Some of their conversation had dealt with wondering where the women were; they should have been in the hotel by noon, but most of it had dealt with what was going on, both in Korea and with themselves.
A bellman had been dispatched to the National Geo-graphic Society building, several blocks away, to get a map of Korea-"On second thought, you'd better get half a dozen," Pickering had ordered. "Everything they've got, the coast of China from the Burmese border, near Ran-goon, to the Russian border, to the Sea of Okhotsk."
Using the maps, McCoy had delivered an hour-long briefing, entirely from memory, of the disposition of North Korean forces on the Korean peninsula; of Chinese and Russian forces up and down the coast of the Asian conti-nent; of U.S. Army forces in Korea-there were practically none in Korea-and Japan; and even of Nationalist Chi-nese forces on Formosa.
He traced the possible routes of invasion across the 38th parallel, and offered his assessment of the probable North Korean intentions.
"I don't think they expected the Americans to intervene, but I don't think that it will have any effect when we do. We probably can't get enough forces over there quickly enough to stop them. What we do send is likely to be pushed into the sea here, in the deep South, around Pusan."
He discussed the possibility of support from Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Army on Formosa, and dismissed it as probably not going to be worth very much. And his opinion of the war-fighting capabilities of the Eighth U.S. Army in Korea was anything but flattering.
"Their equipment is old, their training is inadequate, and they don't have any armor to match the Russian T-34s the North Koreans have. The bridges in Japan won't take the weight of an M-26, which is arguably as good as the T-34, so there are no M-26s. The M-24s they do have are light tanks that don't stand a chance against the T-34."
That was frustrating to hear, of course, and so was con-templation of what they were all going to be doing in the CIA.
Banning agreed that it was possible, even likely, that Ad-miral Hillenkoetter would be fired for not being able to predict the sudden North Korea attack.
"Probably," Banning said, "not right away. If the Presi-dent is worried about a Pearl Harbor reaction to the attack, the last thing he wants to do is fire the Director of the CIA. That makes what General Cates said, that he's thinking of you to replace Hillenkoetter, make a kind of sense."
"I'm not equipped to run the CIA."
"One scenario is that Hillenkoetter will stay on until you feel you can take over," Banning argued. The door chime sounded.
"The ladies, I hope," Pickering said, and went to the door.
Patricia Foster Pickering and Ernestine Sage McCoy walked into the room, trailed by four bellmen carrying luggage and cardboard boxes from Brooks Brothers. Both women looked around the mess in the room, and the four Marines, all of whom had their field scarves pulled down, their collars unbuttoned, and their sleeves rolled up.
"I hope we're not interrupting anything," Patricia Pick-ering said, lightly sarcastic.
"We were getting worried," Pickering said.
"I'm sure you were," Patricia Pickering said, now seri-ously sarcastic. "If there's any scotch left, I really would like a drink."
Her husband scurried to get her a drink. McCoy went to his wife and kissed her.
"How many have you had?" Ernie asked.
"A couple," he confessed.
"There is a difference between a couple, which is two, and several, which is any number three or greater."
"Several," McCoy said.
Ernie laughed. "Aunt Pat, I told you. They can't be trusted alone, but they don't lie."
"What's in the boxes?" McCoy asked.
"We went by Brooks Brothers and got you some uni-forms," Ernie said.
"Good little camp followers that we are," Patricia said. She went to Ed Banning. "I see that you-smell that you- can't be trusted out of Milla's sight, either."
But she kissed his cheek nevertheless, and then Zimmer-man's.
"And for lunch we had a hot dog with sauerkraut and a Coke on the sidewalk outside Brooks Brothers," Patricia said. "It was good, but it wasn't enough. Plan on an earlier dinner, boys."
Pickering handed his wife a drink. "Here you go, sweetheart," he said.
"You don't have one?"
"On the coffee table."
"Make it last," she said. "That's your last. I didn't fly across the country in the middle of the night, and then spend the morning in Brooks Brothers and the afternoon driving here from Manhattan just for the privilege of watching you snore in an armchair."
"Yes, dear," Pickering said, mockingly. He was more amused than annoyed, and certainly didn't appear chas-tised.
Patricia turned to McCoy.
"Say, `thank you, Ernie, for coming and going to Brooks Brothers for me.'"
"Thank you, honey, for coming and going to Brooks Brothers for me," McCoy said, with a smile.
"You're welcome," Ernie said.
The telephone rang.
Banning answered it, then extended it to Pickering.
"Senator Fowler, sir," he said.
Mrs. Pickering looked annoyed.
Pickering took the phone.
"Hello, Dick," he said. "Come down the corridor and have a drink with us. Patricia just walked in the door."
Fowler's end of the conversation could not be heard by Patricia Pickering, although she tried hard.
"Dick, I really don't want to do that. Patricia is in one of her fire-breathing moods....
"Hey, don't you listen? I said I didn't want to.
"Oh, goddamn it, Dick. All right. We'll be there in a minute." He put the phone down and looked at his wife. "Our senator wants to see me for a minute. Ken and me. He says it's important."
She didn't reply.
"I owe him a couple of favors," he said.
"Like him getting you back into your goddamn Marine Corps?"
They locked eyes for a moment, and then Pickering said, rather firmly, "Patricia, we'll only be a few minutes. Why don't you order dinner?"
He motioned for McCoy to follow him, and they left the room.
" `Goddamn Marine Corps,' Aunt Pat?" Ernie said.
"Goddamn Marine Corps," Patricia Pickering confirmed. "He's too old-he's fifty, for God's sake-to go rushing off..."
She stopped, looked at Ernie, and started for the door. "I know him and Richardson Fowler. And he's already had enough to drink. You coming?"
Ernie considered this a moment, then shook her head, "no."
"Suit yourself," Patricia Pickering said, and walked into the corridor. After a moment, Ernie followed her.
"We'll be right back," she said.
"'Goddamn Marine Corps'?" Ernie Zimmerman quoted. "She sounds just like Mae-Su."
"If the Marine Corps wanted you to have a wife, Gunner Zimmerman," Banning replied, delighted at his own wit, "they would have issued you one."
"Luddy's not pissed?"
"Actually, she's not. She would really like me to go over there and start killing Communists," Banning said.
A muscular man in a gray suit stepped in front of Patri-cia Pickering.
"Excuse me, ma'am," he said. "May I ask where you're going?"
"Not that it's any of your business, but I'm going to see Senator Fowler."
"I'm afraid that's not possible just now, ma'am," he said. "Could you come back in, say, thirty minutes?"
"Not possible? What do you mean not possible? Get out of my way!"
"I'm afraid I can't let you pass."
"You can't let me pass?" Mrs. Pickering asked in outrage. "I own this hotel-no one tells me I can't pass.'"
Another muscular man walked quickly up as the first Secret Service agent was taking his credentials from his suit jacket pocket, and then the door of Senator Fowler's suite opened.
"Oh, Jesus Christ, Patricia," Fleming Pickering said to her, then turned to someone in the room. "It's my wife."
"Let her in," a voice came from inside the room, and then President
Truman appeared in the open door. "Let the lady pass."
"Ladies," Ernie said from behind the second Secret Ser-vice agent. "I'm with her."
"Ladies," the President agreed, smiling.
"Good evening, Mr. President," Patricia Pickering said.
"Good evening, Mrs. Pickering," Truman said. "I apolo-gize for this. Won't you come in for a minute?"
He offered his hand to Ernie McCoy.
"Admiral Hillenkoetter told me Captain McCoy was married to a very beautiful young woman. How do you do? You are Mrs. McCoy?"
"Yes, sir, Mr. President," Ernie said.
"Hello, Patricia," Senator Fowler said.
"I suspected that my overage adolescent was going to crawl into a bottle with you, Dick, and I see I was right."
"Mrs. Pickering, Mrs. McCoy," the President said, "this is Major General Ralph Howe, an old friend of mine."
"How do you do, ladies?" General Howe said, in a twangy Maine accent. He seemed to be amused.
"How do you do, General?" Patricia said, as she shook his hand.
"I think what we have here, Harry," General Howe said, smiling broadly, "is proof of the adage that behind every great man there really is a beautiful woman."
Truman chuckled.
"Mrs. Pickering," the President said. "I wanted a few min-utes with General Howe, your husband, and Captain Mc-Coy. A few private minutes that no one would know about. That's why I imposed on Senator Fowler's hospitality...."
"No imposition at all, Mr. President," Fowler said.
"Can I have them for ten minutes, ladies?" the President asked. "They'll tell you what this is all about later."
"Of course, Mr. President," Patricia Pickering said. "I suppose I have made a flaming ass of myself, haven't I?"
"I suspect my wife would have done exactly what you did," the President said. "Bess suspects that all my friends are always plying me with liquor."
She found herself at the door.
"Again, my apologies, ladies," the President said, and they went through the door.
"And my apologies, Mr. President," Pickering said when the door was closed. "The main reason she's on a tear is that she thinks I volunteered to go back in the Corps, and that Dick Fowler arranged it as a favor."
"If you'd like, I can straighten her out on that," the Pres-ident said.
"I would be grateful, Mr. President."
"Formidable lady, General," General Howe said.
"I don't think a shrinking violet could run the Foster Ho-tel chain the way she runs it," the President said. "Now, where were we?"
"I was about to offer Fleming a drink," Fowler said. "Now I'm not so sure that's a good idea."
"I think it is," Pickering said.
"I'll make them," Fowler said. "The usual?"
"Yes."
"For you, too, Ken?" Fowler asked.
"Yes, sir, please," McCoy said.
"To get right to the heart of this," the President said. "When Admiral Hillenkoetter first brought your name up, General, he said that you had first gone to the Pacific as the private eyes of Navy Secretary Knox, and that that had evolved into your being the private eyes of President Roo-sevelt."
"Yes, sir, that accurately describes what happened."
"I found that fascinating," Truman said. "Although I didn't say anything to the admiral."
"Sir?"
"Until that moment, I thought I had the bright idea all on my own," Truman said. "That if you really want to know what's going on around the military, send someone who considers his primary loyalty is to the President, not the military establishment. General Howe and I go back to France-we were both captains in France. Then we saw one another over the years in the National Guard. In War Two, when I was in the Senate, he went back into the Army, and rose to major general. When this Korean thing broke, he was about the first person I knew I was going to need, and I called him to active duty-to be my eyes in this war."
"I see," Pickering said.
"And when he came down from Maine, I told him about you, about Captain McCoy's assessment, and the trouble he had with it, and we are agreed that your talents in this sort of thing should not be allowed to lay fallow."
"Mr. President, I'm afraid you're overestimating my tal-ents," Pickering said.
"You can do one thing I can't, General," Howe said. "You can talk to MacArthur, maybe even ask him ques-tions no one else would dare ask him."
"Wow!" Pickering said, as Fowler handed him a drink.
"Would you be willing to take on such an assignment?"
"Sir, I'm at your orders," Pickering said.
`Take a look at this," the President said, handing Picker-ing a squarish envelope. "And tell me if it's all right."
THE WHIT E HOUS E
WASHINGTON , D.C.
JULY 1, 1950
GENERAL OF THE ARMY DOUGLAS MACARTHUR
THE DAI ICHI BUILDING
TOKYO, JAPAN
BY OFFICER COURIER
DEAR GENERAL MACARTHUR:
THERE IS ONE SMALL PIECE OF GOOD NEWS IN WHAT FRANKLY LOOKS TO ME LIKE A DARK SITUATION, AND WHICH I WANTED TO GET IN YOUR HANDS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
ADMIRAL HILLENKOETTER, THE DIRECTOR OF THE CIA, HAS ASKED ME TO RECALL TO ACTIVE DUTY YOUR FRIEND BRIGADIER GEN-ERAL FLEMING PICKERING, USMCR, AND I HAVE DONE SO. AT ADMIRAL HILLENKOET-TER `S RECOMMENDATION, I HAVE NAMED GENERAL PICKERING ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF THE CIA FOR ASIA, A POSITION MUCH LIKE THE ONE HE HELD DURING WORLD WAR II, WHERE HE WAS SO VALUABLE TO YOUR-SELF, OSS DIRECTOR DONOVAN, AND PRESI-DENT ROOSEVELT.
HE WILL BE COMING TO THE FAR EAST IN THE VERY NEAR FUTURE, AND I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT HE ENJOYS MY EVERY CONFI-DENCE AND THAT YOU MAY FEEL FREE TO SAY ANYTHING TO HIM THAT YOU WOULD SAY TO ME.
SINCERELY,
Harry S. Truman
HARRY S. TRUMAN
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE ARMED FORCES
Pickering raised his eyes from the letter to the President. "Is that about the way President Roosevelt handled it?" Truman asked.
"He referred to the general as `my dear Douglas,'" Pick-ering said.
"He knew MacArthur," Truman said. "I don't. And I don't think I want to know the sonofabitch."
"Harry!" General Howe cautioned.
"He's an officer in the U.S. Army," Truman said. "Not the Viceroy of Japan, but I don't think he knows that, and if he does, he doesn't want to admit it. And I want you to know how I feel about him, General."
"I understand, sir."
"How do you feel about him?" Truman asked.
"He's a brilliant man-possibly, probably, the best gen-eral of our era, Mr. President."
"Better than Eisenhower? Bradley?"
"I never had the opportunity to watch General Eisen-hower at work, Mr. President. But I have watched General MacArthur. The word `genius' is not out of place. But he sometimes manifests traits of character that are disturbing to me personally. He can be petty, for example."
"For example?"
"Every unit on Corregidor but the 4th Marines was given the Presidential Unit Citation. General MacArthur said the Marines had enough medals."
"That's all?"
"His blind loyalty to the Bataan Gang disturbs me, Mr. President."
"That's why you didn't take McCoy's assessment to him?"
"I think his support of General Willoughby would have been irrational, and that very likely would have caused McCoy more trouble than he was already in, Mr. Presi-dent."
"All I expect him to do is not disobey orders," Truman said. "If he does, I want to know about it. Would that be a problem for you?"
"No, sir."
"Okay. This will go out tonight," Truman said. "I want you to work closely with Ralph here, but you both have the authority to communicate directly with me. If there's a disagreement between you, I want to hear both sides, and I'll decide. Clear?"
"Clear," General Howe said.
"Yes, sir."
"General Howe wants to pick you
r brain, Captain Mc-Coy," the President said. "I want you to tell him everything you know."
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