home. But I want to make one point. In any crisis, the aircraft carriers,
the ships, the men, all are tools … weapons in our hands. In the
President’s hands. But by God, we’d better know how to use those weapons
effectively, or we might as well face the enemy unarmed.
“Now, I’ve invited Admiral Thomas Magruder, the Joint Staff’s Director of
Operations, to join us this evening. He once commanded the Jefferson battle
group. Perhaps he can tell us something about this weapon of ours, how we can
use it to best advantage. Admiral? Do you have anything to add to the
discussion?”
Magruder stared across the table into the hostile silence. “If you want
my opinion in this … debate, I’d have to say that I don’t think retreat is
an option-”
He was cut off by the rising babble of angry voices. He held up his hand
and waited as Waring pounded on the table again.
“I don’t believe retreat is an option,” he repeated. “Maybe if you’d
backed down before the first shots were fired last week, you could have
allowed yourself a more flexible response. But not now.”
“The loss of an aircraft carrier is hardly an acceptable alternative,”
Heideman pointed out. “How much does one of those things cost … five
billion? Ten?”
“I’m not worried about the cost in dollars, Mr. Secretary. The human
cost is far more important.”
“Tell that to the taxpayers. Besides, if our foreign policy is
discredited by a major defeat at sea-”
“With all due respect, sir, our foreign policy is really discredited.
But I’m not as interested in foreign policy as I am in what you expect the
Jefferson to do.”
“That’s what we’re asking you, Admiral,” West said. “What can we tell
them to do, and have some assurance that they’ll be able to carry out those
orders?”
“Well, if you don’t give CBG-14 some support, and damned fast, all
they’ll be able to do for you is die.”
“Then they should be withdrawn. Is that what you’re saying?”
“No. What I’m saying is that you can’t give them orders without giving
them what they need to carry them out. That aircraft carrier has been on the
battle line for over a week now. That’s an eternity in modern warfare.
They’ve lost men. Whether they stay or retreat, they will lose more men
before this thing is done. Don’t let what they’ve gone through already be in
vain!”
“The question, Admiral, is whether to keep them where they are or pull
them out,” Vane pointed out. “I can understand your feeling that they need
help if they are to stay put. But that is not a viable option.”
“You could send in the Eisenhower,” Magruder said. “And you could detach
Kennedy from the Sixth Fleet. She could be on station in five days. You
could-”
“As I said, that is not a viable option.” Vane looked around the
conference table. “I think I would have to strongly recommend that they pull
back.”
“You will lose the battle group if you do that. The Soviet Baltic Fleet
will intercept them before they’re halfway to Scotland.”
“In other words,” Duvall said, “we’ll still have our defeat, and we’ll
have sent the wrong message to Europe and to the Soviets. Christ!”
“Then they should stay put,” West said.
“You can’t just abandon them-”
“Really, Admiral. No one has said anything about simply abandoning them.
But there are political realities here that-”
“I’m not talking about politics, Mr. West,” Magruder said sharply. “Damn
it, I’m talking about men who have put their lives on the line to carry out
policies you people have set. That we have set. Fine. Now give them what
they need to carry out those policies, and let them do their job.”
“What is their job, Admiral?” Waring said. “That, I think, is the
point.”
“To carry out the government’s policy. It’s not up to me to tell you
what that policy should be. But by God, don’t abandon our people … and
don’t micromanage them to death. Decide whether you want to stand by Norway
and Sweden and the rest, or give them up, but don’t squander the lives of our