The President snapped down the volume of the television set. He called through to his Private Secretary: `Get the Chinese Ambassador round here, right now. Then get the National Security Adviser, Secretary of State, Defense Secretary, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.'
FOUR
Seoul, South Korea
Local time: 2100 Tuesday 20 February 2001
GMT: 1200 Tuesday 20 February 2001
The first American fatality in action on the Korean Peninsula during the Dragonstrike campaign was shot with a 45mm automatic pistol in the shopping area of Itaewon, one of Seoul's busiest market areas. He collapsed near a Kentucky Fried Chicken store among the bags and coats hanging on a stall and died immediately. He was identified as a Marine corporal attached to the Embassy in Seoul. His killer melted into the crowd. Onlookers who saw the gunman did nothing but watch in terror. Over the next three hours five more Americans died in similar shootings, all carried out in the open in crowded parts of the city. Twenty-three South Koreans were also shot dead and seventy were wounded. There were at least four random drive-by shootings with AK47 automatic rifles: customers in a coffee shop, pedestrians crossing a major intersection, outside Chong-gak station, and a crowd coming out of the Piccadilly Cinema in Central Seoul, together with four drivers who died from sniper fire along the main highway north towards the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, less than 40 kilometres away. The South Korean Defence Ministry estimated that at least five small coastal submarines had landed up to a hundred special forces commandos along the South Korean coastline. The submarines were originally designed in Yugoslavia, but since the early 1960s the North Koreans had been building their own. About fifty of these boats of several different designs were operational. Some were tasked with mine laying, others with infiltrating the special forces, with torpedo attacks, and with reconnaissance. American satellite photographs taken hours after the first killings in Seoul showed that the submarines were operating from two mother ships, the adapted cargo freighters Dong Hae-ho in the Sea of Japan and the Song Rim-ho in the Yellow Sea.
Almost certainly more commando units were on board waiting for a second wave of landings. These troops were the elite of the North Korean military and their skills at survival, covert operations, assassination, and explosives were considered equal to or even better than those of the best Western powers. Those specifically trained for submarine operations belonged to the 22nd Battle Group of the Reconnaissance Bureau, a highly specialized unit made up of eight battalions. The Bureau worked closely with the Special Purpose Forces Command which was an elite army of its own with 88,000 men trained in all aspects of covert operations and amphibious and airborne warfare. It was with this force of just over 100,000 men that North Korea had fought its war of nerves with the South for so long. The men were chosen for their loyalty, stamina, physical strength, and intelligence. They trained to such a high level that many units were hired out to protect Third World leaders, they operated in at least twelve African countries and the late Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia had rarely travelled without them because of his fear of assassination. North Korean special forces had been blamed for a number of terrorist operations, including the murder of members of the South Korean cabinet in a bomb attack in 1983 during a visit to Burma and the destruction of a South Korean airliner in 1987. Tonight, as the world was preoccupied with the Dragonstrike war, the same deadly troops were in the heart of South Korea on a mission to destabilize the government, wreck the economy, and terrorize the population.
A security guard at the Westin Chosun Hotel stopped a North Korean agent during the late evening rush hour. For years, as South Korea had fortified itself against northern threats, the eighteen-storey, half moon-shaped Westin Chosun had been a home away from home for diplomats, journalists, and the military. It was set back from the road by a long, curved driveway. The general manager was reluctant to disrupt his guest with stringent checks and searches, so he decided to increase covert surveillance. Security staff, mingling with guests, spotted a North Korean agent entering the huge revolving door into the foyer. He wore a badly cut suit and walked awkwardly across the marble floor. He was ill at ease in the warm and elegant atmosphere created by the oak panelling and Victorian gas-lamp-style lighting. Several times he asked the way to O'Kim's bar in the basement, a favourite haunt for expatriates. He approached the reception desk on the left, then walked quickly across to the coffee shop. He was both arrogant and impatient, swearing in Korean as his route was blocked by tour-group suitcases roped together next to the concierge's desk. By the time he found the stairs down to the bar, security staff throughout the hotel had been alerted. The agent was challenged. Immediately, the North Korean took out a knife, but not to threaten people around him. He held it out only to keep the guard at bay for the few seconds it took for him to draw a small pistol from inside his jacket and shoot himself in the head.
The White House, Washington, DC
Local time: 0730 Tuesday 20 February 2001
GMT: 1230 Tuesday 20 February 2001
China's Ambassador to Washington, Jiang Hua, made no secret of his displeasure at being summoned so summarily. But he shielded his anger with diplomatic urbanity and then genuine surprise. The Americans had broken with protocol and escorted him straight through to the President of the United States.
Bradlay chose to talk to the Ambassador sitting on the comfortable chairs. The other senior cabinet officials sat flanking the Ambassador. They didn't speak. It was enough that they were all connected with the defence forces. Commerce and trade were not an issue for this meeting. The President waited until the coffee was served. Tea, which he knew the Ambassador preferred, wasn't offered, with the message that coffee in the morning was an entrenched part of American culture. The President later admitted he had toyed with the idea of ordering in doughnuts, but thought that might be taking it too far. He first made small talk about the winter chill which was gripping Washington. The Ambassador mentioned the below-freezing temperatures in Beijing. Then when the President moved on to the South China Sea his tone hardened, but his manner remained amiable. `Ambassador, we've just had some polls done on the broadcast by Jake Walker, the oil worker, which ran on your evening news. You must have seen it on CNN. China was pretty unpopular, what with Vietnam and all that, before the broadcast. Now my voters want me to blow your country to hell.'
`I don't think that is a helpful way of looking at complex international-'
Bradlay interrupted: `We know that. That's why we're looking for your help.'
`You want my help?'
`Your government's help. Yes,' continued the President. `I need to separate the issue of the South China Sea, which as you say is complex, from that of Americans being held hostage . . .'
`Hostage is not correct.'
`They can't leave. They are being held by Chinese troops. You're broadcasting badly shot videos as if you're a bunch of Middle East terrorists. So listen, please.'
The Ambassador nodded.
`Voters in a democracy do not explore issues with the complexity which we might sometimes hope for, Ambassador. We would like to deal with your claim to the South China Sea, your war with Vietnam, and the security of trade routes to and from the Pacific without American voters breathing down our necks. In order to do that, we need to get those Americans off the Paracel Islands and back home. So I have ordered one of our amphibious assault ships, the USS Peleliu, with support vessels to sail to Discovery Reef and pick them up. They should be there in twenty-six hours. Could you tell President Wang Feng that we are not challenging your claims? We are carrying out a humanitarian mission. Only after that is successfully completed will we talk to you about the more complex issues.'
`I will have to refer back to the President. I can give no guarantees.'
`We're expecting you to guarantee the safety of this humanitarian mission, Ambassador.'
The Mindoro Straits, South China Sea
Local time: 2030 Tuesday 20 February 20
01
GMT: 1230 Tuesday 20 February 2001
The 36,967 ton Tarawa class amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu, which had been with the Nimitz carrier group off the Cagayan Islands, had already been alerted to the possibility of a marine rescue of American citizens. Her support ships took up positions. The nuclear-powered Los Angeles class attack submarine USS Olympia from Pearl Harbor led the group. The Oliver Hazard Perry class guided-missile frigate USS Ford and the Spruance class destroyers USS Oldendorf, USS O'Brien, and USS Hewitt spread out like a crescent in front of the USS Peleliu with the oiler USS Willamette nestled in the middle. The Ticonderoga class guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill took up the rear. The battle group had five anti-submarine-warfare helicopters. Two flew ahead of the warships.
The USS Peleliu was one of the American navy's most versatile instruments of war, and especially suited for the type of operation in which the United States had found itself embroiled after the end of the Cold War. She was 65 metres high, the equivalent of a twenty-storey building, 250 metres long, equal to three football fields, and her flight deck was 35 metres wide. She could deliver a balanced payload of combat-ready Marines, together with equipment and supplies, and get them ashore either by helicopter or amphibious craft. Aft was a huge wet-dock. The stern of the ship was lowered into the water and the vessels floated out. Today the USS Peleliu carried 15 CH53-E troop transportation helicopters, each with a capacity for 36 Marines, together with 4 AH-1 Sea Cobra helicopters. These sleek and dangerous aircraft were armed with a multiple weapons system of Hell-Fire, Tose, Sidewinder, and Maverick missiles as well as a 25mm nose gun. Tied down aft were 5 AV8-B Harrier air support vertical-take-off jets, based on the British Aerospace Harrier design, with a weapons payload of cluster and free-fall bombs, rockets, cannon, and air-to-air missiles. Her fixed on-board armaments were defensive. On the port-side bow was the Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) system which could fire salvoes of two high-explosive and fragmentation missiles up to 4 kilometres. On the starboard side were two Vulcan Phalanx Close-In Weapons Systems (CIWS) capable of firing 4,000 rounds a minute of depleted-uranium shells at any approaching hostile object. In the holds were hundreds of tonnes of medical supplies and foodstuffs which could be delivered to disaster or war victims. The engineering plant could provide enough electricity and fresh water for a population of 6,000 people. Her hospital was designed to take up to 300 patients. It had four operating rooms where the most complex and difficult surgery caused by war and catastrophe could be performed. All the oil workers rescued from the Paracels would undergo a medical check here as soon as they were brought safely on board. She sailed through the Mindoro Straits, 150 kilometres south of Manila, at 20 knots. Her destination, the Paracel Islands, was twenty-six hours away. The USS Nimitz, with her formidable power projection, held back in the Sulu Sea on the edge of China's zone of control. The Pentagon believed the Chinese would now hand over the oil workers without conflict.
The orders to the captain of the USS Peleliu were to do nothing except take back the hostages and leave the South China Sea. The USS Peleliu and her escorts continued west-north-west towards the Paracels. 300 of the 1,800 Marines on board were made ready. Only twelve were to travel in eight aircraft. Their task was to bring back twenty-four oil workers in each helicopter. The ship's captain was in contact with the Pacific Fleet headquarters in Hawaii. No one expected a fight.
The Cabinet Office, London
Local time: 1300 Tuesday 20 February 2001
British policy on Operation Dragonstrike was being moulded by the brightest men in the Civil Service. The Cabinet Office Chairman of the Overseas Policy and Defence Committee prepared to open a meeting which would make recommendations to the ministerial committee within the next hour. He was also a member of the Joint Intelligence Committee, making him one of Britain's most influential civil servants. Eight of his colleagues put their papers on a large square table which dated back to the eighteenth century. The high-ceilinged rooms of the Cabinet Office on the corner of Whitehall and Downing Street had been used in crises for centuries to discuss British national interests in far-flung parts of the world. Today each of the salient departments was represented: the Foreign Office, the Ministry of Defence, the Department of Trade, the Treasury, and the three key branches of the intelligence services, the Security Service, better known to the public as MI5, which deals with any threat against the United Kingdom, the Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6, which unlike the Central Intelligence Agency deals only with intelligence which is gathered secretly, and the SIGINT GCHQ listening posts. A CIA representative was also present, in marked contrast to Britain's European partners, none of whom had been asked. Meetings like this were evidence that despite the public posturing of governments towards European integration and a common foreign policy, in a crisis America and Great Britain worked as one.
The Chairman opened the discussion by summarizing the situation as of 1230. The meeting's task was to set out the options and recommend a course of action for the Cabinet Committee on Defence and Overseas Policy, which would begin at 1400, chaired by the Prime Minister. The tone was sober and practical. But they had to imagine the unimaginable: with the USS Peleliu entering the South China Sea, in what way would Britain give practical and moral military support if called upon?
The Ministry of Defence said that a significant British naval presence, together with Australian and New Zealand warships, happened to be in the South China Sea on deployment through Asia to Australia. The task force had been taking part in exercises of the Five-Power Defence Agreement off the Malaysian coast. The ships were anchored off Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei. The 20,600 ton Invincible class aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, with 9 Sea Harrier fighters and 12 Westland Sea King and Merlin helicopters, led the most complex mixed group in the Asian region since the British withdrawal from Hong Kong four years earlier. Accompanying her were the Duke class frigates HMS Sutherland, which had only been commissioned in 1997 and HMS Montrose, and the nineteen-year-old Type 42 class destroyer HMS Liverpool. The state of the art 16,000 ton assault ship HMS Albion, commissioned only the previous year, had 300 Marines on board. They were being made ready for any evacuation of foreign nationals. HMS Ark Royal also had with her the Trafalgar class nuclear attack submarine HMS Triumph. The Australians had the Anzac class frigate HMAS Parramatta and the Adelaide class frigate HMAS Sydney, together with a diesel-powered Collins class submarine, HMAS Rankin, commissioned in 1997. New Zealand had the Leander class frigate HMNZS Canterbury. British, Australian, and New Zealand special forces, who had been training near Invercargill, on New Zealand's South Island, were being flown to Bandar Seri Begawan to join the ships.
The Ministry of Defence then said that the Sultan of Brunei had, however, asked that the warships remain anchored so as not to inflame the crisis. The CIA representative asked whether Britain would be prepared to go against the Sultan's wishes. The Chairman was equivocal, replying that because Brunei deposited much of its money in British banks, it would be better to leave his territory with his assent.
The Foreign Office said that more than 200 Britons were caught up in the conflict. Some 50 were oil workers. The rest were mostly in northern Vietnam, including a group of four English language teachers in the city of Lang Son, on the Chinese border. They had reported the city filling up with Vietnamese troops. Local residents were certain there would be an attack across the border. The CIA and GCHQ representatives confirmed that their own COMINT (communications) and ELINT (electronic) intelligence supported that account. The CIA representative affirmed that the National Security Agency also held that view. He added that satellite IMINT (imagery intelligence) had picked up Chinese Su-27s on the runway of the captured Terumbi Layang-layang island, which was claimed by Malaysia.
The CIA representative asked if any other European military forces would be involved. The Chairman replied that if the United States wished for symbolic support several other governments could be invited to join. If, however
, they were actually going into action against China, it was best to keep it tight: America, France, and Britain. The conclusions of the meeting, which were, remarkably, unanimous for so many different departments, were printed out for the ministers within forty-five minutes. The Prime Minister's Committee on Defence and Overseas Policy decided to give full public support for the humanitarian mission of the USS Peleliu. It decided that the Ark Royal task force would sail from Brunei with or without the Sultan's blessing. British support would continue through to conflict if necessary. High Commissioners reported back from Canberra and Wellington that Australia's and New Zealand's warships would stay with the group under the operational control of the Ark Royal.
The Foreign Ministry, Beijing
Local time: 2100 Tuesday 20 February 2001
GMT: 1300 Tuesday 20 February 2001
Foreign correspondents were called to the Foreign Ministry briefing room at thirty minutes' notice for a news conference by Jamie Song. Unlike the previous venue at the tatty International Club in the Jiangguomenwei diplomatic compound, the media room at the new Foreign Ministry building was a gleaming example of Asian high-tech communications. A huge screen behind the stage carried a coloured map of South-East Asia. Technicians flashed lights on and off to test the equipment before Jamie Song arrived. The CCTV cameras were allowed to the front. Several international networks were taking live feeds. The Foreign Minister arrived twenty minutes late, walked straight onto the stage, and spoke in English without interpreters for the benefit of the live transmissions.
`I'm sorry to have called you all here at such short notice,' he began. `And to have interrupted your evening. Unfortunately, it is turning into a busy few days. I have just come from Zhongnanhai. I won't keep you long. About an hour ago, the Ambassadors of Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, and the Philippines, under instructions from their governments, signed a Memorandum of Understanding which reaffirmed previous policy on the South China Sea. In a nutshell, it means they recognize Chinese sovereignty. All exploitation of oil, gas, and mineral reserves will be done in agreement with each other. No foreign forces will be allowed in the area. China is responsible for security. Commercial trade routes will not be affected. Outside the MOU, all the governments have agreed to help bring Vietnam back into our regional community. My government believes that after a decent interval, China and Vietnam can live in peace with mutual cooperation. I have time to take a couple of questions. But keep them specific on the MOU. I'm not taking anything on the South China Sea in general.'
Dragon Strike -- A Novel of the Coming War with China (Future History Book 1) Page 16