He knew, even as he entered the Situation Room and everyone stood up, that he was the first American president to have to deal with a nuclear weapon crisis since John F. Kennedy.
And he was determined to handle it better than Kennedy did.
He had not been in the Situation Room five minutes when he had his men on the griddle — even as phones rang constantly in the background. His eyes wandered around the table to each and every adviser: Tom Preston, his Secretary of Defense and an experienced politician; General Wilbur Curtis, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Kenneth Wayne, Director of the CIA; and Frank Kellogg, his National Security Advisor.
His eyes settled on General Wilbur Curtis, chief military officer of the United States and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He was the President’s principal military adviser but a holdover from the last administration. Unfortunately, he was so well respected on the Hill and at the Pentagon that Taylor knew he couldn’t get rid of him even if he wanted to.
“General Curtis, even though you got us in this DEFCON Three posture — and I wish I had been in on that decision from the start and not after your commanders went ahead and did it themselves — the ‘bolt from the blue’ theory of strategic warfare has been dead for almost a decade.”
Curtis could see this was going to be a long, difficult meeting.
“Sir, we were following the OPLAN — the operations plan — established and authorized by you in case of an emergency of this magnitude. DEFCON Three is a very secure posture right now. We’re—”
“If there was no apparent attack in progress, then you had time to notify me and let me make the decision,” the President interrupted. “That’s what I expect. We will need to change the OPLAN after this to rectify it.”
“Yes, sir,” Curtis acknowledged.
“What else have you got for me, General?”
Curtis cleared his throat. “Our strategic forces are in full readiness, so if this is some sort of prelude to an all-out attack against the United States, we’re ready, sir.” Curtis glanced at the Navy captain seated near the door, keeping the “football.”
The President disliked having the football around — he had once told the press that he likened it to the Grim Reaper, with scythe in hand, following him everywhere he went — but in this he had no choice.
“Well,” Taylor grumbled, “I guess the question of whether this is a prelude or not will be answered once we have more information, won’t it, General? This PACER SKY thing saw who launched the missile, didn’t it?”
“Not exactly, sir,” Curtis replied. “The NIRTSat — part of the PACER SKY program — saw the nuclear explosion, but we’re trying to keep a lid on that. As you know, we’ve been monitoring the situation between the Chinese and the Philippines since that original skirmish. But because of our past association with the Philippines, we didn’t want it to appear as if we were monitoring anyone — or feeding anyone intelligence information. Still, we do know, thanks to PACER SKY, exactly which ships were in the area. SAC analysts have concluded that only the Chinese could have launched the weapon.”
“Well, then, that brings us to the bigger picture, doesn’t it?” the President said. “I’ve been briefed on the shit going down in the Philippines for some time. And you people tell me the Communists are running rampant in the outlying provinces and that if Mikaso kicks the damned bucket we could lose all ties to the Philippines — our stopover and resupply privileges, our radar sites, our listening posts, our practice bombing ranges. I was also briefed on the skirmish a few months ago between the Chinese and the Philippines, but it was characterized as nothing more than a little tiff. When a fucking nuclear bomb goes off, gentlemen, it’s not just a little tiff. Now what the hell is going on here? Is it the start of a major war, an illegal test by some country, or an accident?”
Director of Central Intelligence Kenneth Wayne said, “An accident, sir, seems the only plausible explanation. The Chinese Navy could certainly overtake the Philippine Navy without having to resort to nuclear weapons. Also, we’ve detected only one explosion, which tells us there was no nuclear exchange. Of course,” the CIA director said, lighting a pipe, “it also could have been a military response by the Chinese, but a response by… say, a lone wolf, and not necessarily the Chinese government itself.”
“Lone wolf?” the President asked, raising his eyebrows. “You mean some nutjob in command of a ship?”
The CIA director shrugged his shoulders. “Entirely possible. Not a nutjob, per se, but simply a commander who panicked. But I’d put my money on it being a simple accident.”
