"Thompson?" he asked.
McCoy thought that over.
"I think I'd rather have a Garand," he said. "Maybe both? See if you can get a tanker's shoulder holster for me."
Zimmerman nodded.
McCoy turned to General Craig.
"Whenever you're ready, sir," he said.
[FOUR]
OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF STAFF
HEADQUARTERS, SUPREME COMMANDER, ALLIED POWERS
THE DAI ICHI BUILDING
TOKYO, JAPAN
0830 14 JULY 1950
Major General Edward M. Almond was in his outer office talking to a tall, intense young lieutenant wearing the in-signia of an aide-de-camp when Brigadier General Fleming Pickering, trailed by Captain Kenneth R. McCoy and Marine Gunner Ernest W. Zimmerman, walked in, Almond broke off his conversation in midsentence and offered Pickering his hand.
"We heard you were here," he said, "But Al"-he nod-ded at the lieutenant-"couldn't seem to find you."
It was a question, and Pickering answered it.
"We're in the Imperial," he said. "My wife's in the hotel business, and hotel people take care of each other. They call it `comping,' and I take advantage of it whenever I can."
"I don't think Al thought of the Imperial," Almond said.
"No, sir, that's the one place I didn't look," the aide con-firmed.
"Well, I guess I don't ask if you're comfortable," Al-mond said. "But I can offer you a cup of coffee. General MacArthur expects you at 0900."
"Thank you," Pickering said. "General, this is Captain McCoy and Mr. Zimmerman."
"You look familiar, Captain," Almond said, as he shook McCoy's hand.
"Captain McCoy was stationed in Japan," Pickering an-swered for him. "With Naval intelligence."
"I thought he looked familiar," Almond said. He turned to Zimmerman and smiled. "Is it true, Mr. Zimmerman, that Marine gunners can really chew railroad spikes and spit nails?"
"Carpet tacks, sir," Zimmerman replied.
"Would you rather we talked alone, General?" Almond asked. He nodded at his aide again. "Or..."
"I think it would be helpful if we all talked," Pickering said.
"Gentlemen, this is Lieutenant Al Haig, my junior aide," Almond said, "who will round up some coffee and then join us."
"I suppose the best way to do this is to show you my or-ders," Pickering said, taking two envelopes from his pocket and handing them to Almond.
Almond opened the smaller envelope and read it.
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON, D.C.
JULY 8,1950
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
BRIGADIER GENERAL FLEMING PICKERING, USMCR, IN CONNECTION WITH HIS MISSION FOR ME, WILL TRAVEL TO SUCH PLACES AT SUCH TIMES AS HE FEELS APPROPRIATE, ACCOMPANIED BY SUCH STAFF AS HE DE-SIRES.
GENERAL PICKERING IS GRANTED HEREWITH A TOP-SECRET/WHITE HOUSE CLEARANCE, AND MAY, AT HIS OPTION, GRANT SUCH CLEARANCE TO HIS STAFF.
U.S. MILITARY AND GOVERNMENTAL AGEN-CIES ARE DIRECTED TO PROVIDE GENERAL PICKERING AND HIS STAFF WITH WHATEVER SUPPORT THEY MAY REQUIRE.
Harry S. Truman
HARRY S. TRUMAN
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
"Now, that's a blanket order," Almond said, and indi-cated Lieutenant Haig with a nod of his head. "May I?"
Pickering nodded, and Almond handed the order to his aide. Then he opened and read the orders in the second en-velope.
S E C R E T
The Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, D.C.
Office of the Director
July 6, 1950
Mission Orders:
To: Brigadier General Fleming Picker-ing, USMCR Assistant Director of the CIA for Asia
By Direction of the President, and in compliance with Mission Memorandum 23-1950, Classified TOP SECRET/CIA/Director, with which you have been made familiar, you and the following mem-bers of your staff, all of whom have been granted TOP SECRET/CIA/Director security clearances, will travel to Tokyo, Japan, and such other places as you/they may feel necessary. Travel may be accomplished by U.S. Government air, sea, rail, or road transporta-tion, for which Priority AAAAA is as-signed, or by any other means you/they determine are necessary.
BANNING, Edward F., Colonel, USMC
MCCOY, Kenneth R., Captain, USMC
ZIMMERMANN, Ernest w., Master Gunner, USMC
Roscoe M. Hillenkoetter
ROSCOE M. HILLENKOETTER
Rear Admiral, USN
Director
S E C R E T
"Two questions," Almond said, as-after getting an ap-proving nod from Pickering-he handed the second orders to Haig. "Colonel Banning? And why two sets of orders? The Presidential order would seem to cover everything."
"Colonel Banning, to answer that first, General, is at Camp Pendleton in California, setting up a communica-tions link between there and the White House. I'm going to need such a link from here to Camp Pendleton, which is one of the reasons I asked to see you."
"Al, see that the General gets whatever he needs," Al-mond ordered.
"Yes, sir," Haig said.
"And so far as the orders are concerned," Pickering went on, "Captain McCoy thinks it would be a good idea to get a third set, issued by SCAP"
"Saying what, Captain?" Almond asked McCoy.
"Saying that Mr. Zimmerman and I are on a liaison mis-sion-or something like that-from SCAP, sir," McCoy said. "Preferably signed by you, sir."
"Reason?" Almond asked.
"White House and CIA orders, sir, and orders signed by General MacArthur are likely to call more attention to us than we want."
"Point taken," Almond said. "When we finish here, Al, get with Captain McCoy and give him what he needs."
"Yes, sir," Haig said.
Almond looked at McCoy.
"I presume you're going to Korea?"
"Yes, sir."
"When?"
"As soon as we have the orders from here, sir."
"You're going to need some field equipment," Almond said. "And weapons. Things are pretty primitive over there. Lieutenant Haig can help you there."
"We have what we'll need, sir," McCoy said. "But thank you."
"I wish I had an interpreter to send with you. I don't."
"McCoy speaks Korean, General," Pickering said. "Reads and writes it, too."
"If I had known that, Captain, when you were here, I would have done my best to steal you from the Naval ele-ment. I'm surprised General Willoughby didn't," Almond said. Then he paused and looked at Pickering. "General Willoughby would of course be interested in whatever in-telligence Captain McCoy turns up. It's an admission of failure on our part, obviously, but the truth is this Korean business caught us completely by surprise."
"I'm sure something can be worked out, General," Pick-ering said. "But I'm sure you'll understand that McCoy and Zimmerman have to do their job independently."
"Yes, of course," Almond said. He looked at his watch. "It might be a good idea if we walked down the corridor to the Supreme Commander's office. He doesn't mind if peo-ple are early. Late is an entirely different matter."
"Ken, don't leave until I see you," Pickering ordered, as he got to his feet.
"Aye, aye, sir."
[FIVE]
The Supreme Commander, Allied Powers, General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, rose from behind his desk and walked toward Brigadier General Fleming Pickering with his hand extended.
"My old friend is once again my comrade-in-arms, I see," he said, patting Fleming on the shoulder as he shook his hand.
"Good morning, General," Pickering said.
"Ned took good care of you on your arrival, I trust?" MacArthur said, nodding toward Major General Almond.
"General Almond has been very obliging, sir," Pickering said.
"Your quarters are all right? Everything you need?" MacArthur pursued.
"General Pickering took care of himself," Almond said. "He's at the Imperial."
"But you d
id meet the MATS flight?" MacArthur asked, a tone of annoyance in his voice. MATS was Military Air Transport Service.
"We came on Trans-Global," Pickering said. "It was faster, and I didn't want to take up space on an Air Force flight."
"And you knew that the Imperial would be a little nicer than the Menzies, right?" MacArthur said, chuckling.
"Yes, sir," Pickering said.
"Ned, in June of 1942, Supreme Headquarters, South-west Pacific Command-all of it, including quarters for the senior officers-was in the Menzies Hotel in Mel-bourne," MacArthur explained. "The Menzies is not about to appear on a list of great hotels of the world."
Almond laughed dutifully.
"Those black days seem like a long time ago, don't they, Fleming?" MacArthur asked.
"Yes, sir, they do," Pickering agreed.
"Ned, if you'll excuse us, I'm sure General Fleming would like a little time in private with me."
"Yes, of course, sir," Almond said, smiled, nodded at Pickering and left the office.
If it bothers Almond-El Supremo's chief of staff-to be excluded from this conversation, it didn't show on his face.
MacArthur walked to his desk, picked up a humidor, and carried it to where Pickering stood. It held long, rather thin black cigars, which Pickering suspected were Philippine. He took one.
"Thank you," he said.
"Philippine," Mac Arthur confirmed. "I think they're bet-ter than the famed Havanas."
"They're good," Pickering said, as he took a clipper from the humidor. "I remember."
MacArthur returned the humidor to his desk, and re-turned with a silver Ronson table lighter. They finished the ritual of lighting the cigars.
"If I promise beforehand not to have the messenger exe-cuted," MacArthur said, with a smile, "perhaps you'll tell me what message you bear from the President."
"The only real message I have, sir, is that the President wants you to know he has full-absolute-confidence in you," Pickering said.
MacArthur nodded, as if he expected a statement like this.
"And his concerns?" he asked.
"He doesn't want Korea to start World War Three," Pick-ering said.
"There's not much chance of that," MacArthur said. "We have nuclear superiority."
"He was concerned that this has taken us completely by surprise," Pickering said.
"And it has," MacArthur said. "That's very probably a result of our underestimating North Korea's stupidity. There's no way they can ultimately succeed in this en-deavor, and-stupidity on our part-we presumed they knew that, and that this sort of thing simply wouldn't hap-pen."
"And their successes so far have been because of the sur-prise of the attack?"
"Yes, that's a fair description. Willoughby's best judg-ment, with which I concurred, was that the risk of something like this happening was minimal. Our mistake. But with nothing to suggest something like this was in the works..."
Nothing but a report from an intelligence officer that Willoughby not only didn't want to believe, ordered de-stroyed, and then tried to bureaucratically execute the messenger.
And if I had brought that report to you the last time I was in. Tokyo, what would you have done? Put your faith in Willoughby, that's what you would have done.
"You've been traveling," MacArthur said. "Let me give you the current picture."
He gestured for Pickering to follow him to what looked like a large-scale map mounted on the wall. When he got close, Pickering saw mat it was actually one of half a dozen maps, which could be slid out from the wall one at a time.
This map showed all of South Korea, and went as far north in North Korea-above the 38th parallel-to include the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.
MacArthur took a two-foot-long pointer from a holder and held it between his hands like a riding crop. Pickering saw that the base of the varnished wood was a glistening.30-caliber rifle casing, and that the pointer was the bullet.
The bullet was black-tipped-indicating armor piercing- and Pickering wondered if that was simply coincidental.
"This is the most recent intelligence we have," MacArthur began. "Early yesterday morning, the 24th Di-vision withdrew to defensive positions along the south bank of the Kum River near Taejon."
He turned to the map and pointed to Taejon, which was roughly equidistant between Seoul-now in North Korean hands-and Pusan, a major port at the tip of the Korean peninsula, on the Straits of Korea.
"Engineers have blown all road and railroad bridges, and destroyed all ferries and flat-bottomed boats, and both the division commander and General Walker-who has es-tablished Eighth Army headquarters here at Taegu-feel these positions can be held, at least for the time being, and even that a counterattack may be possible."
That's why they retreated across the river, right, and blew the bridges? So they can counterattack?
"General Walker's front," MacArthur went on, using the pointer, "extends from Taejon northeast to Chongju, and across the Taebaek Mountains to Pyonghae-ri on the east coast. The 24th Reconnaissance Company is keeping then-eye on the most likely river crossings west of Kongju, and the 34th Infantry Regiment is here at Kongju."
And what's the 24th Reconnaissance Company-no more than 200 men, and probably far less-going to do if the North Koreans start to cross the river?
"The 19th Infantry Regiment, which just arrived, is here at Taejon," MacArthur went on, "and the 21st Infantry is a blocking position here, southeast of Taejon. The 21st has been involved in some heavy fighting, and is down to about 1,100 men."
"They lost half their strength?" Pickering blurted incred-ulously. Just in time, he stopped himself from saying what came to his lips: If they took those kind of losses, they're in no position to block anything.
Keep your mouth shut, Pickering!
"A bit more than half," MacArthur replied matter of factly. "If memory serves, they lost a little over 1,400 men, KIA, WIA, and missing, in their first week of combat."
"General, I have to ask this question," Pickering said. "What's going to happen?"
"Well, what we're doing now is buying time until rein-forcements can be brought in. Two days ago, the 2nd In-fantry Division was ordered here from the West Coast, for example. The Marines are sending a brigade; it may al-ready be at sea."
"It is," Pickering said. "Today's the fourteenth. They sailed from San Diego today for Kobe."
"You're sure?"
"I had a chance to meet with General Craig, the provi-sional brigade commander, in San Diego. That was his schedule."
"No wishful thinking involved?"
"No, sir. He said they would sail, not hoped to."
MacArthur nodded his head.
"Yesterday," he said, "the 24th Infantry-the third regi-ment of the 25th Division-debarked at Pusan, and at this moment are moving forward, which will bring the division to full strength."
If one of its regiments has lost more than half its men, then it won't be at full strength.
"Moreover, the 1st Cavalry Division is at this moment on the high seas, and the lead elements-the 5th and 8th Cavalry-are scheduled to debark here at Pohang-dong on the eighteenth."
He put the bullet-tip of his pointer on a small port on the west coast of the peninsula, and looked at Pickering to make sure that Pickering was following him.
"Delaying the enemy until we can achieve something like equal strength in the South is only part of the plan, Fleming," MacArthur said. "The other part, the part that will turn what some might consider a rout into a very bloody nose for the enemy, is not yet quite fixed in my mind, but essentially, what I plan to do-another of the reasons I asked for the Marines-is to strike somewhere far up the peninsula with an amphibious landing that will permit us to cut off the enemy's supply lines and then batter his forces to bits. They have to be made to pay for this invasion."
"Up the peninsula?" Pickering asked. "Where?"
"There are a number of possibilities," MacArthur said, using the pointer. "On the east coast of the peninsula w
e have suitable beaches in the Kunsan-Komie area, here. And farther north, at Taechon, Anhung, and Inchon."
Christ, Inchon is the port for Seoul. And I was in there only once, years ago, but I still have a memory of thirty-foot tides and mudflats. Inchon's not some gentle South Pa-cific beach, and the others are probably no better. Is he dreaming?
W E B Griffin - Corp 09 - Under Fire Page 25