Debt Of Honor by Clancy, Tom

ond, why their deaths are a matter of concern to this house.

“A bright young federal-government engineer, Miss Rebecca Upton, was

called to the scene by the local police authorities and immediately deter-

mined that the accident was caused by a major safety defect in both of these

automobiles, that the lethal fire was in fact caused by the faulty design of the

fuel tanks on both cars.

“Mr. Speaker, only a short time ago those very gasoline tanks were the

subject of the domestic-content negotiations between the United States and

Japan. A superior product, made coincidentally in my own district, was pro-

posed to the Japanese trade representative. The American component is both

superior in design and less expensive in manufacture, due to the diligence

and intelligence of American workers, but that component was rejected by

the Japanese trade mission because it failed to meet the supposed high and

demanding standards of their auto industry!

‘ ‘Mr. Speaker, those high and demanding standards burned five American

citizens to death in an auto accident which, according to the Tennessee State

Police and the National Transportation Safety Board, did not in any way

exceed the safety parameters set in America by law for more than fifteen

years. This should have been a survivable accident, but one family is nearly

wiped out-but for the courage of a union trucker, would be entirely gone-

and two other families today weep over the bodies of their young daughters

because American workers were not allowed to supply a superior compo-

nent even to the versions of this automobile made right here in America!

One of those faulty tanks was transported six thousand miles so that it could

be in one of those burned-out cars-so that it could kill a husband and a wife

and a three-year-old child, and a newborn infant riding in that automobile!

“Enough is enough, Mr. Speaker! The preliminary finding of the NTSB,

confirmed by the scientific staff at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is that

the auto gas tanks on both these cars, one manufactured in Japan and the

other assembled right here in Kentucky, failed to meet long-standing D-O-T

standards for automotive safety. As a result, first, the U.S. Department of

Transportation has issued an immediate recall notice for all C’resta-typc pri-

vate passenger automobiles …” Trent paused, looking around. The players

in the room knew that there would be more, and they knew it would be a big

one.

“Second, I have advised the President of this tragic incident and its larger

ramifications. It has been also determined by the Department of Transporta-

tion that the same fuel tank for this particular brand of automobile is used in

nearly every Japanese private-passenger auto imported into the United

States. Accordingly, I am today introducing a bill, HR-I23I3, which will

authorize the President to direct the Departments of Commerce, Justice and

of the Treasury to …”

“By executive order,” the White House press spokesman was saying in the

White House Press Room, “and in the interest of public safety, the President

has directed the Bureau of Customs, Department of the Treasury, to inspect

all imported Japanese cars at their respective ports of entry for a major safety

defect which two days ago resulted in the deaths of five American citizens.

Enabling legislation to formalize the President’s statutory authority is being

introduced today by the Honorable Alan Trent, Congressman from Massa-

chusetts. The bill will have the full support of the President, and we hope for

rapid action, again, in the interest of public safety.

“The technical term for this measure is ‘sectoral reciprocity,’ ” she went

on. “That means that our legislation will mirror-image Japanese trade prac-

tices in every detail.” She looked up for questions. Oddly, there were none

at the moment.

“Moving on, the President’s trip to Moscow has been scheduled for-”

“Wait a minute,” a reporter asked, looking up, having had a few seconds

to digest the opening statement. ‘ ‘What was that you said?”

“What gives, boss?” Ryan asked, going over the briefing documents.

“Second page, Jack.”

“Okay.” Jack flipped the page and scanned. “Damn, I saw that on TV

Ihe other day.” He looked up. “This is not going to make them happy.”

“Tough cookies,” President Durling replied coldly. “We actually had a

good year or two closing the trade gap, but this new guy over there is so

beholden to the big shots that we just can’t do business with his people.

Enough’s enough. They stop our cars right on the dock and practically take

them apart to make sure they’re ‘safe,’ and then pass on the ‘inspection’ bill

lo their consumers.”

“I know that, sir, but-”

“But enough’s enough.” And besides, it would soon be an election year,

and the President needed help with his union voters, and with this single

stroke he’d set that in granite. It wasn’t Jack’s bailiwick, and the National

Security Advisor knew better than to make an issue of this. “Tell me about

Russia and the missiles,” Roger Durling said next.

He was saving the real bombshell for last. The FBI was having its meeting

with the people from Judiciary the following afternoon. No, Durling thought

after a moment’s contemplation, he’d have to call Bill Shaw and tell him to

hold off. He didn’t want two big stories competing on the front pages. Kealty

would have to wait for a while. He’d let Ryan know, but the sexual-harass-

ment case would stay black for another week or so.

The timing guaranteed confusion. From a time zone fourteen hours ahead of

the United States’ EST, phones rang in the darkness of what in Washington

was the early morning of the next day.

The irregular nature of the American action, which had bypassed the nor-

mal channels within the American government, and therefore had also

bypassed the people who gathered information for their country, caught

everyone completely unaware. The Japanese ambassador in Washington

was in a fashionable restaurant, having lunch with a close friend, and the

hour guaranteed that the same was true of the senior staffers at the embassy

on Massachusetts Avenue, NW. In the embassy cafeteria, and all over the

city, beepers went off commanding an immediate call to their offices, but it

was too late. The word was already out on various satellite TV channels, and

those people in Japan who kept watch on such things had called their super-

visors, and so on up the information chain until various zaibatsu were awak-

ened at an hour certain to draw sharp comments. These men in turn called

senior staff members, who were already awake in any case, and told them to

call their lobbyists at once. Many of the lobbyists were already at work. For

the most part, they had caught the C-SPAN coverage of Al Trent and gone to

work on their own initiative, attempting damage control even before they

received marching orders from their employers. The reception they got in

every office was cool, even from members to whose campaign funds they

made regular contributions. But not always.

“Look,” said one senator, contemplating the commencement of his own

reelection bid, and needing funds, as his visitor well knew, “I’m not going

to the voters and saying that this action is unfair when eight people just

burned to death. You have to give it time and let it play out. Be smart about

it, okay?”

It was only five people who’d burned to death, the lobbyist thought, but

the advice of his current mendicant was sound, or would have been under

normal circumstances. The lobbyist was paid over three hundred thousand

dollars per year for his expertise-he’d been u senior Senate staffer lor ten

years before seeing the light-and to be an honest broker of information. He

was also paid to purvey campaign funds not-so-honestly on one hand, and to

advise his employers what was possible on the other.

“Okay, Senator,” he said in an understanding tone. “Please remember,

though, that this legislation could cause a trade war, and that would be bad

lor everyone.”

“livents like this have a natural life, and they don’t last forever,” the Sen-

ator replied. That was the general opinion reported back to the various of-

I’ices by five that afternoon, which translated to seven the following morning

in Japan. The error was in overlooking the fact that there had never been an

event quite “like this.”

Already the phones were ringing in the offices of nearly every member of

both houses of Congress. Most expressed outrage at the event on 1-40, which

was to be expected. There were a few hundred thousand people in America,

spread through every state and all four hundred thirty-five congressional dis-

tricts, who never missed the chance to call their representatives in Washing-

Ion to express their opinions on everything. Junior staffers took the calls and

made note of the time and date, the name and address of every caller-it was

often unnecessary to ask, as some callers were identifiable by voice alone.