fairly obvious to all of us that these events are supposed to make the world
believe that we’re responsible for the bombings–whatever causes them.
Nothing happens unless American aircraft are in the area,” Busby said.
“What about satellite coverage?” OPS asked.
“Not conclusive. The Chinese will simply claim we doctored the pictures,
which would be well within anyone’s capabilities with a reasonably good
graphics program. And don’t rule out the fog of war. Things go wrong, sir,
at the damnedest times. We may just miss the picture we need.”
“Don’t we know it,” CAG murmured. “Interesting line of reasoning, Lab
Rat.”
“But what’s the point of it all?” OPS persisted. “If they’re so damned
subtle and inscrutable, then how are we supposed to use these incidents to our
advantage?”
“I think we probably can assume that the point is to make us look bad in
this theater of operations,” Tombstone said. “That part of their plan is
working damned well. So what are you suggesting, Commander?”
“I think,” Busby said slowly, trying to collect the cascade of ideas into
some semblance of order, “that if they want us to be around when explosions
occur in the Spratly area, our first priority should be to not be there. We
need to not cooperate with whatever it is they’re trying to achieve. And we
need to look very closely at the sequence of events and determine exactly how
they are using our own forces and assets against us. The Flankers, the
sorties from Vietnam–those are distractions, Admiral, intended to draw us
away from what is really happening. Same thing with the submarines. Look at
the assumptions we’re already starting to make. I’ve heard anything from
guesses about advance stealth technology on their aircraft to land-launched
Tomahawk-style strike missiles to Particle beams from satellites. All of
those things are well outside of what we believe the Chinese are capable of.
And they’re all intended to make China look a good deal more potent militarily
than they are.”
“But why the flights out of Vietnam?” Tombstone asked. “Follow your
train of thought on that.”
“If I may, Admiral–what does the fact that China is flying out of
Vietnam suggest to you?”
“Makes me wonder how close the Chinese and the Vietnamese are on this
thing,” Tombstone responded. “I’m thinking it may set back normalization of
relations with Vietnam for quite a while.”
“And who would know if the Chinese are launching any sort Of strike from
Vietnam?” Busby pressed.
“The Vietnamese,” CAG said suddenly. “They’d know. They have to see the
aircraft going out and coming back in. If they leave with weapons on the
wings and return clean, Vietnam would know that China was behind the attacks.”
“And yet, just the opposite seems to be happening, doesn’t it?” Busby
answered. “We see the Flankers come out without weapons, right? So the
Vietnamese-”
“Know that the Chinese aren’t responsible,” Tombstone finished. “And we
end up with Vietnam appearing to us to be supporting China just when we’re
normalizing relations.”
“And as a corollary, Vietnam’s gotta be convinced that we’re responsible,
because they know China’s not,” CAG concluded. “So far, it makes sense to me.
And the final objective is what?”
“To make sure the South China Sea remains China’s lake. To completely
eliminate any political support from any littoral nation. You know what that
means.” Busby glanced around the room. Yes, they did know–he could see it
in their faces.
“No land bases, no logistics support. We’ve already lost the
Philippines. If China’s plan works, we might lose support in Singapore. And
with China assuming control over Hong Kong, the primary money center for the
Far East, she suddenly becomes a lot more important to these nations than the
United States,” Tombstone said.
“And there you go,” Busby concluded. “To gain regional dominance, all it
costs them is some of their own troops. At last count, China’s population was
almost two billion. If there’s one thing that China does have, it’s people.”
“So where does that leave us?” Tombstone asked. “What do you see as the
primary threat axis?”
“If I could speculate, Admiral?”
“Go ahead.”
“It seems at least possible,” Lab Rat said, “that China has some form of