He swung around. "John, there are times when I think you are downright stupid!"
I said nothing. I knew him and I knew how to discount his moods. The fact that he permitted me to see his feelings is the finest compliment I have ever had. "Look at it this way," he went on more patiently; "this dust, as a weapon, is not just simply sufficient to safeguard the United States, it amounts to a loaded gun held at the head of every man, woman, and child on the globe!"
"Well," I answered, "what of that? It's our secret, and we've got the upper hand. The United States can put a stop to this war, and any other war. We can declare a Pax Americana, and enforce it."
"Hm - m - m - I wish it were that easy. But it won't remain our secret; you can count on that. It doesn't matter how successfully we guard it; all that anyone needs is the hint given by the dust itself and then it is just a matter of time until some other nation develops a technique to produce it. You can't stop brains from working, John; the reinvention of the method is a mathematical certainty, once they know what it is they are looking for. And uranium is a common enough substance, widely distributed over the globe - don't forget that!
"It's like this: Once the secret is out - and it will be out if we ever use the stuff! - the whole world will be comparable to a room full of men, each armed with a loaded .45. They can't get out of the room and each one is dependent on the good will of every other one to stay alive. All offense and no defense. See what I mean?"
I thought about it, but I still didn't guess at the difficulties. It seemed to me that a peace enforced by us was the only way out, with precautions taken to see that we controlled the sources of uranium. I had the usual American subconscious conviction that our country would never use power in sheer aggression. Later, I thought about the Mexican War and the Spanish - American War and some of the things we did in Central America, and I was not so sure - It was a couple of weeks later, shortly after inauguration day, that Manning told me to get the Chief of Staff's office on the telephone. I heard only the tail en of the conversation. "No, General, I won't," Manning was saying. "I won't discuss it with you, or the Secretary, either. This is a matter the Commander in Chi is going to have to decide in the long run. If he turns down, it is imperative that no one else ever know about it. That's my considered opinion.... What that? ... I took this job under the condition that I want to have a free hand. You've got to give me a little le way this time.... Don't go brass hat on me. I knew you when you were a plebe... . O.K., O.K., sorry... If the Secretary of War won't listen to reason, you tell him I'll be in my seat in the House of Representative tomorrow, and that I'll get the favor I want from the majority leader... . All right. Good - bye."
Washington rang up again about an hour later. It was the Secretary of War. This time Manning listened more than he talked. Toward the end, he said, "All want is thirty minutes alone with the President. I nothing comes of it, no harm has been done. If I convince him, then you will know all about it... . No, Sir."
I did not mean that you would avoid responsibility. intended to be helpful... . Fine! Thank you, Mr. Secretary."
The White House rang up later in the day and set time.
We drove down to the District the next day through a nasty cold rain that threatened to turn to sleet. TF usual congestion in Washington was made worse b the weather; it very nearly caused us to be late in arriving. I could hear Manning swearing under his breath all the way down Rhode Island Avenue. But we were dropped at the west wing entrance to the White House with two minutes to spare. Manning was ushered into the Oval Office almost at once and I was left cooling my heels and trying to get comfortable in civilian clothes. After so many months of uniform they itched in the wrong places.
The thirty minutes went by.
The President's reception secretary went in, and came out very promptly indeed. He stepped on out into the outer reception room and I heard something that began with, "I'm sorry, Senator, but - " He came back in, made a penciled notation, and passed it out to an usher.
Two more hours went by.
Manning appeared at the door at last and the secretary looked relieved. But he did not come out, saying instead, "Come in, John. The President wants to take a look at you."
I fell over my feet getting up.
Manning said, "Mr. President, this is Captain DeFries." The President nodded, and I bowed, unable to say anything. He was standing on the hearth rug, his fine head turned toward us, and looking just like his pictures - but it seemed strange for the President of the United States not to be a tall man.
I had never seen him before, though, of course, I knew something of his record the two years he had been in the Senate and while he was Mayor before that.
The President said, "Sit down, DeFries. Care to smoke?" Then to Manning. "You think he can do it?"
"I think he'll have to. It's Hobson's choice."
"And you are sure of him?"
"He was my campaign manager."
"I see."
The President said nothing more for a while and God knows I didn't! - though I was bursting to know what they were talking about. He commenced again with,
"Colonel Manning, I intend to follow the procedure you have suggested, with the changes we discussed. But I will be down tomorrow to see for myself that the dust will do what you say it will. Can you prepare demonstration?"
"Yes, Mr. President."
"Very well, we will use Captain DeFries unless think of a better procedure." I thought for a moment that they planned to use me for a guinea pig! But h turned to me and continued, "Captain, I expect to sent you to England as my representative."
I gulped. "Yes, Mr. President." And that is ever word I had to say in calling on the President of the United States.
After that, Manning had to tell me a lot of things h had on his mind. I am going to try to relate them carefully as possible, even at the risk of being dull an obvious and of repeating things that are common knowledge.
We had a weapon that could not be stopped. An type of K - O dust scattered over an area rendered the area uninhabitable for a length of time that depends on the half - life of the radioactivity.
Period. Full stop.
Once an area was dusted there was nothing that could be done about it until the radioactivity ha fallen off to the point where it was no longer harmful The dust could not be cleaned out; it was every when. There was no possible way to counteract its burn or combine it chemically; the radioactive isotope was still there, still radioactive, still deadly. Once used o a stretch of land, for a predetermined length of time that piece of earth would not tolerate life.
It was extremely simple to use. No complicate bomb - lights were needed, no care need be taken to h "military objectives." Take it aloft in any sort of aircraft, attain a position more or less over the area you wish to sterilize, and drop the stuff. Those on the ground in the contaminated area are dead men, dead in an hour, a day, a week, a month, depending on the degree of the infection - but dead.
Manning told me that he had once seriously considered, in the middle of the night, recommending that every single person, including himself, who knew the Karst - Obre technique be put to death, in the interests of all civilization. But he had realized the next day that it had been sheer funk; the technique was certain in time to be rediscovered by someone else.
Furthermore, it would not do to wait, to refrain from using the grisly power, until someone else perfected it and used it. The only possible chance to keep the world from being turned into one huge morgue was for us to use the power first and drastically - get the upper hand and keep it.
We were not at war, legally, yet we had been in the war up to our necks with our weight on the side of democracy since 1940. Manning had proposed to the President that we turn a supply of the dust over to Great Britain, under conditions we specified, and enable them thereby to force a peace. But the terms of the peace would be dictated by the United States - for we were not turning over the secret.