“What was that?” Whittaker asked.
“Learning how to get into a rubber boat from a submarine,” Donovan said.
“Why would I want to do that?” Whittaker asked.
“Scheduled Pan American service to the Philippines has been temporarily suspended,” Donovan said.
“A submarine’s the only way we know to get you into the Philippines.”
“Is that where I’m going?” Whittaker asked.
“That hasn’t been decided yet,” the President said coldly.
“Whether you or anybody else is going into the Philippines.”
“Now that you mention it, Uncle Frank…” Whittaker said.
“I don’t think I’m going to like it, Jim,” Roosevelt said.
“But finish that.”
“Why have we abandoned the people in the Philippines?” Whittaker asked.
“What makes you think we have?” Roosevelt replied, just a little indignantly He was not used to having his decisions questioned by anyone.
“There was simply no way to reinforce MacArthur before the Japanese overwhelmed him, and there is simply no way, at this time, that we can consider an invasion.
It’s just too far away, and we just don’t have the logistical capability.”
“I’m talking about the guerrillas,” Whittaker said.
“The people who haven’t quit. The ones in the mountains.”
It was a moment before Roosevelt replied.
“I was about to say, Jim, that you are emotionally involved, and that unfortunately I can’t always do what my emotions tell me I should. But then it occurred to me that you have a greater right to be emotionally involved than most people. So I will not change the subject. The answer to your question is that the best advice I can get is that there are no guerrillas. I tend to place faith in that advice, because it comes to me from Douglas MacArthur and George Marshall, and it is the first thing I can think of that they have agreed upon since 1935.”
“There are at least ten guerrillas, Uncle Frank,” Whittaker said, “How can you possibly know that?”
“I talked to them on the radio this afternoon,” Whittaker said.
“You did?”
“I did,” Whittaker said.
Roosevelt looked at Donovan.
“You arranged that, Bill? He’s talking about this self-appointed general…
what’s the name?”
“Fertig,” Donovan said.
“Fertig,” Roosevelt repeated.
“Jim,” he said kindly, “it is the opinion of everybody but Bill Donovan that the Japanese, for whatever reason, are using prisoners, attempting something. Most likely, that they hope to get us to send them a million dollars in gold by submarine. Whereupon, they will take the million dollars and sink the submarine.”
“Uncle Frank, I talked on the radio this afternoon with two of my men.”
“What do you mean, your’ men
“When MacArthur ordered me from Luzon to Corregidor, I gave my wristwatch to my sergeant, a guy named George Withers. And I told him when Luzon fell, he should make his way, him and the Philippine Scouts I had, to Mindanao. I talked to him and to one of the Philippine Scouts this afternoon.
They’re on Mindanao and waiting for help.”
“And they said what their Japanese captors told them to say.”
“There is no way the Japanese could know what they used to call me and I used to call them,” Whittaker said.
“They’re on Mindanao, and they’re free, and God damn it, we have a duty to help them.”
“You mean, send them the million dollars?”
“And a radio, and quinine, and ammunition,” Whittaker said.
“They have a radio,” Roosevelt said.
“You talked to them.”
“They need an encryption device,” Whittaker said.
“So the Japs won’t be able to listen in.”
“Bill?” the President asked.
“We need to send somebody in there who can separate fact from fantasy, and then come out armed with facts on which further decisions can be made,” Donovan said.
“The basic fact of guerrilla warfare is that one guerrilla can tie down at least seven troops….”
“So you keep telling me,” Roosevelt said.
“And you think Jimmy is the man to go to the Philippines, have a look around, and then come out?”
“Yes,” Donovan said.
“And since the Japanese are listening to the guerrilla radio, and since there is no way we can code what we are sending, how do you propose to let the people in the Philippines know where and when he’s coming? With the Japanese listening in, I mean?”