When his car pulled up to the Rayburn Building “horseshoe,” Moraski and his aide got out and were met by a Navy captain and two lieutenants who escorted the CNO to the personal office of House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Nash of Mississippi. There, they would be met by Ranking Member Clayton Ward of California’s Los Angeles basin. This informal meeting would help explain what Clark was doing with his orders from the Secretary and President. Moraski, resplendent in dress blues adorned with two-dozen service ribbons and multiple gold stripes on his sleeve, led his entourage to the Chairman’s office that faced the Capitol across the street. The Chairman was waiting for him as one of his lieutenants opened the door.
“Admiral Moraski, welcome! Ella, please take the admiral’s hat. Can we get you something to drink, sir?” With a polite smile Moraski declined and shook the Chairman’s outstretched hand as the young receptionist took his combination cover.
Nash led the group to his inner office, the high walls of which were covered with mementos of his four decades of congressional service to the constituents of his Gulf Coast district. Waiting inside was Ward, who greeted Moraski with a handshake and perfunctory smile. Nash took his desk chair in the cramped office as Moraski and Ward sat in overstuffed leather chairs facing him, the staffs of all three behind them filling a couch and available office chairs to take notes. Nash began.
“Admiral, what’s happening out there?”
“As you know, Mister Chairman, the Secretary of Defense has directed the Joint Combatant commander to flow forces west to counter the aggressive Chinese moves. Cape Esperance got to Guam yesterday, and all the bodies are en route to Dover. John Adams is also in Guam, and the Chinese still have over fifteen hundred of the carrier’s sailors. They plan to hold them in Hong Kong until we turn our ships around.”
“Will you?” Ward snapped at the CNO.
“No, sir, and there is another development,” Moraski answered, resolute.
“What’s that?”
“We’ve learned that about twenty Filipino fishermen were reported dead from a chemical agent in the vicinity of Scarborough Shoal. The survivors didn’t report seeing Cape Esperance or any ships other than Chinese fishing vessels and their Coast Guard ships that shadow them. We think the Chinese attacked the fishermen. And Cape Esperance—on an approved freedom-of-navigation patrol— happened by when they did.”
“Did they dump this stuff in the water?” Ward probed.
“No, sir, we believe it was an airborne agent, and the cloud drifted down on the fishermen — and on our cruiser.”
“A chemical agent? Chemical warfare!” Ward was incredulous.
“Congressman, we don’t think they intended to attack or harm Cape Esperance. We don’t think they knew it was there.”
“How could they mistake a damn warship flying the stars and stripes?” Nash exclaimed.
Moraski answered him. “The visibility was reported low: two or three miles.” Ward made a face and waved his hand in a dismissive motion. At his desk, Nash continued with his questions.
“What are the Chinese doing?”
“They are on full alert, putting their fleet to sea including their carrier and all their submarines. We see them moving tactical aircraft to the south, increasing their patrols and reinforcing their islands, especially the Spratlys. They are moving their Horn of Africa ships south toward the Seychelles, and that acts as a fleet-in-being we must honor; we can’t send all of our Indian Ocean ships toward Malacca.”
“How about the Japanese?”
“They are spinning up. Everyone is: Vietnam, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia. The elephants are circling each other, and everyone is either taking cover or getting ready to fight.” Ward had heard enough and unloaded on the four-star admiral sitting next to him.
“Moraski, you guys started this!” Ward railed at the CNO. “You sent your ship — our ship — into Chinese waters and poked a hornet’s nest! Now the whole of East Asia is gearing for war! We have hundreds of dead sailors and hundreds more taken as hostages! Markets around the world are tanking, and who knows what the Russians and North Koreans are going to do. We brought this upon ourselves because you raised tensions, and we still don’t know what really happened. This is the Tonkin Gulf fiasco all over again!”
A hush came over the office, and even Nash was stunned by the public dressing down of a service chief by the Ranking Member. Moraski absorbed it and held Ward’s gaze for a moment before he responded.
“Congressman, the Navy — and the world — live with international norms. What China is doing in the South China Sea is asking the world to change the rules. And if the rules change there, then why shouldn’t they change for Russia in the Baltic or Venezuela in the Caribbean or Iran in the Persian Gulf? Sir, if we cede the sea lanes to regional actors, we are asking for worldwide instability and naval arms races. Then, at some point — as has happened so often in our history — I’m going to be asked to go fix it. It took us the better part of a century to establish the open sea lanes that provide us and the world the benefits of global trade. I’m okay with carrying that burden, and even our enemies know that we are the guarantors of free trade.” Ward shook his head as he listened, and Nash jumped in.
“Clayton, these guys are dumping sand on a reef, planting a flag, building a house, installing a mayor, calling it sovereign territory, and drawing a 200-mile circle around it claiming economic exclusivity. All these countries along the South China Sea are doing it, but China has the power now to back it up. They are turning these islands into forward military bases in order to exert de facto control over the most important body of water on earth. They are going to pick off the weaker countries one by one, and then they will control the five trillion in annual trade that runs through there, not to mention the oil, not to mention the fish. And we can’t forget we have allies there, and they are looking to us for help.”
“Did you say fish?” Ward shot back. “We’re going to fight these guys over fucking fish? Mike, let them defend themselves! Most of the kids in my district can’t get a job; schools are failing, crime rampant, cities falling apart. We need our resources at home, not to spend on frickin’ defense to send our kids to die over there for nothing, like my brother did in a rice paddy fifty years ago! I cannot support a bill to increase funds for contingencies like these, and we don’t even know what really happened. Admiral Moraski, don’t we teach in War College that it isn’t smart to fight a land war with China? Would you send your son over there?”
Moraski had been on the phone that morning with Ron Thompson’s wife, who was still leading the effort to assist the devastated families of Cape Esperance as their loved ones’ bodies were being processed for burial. Taking a ration from a dickhead congressman was nothing compared to what Thompson’s wife and other family members had to endure. Moraski maintained his composure.