Captain Apraksin reported the turbine’s failure and requested permission to return to port for engine repairs. Permission was denied. Make the repairs while you are underway was the response. The Russian Admiralty message did promise, however, to sortie an ocean-going tug to follow the Markov in case the second turbine fails—as soon as they could load the tug with Marines.
Morale was in the pits. The sea was too rough for anyone to be on deck and the stench below where the Marines and the crew were sleeping and throwing up in the passageways, messes, and common areas was beyond belief. Even worse, the Markov’s speed dropped from its thirty-four knots per hour maximum to twenty-three when it lost the turbine.
Unless the damaged turbine could be repaired at sea, it would take the Markov almost a week longer to reach Vladivostok than was initially anticipated, perhaps not until late in the month if it encountered more bad weather. And that might be too late.
Markov’s understaffed and overworked crew was furious and Captain Apraksin was happy to be on his ship's enclosed bridge. One brief trip into foul smelling chaos of the decks below his bridge was enough for him to decide to eat and sleep on the bridge for the entire voyage. The only other relatively unaffected areas were the ship’s combat operations center and the cabins of the ship’s double bunking officers; they merely smelled bad as the Markov’s ventilation system constantly recirculated foul air throughout the ship.
Senior seaman Gennady Ushakov, one of the Markov’s eight remaining cooks, was particularly upset. When the ship’s complement had to be reduced, he had turned down a chance to stay ashore because he had nowhere to go. Anything, or so he had thought, was better than going back to the farm from which he had escaped almost five years earlier by joining the navy. Now he was cooking and washing dishes sixteen hours per day and sharing a filthy bunk with two other sailors.
It wasn’t the work and hours that pissed him off, Gennady decided as he cracked open eggs to fry two at a time, it was the Russian naval infantry, the Marines. Their officers keep lining them up for meals, and then they often couldn’t keep the food down in the heavily rolling ship long enough to even make it to the passageways outside the mess area.
The floor in front of food tables was awash with vomit that rippled in little waves across the mess deck each time the ship rolled. Already, or so rumor had it, one of the Naval Infantrymen has thrown himself overboard to escape the agony. I believe it, Gennady thought grimly.
Chapter Sixteen
More Confusion.
I was reading reports at The Detachment this morning when I received a flash intelligence update from Washington. NSA and the CIA now say they have solid information confirming their earlier intelligence estimates about the Chinese intentions. Is this print getting blurred or do I need glasses?
There was now no doubt about it, they both reported—the Chinese were going for a lot more than just the territory the Chinese claim Russia stole from them over the years with one-sided treaties. The Chinese objective according to both agencies was the entire eastern part of Russia including its access to the Pacific Ocean—everything north and east of Lake Baikal.
In effect, according to a source the CIA rates as a five on a scale of one to five, the Chinese were going after all the land east of Lake Baikal including land the Chinese had never owned or previously claimed. Moreover, they also intend to go north to Yakutsk and cut the Lena River corridor so the Russians cannot run a transportation corridor around the top of Lake Baikal and get to the Pacific by going across Siberia further to the north and east. The entire eastern half of Russia is the Chinese objective.
There is no question about it—the Chinese intended to do a lot more than just cut off Russia from its only year round Pacific port. They intended to relegate Russia to a medium sized power on the fringes of Europe and make China the biggest country in the world by far. That’s why it was not nearly enough to deprive Russia of its only warm water port in the east. They also intend to deny it access to saltwater anywhere in the east and to the great reserves of minerals and energy that were thought to be in Siberia and in the Russian Arctic, and in the oceans around them.
Chairman Xi’s quote to the Military Committee said it all.
“There is much open land up there for our people to settle. Our population is not too large, it is merely too concentrated. Restoring the lands the Russians stole from us will remedy that.”
My immediate feeling after reading the new intelligence estimate was that I should go to Moscow and Arkhara to see how the Russians were going to respond when they find out their worst fears have been confirmed. I needed get an update on the Russian preparations and intentions. Charlie Safford can remain in Germany to help accelerate the flow of aid coming out through The Detachment. But I needed to make sure it getting to where it was needed most.
That, at least, was my thinking when I picked up the phone and called Bill Hammond. Then everything changed.
“No, you can’t go back out to Danovsky’s headquarters and Jack Flanigan and Woods and Goldman have to return immediately. And so does Bobby Geither and Bowie and his paymasters. President’s orders.” What the hell.
“What the hell, Bill. What’s that all about?”
“What it’s all about, buddy boy, is that you and your senior guys have been grounded. The President is afraid the inevitable media reports about high ranking American officers working with the Russians will tie us too tightly to the Russians—and cause the Chinese to see us as the belligerents we are instead of the neutrals the President wants us to pretend to be.”
“A handful of low ranking observers and food and payroll assistance is one thing,” Bill said, “particularly if the observers dress like Russians and are careful not to get spotted by the media; but recognizable flag officers, especially someone like you, are something else.” Shit, he’s right.
“Shit Bill, I hate to say it but the President’s right.”
“Yeah, he is. You can go to Moscow and Beijing for talks to help end the war; but you can’t be seen as helping the Russians fight. All you can do is keep a few junior officers out there as observers and have them report in constantly. And that might be a good idea—so we know for sure that our food aid and special supplies are actually getting through to the troops.”
Special supplies meaning stuff like the Canadian snow machines and Israeli SAMs and anti-tank missiles.
That evening after the kids had gone off to bed I broke the news of my “grounding” to Ann—and my big strong wonderful and very pregnant wife promptly jumped into my arms and began sobbing. “Finally,” was all she managed to get out. Oh Jeez.
******
Charlie Safford and I met with our aides the next morning to give them the news—they will have to go out to Arkhara without us and act as our personal observers. We spent most of the rest of the day giving them lots of instructions and advice as to what they are to do and not do when they get there. Much of it had to do with how they were to relate to Ira Hanson’s signals team, the two lieutenant colonels serving as armor advisors, and the jovial Colonel Lindauer.
The men will go out tomorrow on an American C-130 with Russian markings. It will be carrying food and more snow machines for the partisan companies Danovsky is forming. The only one dejected by the announcement was Jack Peterson. I told him he couldn’t go because his rank is too high; the men who were going were obviously tremendously pleased and trying hard not to show it.
Jack’s wife, I suspect, will be as elated as mine that he has to stay home, particularly when she finds out next week that the real reason he can’t go is that he is on the promotion list for brigadier.
Any questions I have had as to who to put in charge of our newly formed “observer team” had answered a couple of days earlier when Jerry Carpenter’ name appeared on the promotion list as a deep-dipped selection for major. Captain Shapiro will be his number two. There were even bigger smiles all around when Charlie and I informed David Teniers and Vern Hurlburt that, like it or
not, they will be going out as warrant officers so they can attend officer-only events and meetings.
A few minutes later I laughed out loud when I overheard the four of them, all bachelors, planning a big night at a restaurant and bar in Riems to celebrate their collective misfortunes.
I could only shake my head and sigh when I heard their plans for the evening. Then I called Danovsky on the secure line and, with the ever-present Lieutenant Basilof translating, explained why my “personal observers” are coming and why Charlie Safford and I cannot. And for some reason I felt a little sad.
******
This morning the President once again called Gerasinov on the hot line at behest of Secretary Sanders. She and his Chief of Staff were in the oval office with the President when Gerasinov came on the line.
“Yes, Mr. President, I understand the Chinese are likely to attack.”…. “But please don’t risk a nuclear war, Mr. President.” … “It’s important to avoid nuclear hostilities at all cost.”
The Russian President was not just disagreeable, he was rather insulting.
“So how would you have us respond if they attack us, Mr. President? Do you really think we should surrender instead of using all our weapons? Is that what you would do if America is attacked?”
“Well No. Of course you have to defend yourselves, and so do we. But if you use your weapons of mass destruction on them they are likely to use theirs on you—and you will still lose. Is that not so?”
“Perhaps there will be no tit for tat, Mister President,” the Russian President replied. “Our intelligence and military organs believe there will not be a Chinese nuclear response if our nuclear and gas weapons are used on the Chinese troops who are on Russian territory along the border, not on Beijing and the other Chinese cities.”
“Nuclear bombing your own country? Uh, well, uh. I guess I see your point. I certainly hope you are right.”
******
Bill Hammond just called with a heads up. Congress is becoming increasingly concerned, and rightly so, about the United States getting sucked into a war between Russia and China. The result is a Joint Intelligence Committee closed door hearing and they want us both to testify along with the Secretary of Defense.
I started to ask if that fool, Congressman Jackson, would be there even though he’d recently been arrested for fiddling his expense account. But I didn't. According to Pops, the Joint Intelligence Committee is one of the few committees whose members are vetted for brains and integrity before they are appointed.
My Starlifter was permanently gone. As a result, Jerry Carpenter and his team flew out of Riems this morning on a long-range C-130 carrying the latest shipment of Canadian snow machines. And I would go to Washington tomorrow on one of the Air Force's extended range Gulfstreams based at Rhine-Main. It would pick me up at Riems at 1030 and drop me at Andrews. I’d spend tomorrow night at Ann’s mother and father’s home in Georgetown.
I felt really sad about not being on the C-130 with my guys.
******
“Hi Pops. I got a ride from Andrews and the door was open so I just walked in. Where’s Grammie?” Yeah, I know. Baby talk. But that’s how the kids began calling them and it stuck.
“Hey, Bill. Good to see you. Heard about the intelligence committee hearing. What’s the good word?
“Well Pops, as the saying goes there ain’t no good word. As you may have read in the Washington Post, there’s gonna be a war. Unfortunately, the Post's reporters are probably right for a change. It looks bad.”
“Anything we can do?”
“Not much more than we’re already doing. At least I can’t think of anything.”
“Well then, let’s have a beer and you can tell me all about my grandkids.”
****** Dick Evans
It was an unbearable time of the year to be in Washington. The temperature outside was pushing 100 and I was already getting hot and sweaty when I paid off the Georgetown taxi in front of the Dirksen Building. The committee room was a standard congressional hearing room, except that there were Capitol police at the door and it has, so I was promptly assured without asking, been swept for bugs. And, thank God, the air conditioning is working.
Bill Hammond and a bunch of his uniformed aides walked in as just as I sat down in front of my name card on the witness table. So I stood back up so we could shake hands and huddle for a few private words. Nothing important. We just asked about each other’s families and stuff like that.
Then, for some reason, I told him I was really unhappy about being at the hearing instead of flying out to the war with my guys.
“I know how you feel, Guns. This is probably my last congressional hearing. Tommy Talbot is going to take over the middle of next month, you know. It’s just beginning to sink in. I think I’m going to miss it. But I gotta ask you. Are you going to run? If you do, I’d like to help.”
I started to say “thank you and hell no I’m not going to run” just as several of the committee members came over to chat the meaningless talk that always seems to accompany such occasions; then the rest of the members filed in and the chairman banged the gavel and ordered the room cleared.
“Think of the coming war between China and Russia in American terms,” I suggested an hour or so later to make the point to the members of the committee.
“It’s the equivalent of a newly powerful and highly motivated Mexican army going to war with a suddenly smaller and recently defeated American army to take back California, Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico. And if we win, say the Mexicans, what the hell let's take Utah and Oregon too.”
The point I was trying to make was that Russia and China have a lot of history and there was not a damn thing we could do to change it. I don’t think I made it very well.
After the closed meeting adjourned, Bill Kretzner of the Washington Post buttonholed me on the building steps. He asked if I could tell him anything that would help people better understand what is going on.
Bill had been fair to me in the past when Pettyjohn and Congressman White tried to get me, so I gave him a quote “off the record.” The only change I made was changing ‘coming war’ to ‘possible war.’
Then it was off to the White House with Bill for a National Security Council meeting. Secretary Sanders wanted to cut off the food and money we are sending to the Russians unless Russia agreed not to use nukes. I disagreed rather strongly.
“Madam Secretary, with all due respect, I think that would be a terrible mistake that is quite likely to cause the very nuclear war you rightly want to prevent.
“The reality we face is that the current Russian government you are trying to deal with is a kleptocracy whose head thieves are desperately trying to cling to their power and wealth despite losing the recent war with us and the Turks. They know they will almost certainly fall if Russia loses yet another war and a good part of Russia along with it. So, if you insist on a commitment, Moscow will certainly agree that they will not use nukes in order keep our aid coming. She grinned promptly raised both hands in a touchdown gesture of triumph.
“But, no matter what they promise you, when the choice comes down to keeping their word or losing their power and their heads and going down in history as the men who lost half of Russia, they’re going to forget their promises to you and use their nukes and make us look like fools for believing them. Sorry,” I shrugged.
After a pause, I continued because I could sense the President’s interest.
“Once again, let me remind everyone of the two things we must keep in mind at all times. One is that Moscow does not control all of Russia’s nukes; Danovsky controls those in the Far Eastern Military District and he has more than enough of them. The other thing to keep in mind is that it is Moscow jumping the gun and using its nukes prematurely is what we have to worry about, not Danovsky jumping the gun and using his nukes.”
“The danger as I see it,” I explained, “is that President Gerasinov and the men around him in Moscow are so desperate to hold on to pow
er for a while longer, and they are so out of touch with what is happening on the ground in the east, that they may prematurely use some of their nukes in an effort to hold on to power.”
“For example, Danovsky may do something such as a strategic withdrawal to set the stage to win, which is then misinterpreted and seen in Moscow as proof that he is losing and that it’s time for them to use their nukes.
“Our basic problem,” I explained once again, “is that Danovsky believes he can’t take the chance of a leak by keeping Moscow informed. He thinks, rightly in my opinion, that Moscow is so corrupt that it has undoubtedly been penetrated by Chinese intelligence. As a result, he doesn’t dare share his plans and troop dispositions for fear the Chinese will know what he is doing and take steps to counter it.
“In other words,” I explained yet again with a different set of words because I can still see some incomprehension in the eyes around the table, “in its ignorance of what is actually happening on the battlefront, Moscow might panic and use its nuclear weapons; Danovsky, on the other hand, is much more likely to know what is actually going on and not use his nukes until he is absolutely certain he has no alternative.”
“You’re saying,” suggested a suddenly pensive Sanders, “that we must share our intelligence takings to keep Moscow fully informed as to what is actually happening so they don’t overreact?”
“Absolutely not. That's a terrible idea and would probably cause a nuclear war. Keeping Moscow informed as to what is happening would be disastrous—because it would almost certainly cause Moscow to overreact and use the nukes it controls. Any details we give Moscow about what is actually happening in the east will almost certainly leak back to the Chinese and cause the war to go badly for the Russians—and that will almost certainly result in Moscow and Danovsky using their nukes.”
Our Next Great War Page 24