strike. My gut feeling, Mr President, is to keep on with the civilizing power of trade and support the younger, more international leaders who will become the leaders of China.'
At this stage another intelligence message came in via both the SIGINT station on Maui and the Ocean Surveillance satellite system. There had been a positive identification of the Xia class submarine and she was being tracked by the Los Angeles class attack submarine USS Chicago on patrol out of San Diego. Sonar operators had detected movements in her launch mechanism, with near certain evidence that preparations were being made for the launch of a ballistic missile. Pentagon analysts had also just discovered a mobile missile in place at a launch site near Harbin in the north-east. A large road vehicle, thought to be carrying a DF-32 missile, had arrived there with signs that it, too, was being prepared for launch. The White House press office called again to urge the President to do something to disperse crowds which were now crammed in around federal buildings throughout the country. It was only a matter of time before the government lost control with devastating loss of life and property.
Within half an hour, all radio and television channels told people to stand by for an announcement from President Bradlay. Helicopters flew over crowds broadcasting the message by loudspeaker: `Go home. Go home. The President is about to address the nation. Go home and wait for his message.' A few did. But most stayed, although the crowds quietened. In Washington and New York, braving near-freezing temperatures, groups huddled around portable television sets. But they kept their people's cordon around the White House. In California, the crowds spread out. People sat on grass and parkland around the public buildings. In smaller towns, which had seen less upheaval, the authorities rigged up a public address system or erected large screens in the parks. In the Minuteman missile silos the officers were ordered to prepare for an imminent launch. On board the Allied Trident missile submarines the captains and executive officers authenticated their orders and the twin keys which each carried.
EIGHT
Bradlay paced the Oval Office. He stopped and turned to the assembled advisers and told them that he would announce his decision to the nation during his address, scheduled for 1730. Overhalt was instructed to tell the Chinese Foreign Minister to await his statement. He then thanked his advisers for their support and help during the crisis. `The nation is in your debt,' he said. An unusual calm descended on the office. The President displayed an otherworldly, almost mystical detachment. It was then that he made up his mind and asked them to leave so that he could collect his thoughts. Weinstein was the last, and the President pulled him to one side and told him that five minutes before airtime he wanted the latest intelligence on the Chinese submarines. The technicians arrived to set up their cameras in the Oval Office.