National Security Advisor, along with a number of secretaries, aides,
and staffers, stood in silence as they listened to a translator’s voice
providing a simultaneous translation for Krasilnikov’s impassioned
speech.
“The United Nations has taken dangerous … ah … a dangerous course
of action,” the translator’s voice was saying. Krasilnikov’s own voice,
the volume turned down but still audible, was shaking with an emotion
the translator could not express. “For fifty years United Nations has
provided forum for international debate, for keeping, uh, for
peacekeeping activities through rule of law …”
“The guy’s not a bad speech-maker,” the President said. “No wonder he
went in for politics.”
Waring, standing closest to the Chief Executive, looked up from a
transcript of Krasilnikov’s speech. “I wonder if he might not have some
valid points here, Mr. President. After all, if we continue to act as
the UN’s muscle in Russia, what’s to stop the UN from pulling the same
tactics against us some day?”
“The alternative, Herb,” the President said slowly, “is to let them
start nuking each other, and anyone else who makes them mad. The UN
can’t afford to let that start happening. We can’t afford to let it
happen.”
“Uh, oh,” Gordon West said. “He’s starting in on us now.”
“The United States of America has embarked down dangerous road,” the
translator was saying. “One of military adventurism, of unrestrained
and illegal meddling in internal affairs of sovereign, ah, of a
sovereign world power. This, perhaps, was safe enough when confronting
Third World countries like Iraq or the People’s Republic of Korea,
nations that could not seriously challenge American military might.
“But now, the United States, operating behind facade of bandit thugs of
United Nations, has challenged a great power, one capable of most, of
the most severe and devastating retaliatory response.”
“my God, he’s threatening us!” West said softly. “He’s actually
threatening to loose his nukes on us if we don’t back off!”
“I hear him, Gordy,” the President said. Indeed, he’d heard this speech
three times that night already, as well as going over the written
transcript.
The key here was knowing–or at least taking a damned good guess
at–what Krasilnikov was really saying beneath his bombastic phrases of
you-can’t-do-this-to-us hurt and outrage.
“The wanton destruction of one of Russia’s most modern ballistic-missile
submarines by units of the U.S. Navy operating illegally within the
Barents Sea,” Krasilnikov went on, “cannot swerve us from our purpose,
which is the final unity and security of the Russian peoples, and the
defense of our Motherland against all foreign invaders, even those
cloaked in the rags of so-called United Nations mandates. The United
States should bear in mind the fact that we have many ballistic-missile
submarines, and that a suitable demonstration of our will could as
easily be directed against the American aggressors as against the
traitors in illegal rebellion against the present Russian government.”
“Mr. President,” Waring said. “It may be that the thing to do at this
point would be to pull back, take a deep breath, and think this whole
thing through. We are looking at the possibility of thermonuclear war.
I don’t think we’ve been this close to a full-scale nuclear exchange
since the Cuban Missile Crisis.”
The President shifted his gaze to others in the Oval Office. In one
corner was a small coterie of military officers, among them the Pentagon
liaison, Admiral Magruder.
“What do you say, Admiral?” the President asked.
“Actually, Mr. President, we’ve been eyeball to eyeball with the
Russians several times since 1962. They had nuclear missiles ready to
go during the Six-Day War, for instance-”
“That’s not what I was asking, Admiral. How shall we respond to
Krasilnikov’s, ah, accusations?”
“Hardly my place to say, Mr. President, I’m a military man, not a
leader of government.”
“Damn it, Admiral-”
“Sir, I can point out that all of our intelligence to date Suggests that
the only nuclear weapons he has access to are those in the Northern
Fleet.
The rest are either in rebel hands or contested, controlled by loyalist
Strategic Rocket Forces but cut off behind the lines in rebel territory.
If he were to order a nuclear strike against the United States, it would
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143