“I know we talked about what we might do to change things in the Department of Defense and in the entire government,” Goff went on excitedly, “but... this? You can’t possibly seriously intend to actually implement any of this.”
“I am going to do all of it, and I’m going to finish it by the end of this year,” the President said with a confident smile.
“Changing priorities as far as peacekeeping deployments— I don’t think you’ll get too much opposition,” Goff said. “Another few rounds of base realignments, with no closures—I think that will sell, too.” He motioned to the draft speech and the President’s staff’s attached comments. “But this ..
“Bob, remember when we first talked about the possibility of doing this?” Thom asked, his ever-present smile warm with the memories. Robert Goff had been one of Jeffersonian Party candidate Thomas Thom’s earliest and strongest supporters, giving up his seat in Congress during the campaign to help Thom. They had been close friends ever since.
“Of course I remember,” Goff said, smiling in spite of himself. Thomas Thom had this irritating way of disarming almost any agitated situation or person. “But we were young and stupid and naive as hell back then.”
“It was less than a year ago, funny man,” Thom said with a smile. “We were in Abilene, Texas, at one of the first Jeffersonian Party rallies. It was cold, and I think it had snowed the night before. You and three of your volunteers had to stay in the same room at the Holiday Inn because we barely had enough money to keep going for another month; Amelia and I had three of the kids licking stamps for the mailers while they were watching cartoons. We didn’t even place in the Iowa caucuses, and we barely qualified for the ballot in the New Hampshire primary, so we decided to work on the Super Tuesday states. You hoped that a hundred folks would show. Our podium at the open house at the Army post was a real honest-to-goodness soapbox—”
“A bunch of cases of laundry detergent from the mess hall, covered over with a tablecloth.”
Thom nodded. “But two thousand folks showed up, and we had to stand on top of a bus and use one of those big loudspeakers they use on firing ranges to make ourselves heard.”
“I remember, Thomas,” Goff said “That was the beginning. The turning point. What a day. We ended up winning New Hampshire without hardly setting foot in the state.”
“But remember w hen we took that tour of the base, and we Saw all those hundreds of Ml Abrams tanks lined up in the marshaling area?” Thom went on. “Rows and rows and rows of them, as far as you could see, like furrows in a freshly plowed field. And they told us that none of those tanks had ever fired a shot in anger. They had second- and third-generation tanks there that had never even left the base except for training exercises. We saw artillery pieces, armored personnel carriers, mobile bridges, tents, vans, support vehicles, Humvees, rocket launchers, even radar systems and air defense missile batteries—all had not been used since Desert Storm, if they had ever been used at all.”
“I know, Thomas,” Goff said. “But we’ve been at peace since Desert Storm. It doesn’t mean they won’t ever be used...
“We talked about what an incredible waste of resources it all represented,” Thom went on. “Unemployment in the United States is at an all-time low and has been for years. Companies are begging for qualified, trainable workers. Yet we are spending billions of dollars on weapon systems that may never be used in combat, weapons that were designed to fight yesterday's wars. Someone has to operate that equipment, train others to use it, maintain it, train the maintainers, and someone has to keep track of all the stuff they need to operate and maintain it. It was a huge infrastructure, a massive investment in manpower and resources, and for what? What purpose did it serve? We said it was senseless, and we wondered what we could do about it. Well, this is what we’re going to do about it.” The President looked at General Venti. “What are your final thoughts, General?”
Venti thought about his response for a moment, then: “We can argue the merits of the numbers, sir,” he replied. ‘The Army spends five point three billion dollars a year on readiness and training for weapon systems that have never been used in war. The Navy spends ten billion dollars a year manning, equipping, and maintaining a fleet of nuclear attack submarines that have never fired a shot in combat. We spend another twenty billion dollars maintaining a nuclear deterrence force, and we hope to God we never have to use it, despite the threat from China and possibly Russia.”
“It’s the emotional factor that’ll be hard to counter, Mr. President,” Goff interjected. “There are still lots of World War Two, Korea, and Vietnam vets out there who will see this plan as a betrayal of trust. Your political opponents will use that. Several previous administrations made such drastic budget cuts that what you are about to do is inevitable, but you will still be blamed for it.
“There is still a great threat out there, Mr. President,” Goff went on. “China has already attacked American territory with nuclear weapons, and we think they will again. Although every prediction model and every analyst thinks it’s unlikely, former empires such as Japan, Germany, and Russia could rise up and threaten American interests. Nonaligned, theocratic, and rogue nations could threaten American interests at any time with attacks ranging from simple kidnappings to cyberforce to nuclear weapons. The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction has increased tenfold since the breakup of the Soviet Union.”
“I want to hear from the general. Bob,” the President said. He nodded, urging him to speak. Goff looked frustrated and a bit angry, but held his comments.
“Frankly, sir, I think it’s about time we start thinking about Fighting future wars on our terms.” the Air Force general said. “In a time of relative peace, this is the time to prepare for twenty-first- and even twenty-second century wars. We must do away with the old equipment, the old tactics, and the old fears and prejudices.
“This nation also somehow got sidetracked in its thinking about the role of the military,” Venti concluded. “The military has always been a place to send kids that lacked discipline, but in more recent years the military has become a sort of extension of the welfare state. Fighting and possibly dying for your country took a back seat to learning a trade, getting an education. and providing someplace cool to go after high school. We are spending millions of dollars a year to recruit kids to join, but they’re joining for all the wrong reasons. The problem is not that we lack well-qualified recruits—the problem is, the military became too big, too bloated. We had a military looking for a reason for existence. We were dreaming up missions for the military that had little to do with national security and everything to do with political posturing. I think it’s time we stop that.”
“Spoken like a true Air Force officer, one whose career and retirement are secure,” the President said, with an inquisitive smile.
“And the Air Force makes out pretty well in the new plan. I’ve noticed,” Goff added. “The Air Force and Navy should be thrilled about their new status.”
“I’m speaking as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, not just as an Air Force officer, sir,” Venti said to Goff. “I think the plan is a good beginning. It signals a positive change in military strategy for the twenty-first century. It’s a change that I feel is badly needed. I’m completely behind the President.”
“But what will your men say when the changes happen? What will your sister services say?”
“The true soldiers will do what they’re told,” Venti said honestly. “The rest will squawk. They’ll call you a traitor. They'll call for your resignation, perhaps try to impeach you. That’s when you need to show them the strength of your convictions. Will the public outcry be louder than what your heart is telling your head? If you can listen to your heart while the storm of public and world opinion is beating down on you, everything will turn out okay. That’s your dilemma, sir, not mine.” Venti sighed, looked away for a moment, then added, “And as for my career and retirement: they may be secure, but I’ll still be forev
er known as the man who presided over the biggest shakeup in U.S. military history since the draft.”
“At least you’re okay with this,” Thom said. Venti looked sternly at his commander-in-chief, even after the President gave him a wink. To the Secretary of State, Edward Kercheval, the President went on, “Okay, Ed, I know you’ve been waiting for a crack at me. Fire away.”
“You know how I feel about this plan, sir,” Kercheval said ominously. Unlike Goff and most others in Thom’s administration, Edward Kercheval, former ambassador to Russia in the Martindale administration and a career State Department employee, was not a close friend of the President’s. But the President insisted on open dialogue and direct communication between the Cabinet officers and the Oval Office, and Kercheval had made it clear early on that he would take every opportunity to do so. “I’m afraid this plan will undermine our entire foreign policy structure. Hundreds, if not thousands, of programs, agreements, letters of understanding and memoranda on hundreds of issues and topics, from diplomatic agreements to aviation to intelligence listening posts to food shipments, rely in part on security guarantees put in place decades ago. Your plan threatens to destroy all of those protocols.”
“And we’re bound to abide by these agreements,” the President asked, “even if I feel they’re harmful to the nation?”
“Those agreements are contracts, Mr. President,” Kercheval said. “Unilaterally breaching a contract carries consequences— legal action, loss of prestige, loss of credit, loss of mutual cooperation, loss of trust. Maybe even more dire consequences.”
“So I'm stuck with agreements and commitments I never negotiated, I don’t understand, and no one in Washington can explain.”
“With all due respect, Mr. President, your job, and ours, is to make yourself familiar with all those treaties and agreements,” Kercheval insisted. “That’s why we have a government and a bureaucracy—to help keep track of all there is to know about government. Simply implementing your program isn’t the proper way to do it. The best way is to renegotiate the treaties and agreements you find objectionable. You don’t just knock over the first domino in the row, because then they’ll all fall over, one by one, and you may not be able to stop it once it starts. You take your time and remove one domino at a time, or you stack them differently, or you reinforce them so when another hits it, from any direction, it will still stand.”
“You forgot the other way, Ed: you get up off your chair, away from the table, and stay home,” the President said.
“Then none of the other kids on the block will want to come over to your house and play,” Kercheval suggested, reluctantly playing along with the awkward simile.
“I think they will,” the President said. “Because when some other bully comes along and knocks down those dominos, and they’re not strong enough to stop it from happening, they’ll come back to us.”
“So you want to play foreign policy blackmail with the rest of the world, sir?” Kercheval asked. “My way or the highway? That doesn’t sound like responsible government to me, sir. With all due respect.” It was obvious Kercheval accorded very little respect at all when he said, “With all due respect.”
“Responsible government starts with someone taking the responsibility, and that’s what I’m going to do,” the President said. “I made a promise to the American people to protect and defend the Constitution. I know exactly what that means.”
“Mr. President, I don’t question your motives or your sincerity, or else I never would have agreed to serve on your Cabinet,” Kercheval said. “I’m just trying to advise you on what’s in store for you and this government if you go ahead with this plan. A lot of nations, institutions, and individuals around the world owe their way of life—perhaps even their very life—to the perception of the peace, strength, and security of the United States of America. What you are proposing might erase a lot of that. That could cause a ripple effect that will wash over the entire world.”
“I’m well aware of that, Ed—”
“I don’t think you are, Mr. President,” Kercheval interjected.
The others in the Oval Office turned and looked at Kercheval with shock, then at the President. Even Kercheval expected an explosion. Although Thomas N. Thom’s public persona was one of quiet, peaceful, dignified ease with the world, they all knew that the President had once been a trained professional killer—some powerful emotions bubbled just below the surface.
“Edward, the United States has been obsessed with dealing with these little rogue nation brushfires ever since the Persian Gulf War,” the President said. “Somalia, Haiti, Iraq twice, Bosnia, Kosovo, North Korea—we seem to have peacekeeping forces in every comer of the planet. Then, when a major confrontation such as China flares up, we don’t have the resources to pull together to counter them. We have to rely on unconventional forces to do something that our regular forces should do, and I’m not comfortable with that.
“The way I see it, the problem is twofold: our forces are too big and unwieldy to respond quickly enough, and we’re spending too much time, resources, and attention on these little regional brushfires. Not one peacekeeping operation we’ve undertaken, with the possible exception of Haiti, has been successful. We’ve wasted billions of dollars and a lot of international prestige on operations that have not advanced American peace and security one bit. I’m tired of it. I think our military is tired of it, and the American people are tired of it.”
"These ‘brushfires’ as you call them, could cause a much wider conflict, sir,” Kercheval maintained. “There was never any doubt about Iraq—they threatened the West’s primary oil supply. Other regions, such as the Balkans, are not as clear, but just as important. Ethnic violence in the Balkans has directly caused one world w ar and indirectly caused another By intervening in these small conflicts, we’ve prevented them from escalating into much more serious, continentwide wars.”
“I wasn't convinced during the campaign, and I'm not convinced now,” the President said. “We were assured by the previous administration that intervening in Bosnia and Kosovo was in our national interest. Now I’ve received all the data that the previous commanders-in-chief received, and I don't see it. Either I’m not as smart as they were and I'm missing something, or there is nothing there that threatens our peace and security. Which is it, Edward?”
"I think it’s important to look beyond the present and look to the geopolitics of the region, sir,” Kercheval said by way of response. “Russia is cracking down on dissenters within its own borders. It wants to reestablish lies with Serbia and is threatening any Eastern European nation that wants to join the European Union or NATO. That’s enough provocation for me, Mr. President. That is very evident to me. Can I explain it any better?”
The last sentence caught everyone’s attention in the room, including the President’s. Instead of taking a return shot, however, the President nodded, politely terminating the discussion. “I appreciate your candor, Ed,” the President said, without a trace of malice—it sounded as if he really meant it, the Secretary of State thought. He turned to Douglas Morgan, the Director of Central Intelligence. “Doug? Comments?”
“How will this affect ongoing intelligence operations?” Morgan asked. “We have several dozen fully authorized and active field operations in progress, especially in the Balkans, Middle East, and Asia. You’re not going just to pull the plug on them, are you, sir?”
“Of course not,” the President replied. “In fact, I see no reason to change any aspect of intelligence operations. I think it’s just as important to maintain a strong and active intelligence and counterintelligence operation, perhaps even more so if my plan is fully implemented.”
“Perhaps because the world will see this plan as something like cowardice and think that every American governmental function will implode as well?” Kercheval interjected.
If the Secretary of State meant to stir up another argument with the President, it didn’t work. Thom simply looked at Kercheval, n
odded, and said with a smile, “Something like that, Ed, something like that.” To the others in the room, he offered, “Anything else?” When no one said anything, Thom turned directly to Kercheval, hands outspread, eyes riveted on him as if saying, “C’mon, Ed, if you want another shot at me, go ahead and take it.”
Kercheval shook his head. That was all he could do. He had voiced his objections for weeks, had had all the input he was allowed and more, and now even challenged the President’s veracity. The man was obviously determined to do it.
“We’re going to implement the plan immediately, then,” the President said resolutely. Goff and Venti’s faces looked grim. Thom added, “Let’s get it started, Bob.” He reached over, opened the folder before him, and signed the cover sheet of the executive order. “There you go, gentlemen. Let’s do it.”
Goff picked up the document and looked at it as if it were a copy of a death certificate. “I’m sure this is the most historic document I’ll ever hold in my hand.” He looked at Thom with a mixture of awe and shock. “We’ll put it in motion right away, Mr. President. I have my first closed-door congressional hearing scheduled for next week, but when word leaks out about this, I’m sure that’ll be pushed up, more hearings will undoubtedly be scheduled, and some may even want to go unclassified. I’11 be sure to have the White House and Pentagon counsels set up the ground rules.”
“Good luck. Bob. I’ll be watching.”
“Are you going to mention it in the State of the Union address?”
“I do not intend to make a State of the Union address,” Thom said.
“What?” the others exclaimed, almost in unison.
“Mr. President, you can’t be serious,” Kercheval said, his voice almost agitated. “Skipping the inaugural was bad enough—”
“I did not ‘skip’ the inaugural, Ed. I just chose not to attend.”
“It was political suicide, Mr. President.” Kercheval insisted. “It made you look like a laughingstock in front of the entire world!”
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