“Mister President, we have several squadrons of A-10 attack aircraft which are highly effective tank hunters. They are very efficient and can work at low altitude, and therefore can’t fall prey to most of their antiaircraft missiles. Recent reports of the Soviet inventory at the front mentioned 30,000 tanks; if that is so, we can delay their advance but not much else. We can also attack roads and bridges. We can gain around sixteen to eighteen hours.”
The President looked into the faces of each of those present.
“Is everybody in agreement with the General? If so, then all we have to do now, in your opinion, is to sit on our fat asses and wait for the swarms of tanks to flood our forces and our allies?”
The Situation Room fell into absolute silence. Nobody spoke. The President got to his feet and started pacing around the conference table, his subordinates following him with their eyes.
“White House Chief of Staff!” “Yes, Mister President.”
“Go out now, please, and tell the Press Secretary to call an emergency press conference. Have them wait for me in the press room and I’ll get there in a few minutes.”
The Secretary of State, like the rest of his colleagues in the room, had no idea what the President was plotting, but unlike his colleagues, he asked the President directly.
“Mister President, what are you going to tell the nation?” “Lies. Simply lie to them.”
“What, Mister President? I don’t understand.” “You will soon understand, as will everyone else.”
The President turned to George Brown, the CIA Director.
“Are you with us? Are you sure? Again, you are not speaking. Does the Central Intelligence Agency have nothing to say? Have you contacted our friend in Moscow?”
“Mister President, I am just as worried that our military options, outside of launching tactical nuclear weapons, are very limited. Regarding that source, a directive has gone out and we will soon be getting information.”
“Let me correct you”, the President replied. “Our options, outside of activating tactical nuclear weapons, are not limited; they are nonexistent. I have a question for you, as an intelligence expert. If we now send a message to all our commands, including our headquarters in Germany, and this communication must reach the last tactical missile battery in Germany, what are the chances of the Russians intercepting and deciphering the message, and how long will it take them?”
All eyes were on the CIA director.
“Mister President, I am sorry to say that they have incredible capabilities in this area, even though we code our messages, of course.”
The President did not waste time waiting for the CIA Director to finish his words.
“In this case, that I have in mind, it could be an advantage. You make sure this communication is coded, but not too heavily. I want them to decipher it is soon as possible. If it weren’t to arouse suspicions, I would ask you to transmit the message as is. Now carry on, Mister Director”.
“Mister President, if it is not coded heavily, they will decipher it within half an hour, even twice over.”
“Hold on, I don’t understand. What do you mean by half an hour twice over? Do you mean a quarter of an hour?”
“No, Mister President, sorry I wasn’t clear. I meant to say that when the message leaves the Pentagon, their experts in the Russian Embassy here will have deciphered it. If not, then Russian Intelligence will definitely decipher it when it reaches Germany.”
The President of the United States, the Commander in Chief, rubbed his fingers slowly over his cheek.
“Since you’ve left me no choice and have given me no useful, effective military option, and since within a day or two we will probably be in the middle of a war, then all I have left to do is gamble. I’ve just been thinking over a pretty weird idea, but the more I think of it, the more I like it.
“I want to play them on two playing fields at the same time; exactly as they are playing with us, with force on the German front and with deceit in the North Sea. I’m going to play the Russians at their own game, according to their rules — exactly. I have no doubt that it will cause them serious confusion, which may expose their real intentions.”
Secretary Perry, as well as Secretary Manning, seemed puzzled.
“Mister President”, said the Secretary of State. “I don’t get it. What are you going to do?”
“I’ll explain. In field number one, I want to show them an iron fist, to make them think that I’m eager to use the opportunity that they have given me to blast their forces. You two”, the President looked at his Secretary of Defense and then at the CIA director, who were anxious to hear the rest of the President’s plan.
“You two will issue a directive, relaying a fictitious order from me as Commander in Chief of the United States Armed Forces. In this message, I will order that all our tactical nuclear weapons fire their nuclear warheads the minute the Soviet forces cross a certain line in East Germany, which I will show you now.”
President Butler stood up and turned to the large map on the wall behind his chair. He studied the map briefly, then placed his finger on a spot on it, and, still holding his finger there, he turned his head back to his audience.
“Write this down. That line is twelve longitude, north of the city of Rostock and then along the river Elbe. Once the first Soviet tanks cross that line, the order is to fire at will. This order must not be ambiguous and cannot be interpreted in any other way. The Soviets will understand that I am determined to destroy their armor while it is still on East German territory.”
The President looked at the officials around the table to see if everyone was following.
“Is it clear so far?”
“Yes, Mister President”, the Defense Secretary and the CIA director replied almost in unison.
“Now, let’s go to the other game on the other field, which is the public one. There I will play the exact opposite. There I will be the purest nun, from the most sacred convent, a Mother Theresa. I will soon hold a press conference that will open with an address to the nation. I’ll begin with a heartfelt apology and condolences to the Soviet nation on the death of their seamen in the explosion in the North Sea. I will announce that the government of the United States has decided to compensate the families of the dead in dollars. I’ll explain to them that a malfunction occurred in one of our strategic bombers, which was on a training mission, carrying missiles made for practice and therefore, with relatively small warheads. Here I need your help, Mister Commander of the Air Force. Please give me a scenario that may explain why such a missile would be launched from a bomber.”
The Commanding Officer of the Air Force thought this over.
“Mister President, it could be an extremely rare coincidence where the pilot, mistakenly and contrary to standing orders, pressed the button of an electrical system in the middle of a powerful thunderstorm. The bomber was charged with such an amount of static electricity that it caused an electrical short, resulting in a spontaneous missile launch. We can also add that this is the first time we were aware of such a problem, and that of course, we are investigating etc. etc.”
“Good for you, General. Finally, you are creative”, the President teased his Air Force Chief.
“Mister President”, the Commander of the Air Force continued, pointedly ignoring the President’s implied rebuke. “Perhaps we can go another step forward and assume full responsibility for the entire event, from beginning to end. That is, we can say that the missile exploded due to a self-destruct order that we radioed to it in order to prevent a catastrophe in Russia. This way, they will understand that the missile would not have continued to Murmansk in any case, and of course, we will voice our regrets that a Russian Navy vessel happened to be in the area of the explosion.”