Battle Born (35 page)

“Here is the information as we know right now, Mr. President, Madam Vice President,” he began. “The Republic of Korea was attacked with perhaps as many as a dozen thermonuclear devices and several dozen chemical or biological warfare weapons, and several hundred shorter-range high-explosive missiles.”

“My God,” Whiting murmured. But when she turned to look at President Kwon . . . she actually saw him
smiling
!

“I must further report,” Park went on, “that the Republic of Korea has suffered staggering losses. The city of Kangnung, a city of over one hundred thousand on the east coast of the peninsula, may have been completely destroyed. The city is the home of our largest air division guarding the capital from the east. The city of Suwon, just ten miles north of us, was hit by a single nuclear device. It was not a direct hit—the weapon exploded several miles to the east of the city, probably directly over the Samsung electronics manufacturing complex—but casualties are already estimated at over sixty thousand. Seoul was hit by three, possibly four, weapons dispersing unknown toxic substances. Inchon, Taejon, and Taegu were also hit by chemical or biological
weapons. A single nuclear explosion was detected near Kunsan, thirty miles southwest of Taejon. Casualties are unknown at this time.”

Vice President Whiting looked at President Kwon and could not believe her eyes—the smile on his face had given way to sheer delight. “Excuse me, Mr. President,” she said. “I cannot understand what you’re so . . . so happy about. Your crazed stunt led to an attack that may have killed hundreds of thousands of civilians!”

“Believe me, Madam Vice President, I am not celebrating,” Kwon said. “But you must understand: the Communists had enough firepower on alert and ready to respond to kill
every living thing in South Korea ten times over.
If it is true and we were hit only with a few nuclear warheads out of possibly hundreds, or a few dozen chemical warheads out of literally
thousands
, it means our outreach program worked. The common man in the North, the conscripts, the everyday workingman and-woman, have decided to join us and throw off their Communist overlords. A few nuclear explosions, a few thousand martyred souls: this is a small price to pay when it could mean the end of Communist rule on the Korean peninsula and blessed
reunification
! A small price, indeed.”

THE WHITE HOUSE SITUATION ROOM
THAT SAME TIME

W
e see it too, Mr. President,” President Kevin Martin-dale said. He was on a four-way conference call with three other international leaders: Minister of National Defense Chi Haotian of the People’s Republic of China, President Yevgeniy Maksimovich Primakov of
the Russian Federation, and Prime Minister Kazumi Nagai of the Republic of Japan. All three world leaders called into the White House nearly simultaneously, and each call was taken immediately and merged without permission from any of them by the White House Communications Center.

“President Martindale, this is President Primakov,” came a translation. “I must have assurances that this is not a prelude to a full-scale attack against North Korea! I demand it! Respond, please!”

“I am telling you, Mr. President, and all of you: the United States has no idea what’s going on over Korea, and I promise you, we are in no way involved,” Martin-dale said. In the brief time since the four-way call was established, this had to be the second or third time he had made that statement. With Martindale in the Situation Room were Secretary of Defense Arthur Chastain, National Security Adviser Philip Freeman, and Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral George Balboa, along with backup aides and interpreters. They had all quickly moved to the Situation Room, an ordinary-looking room in the basement of the White House, when the call from Vice President Whiting was cut off.

“No American forces are involved,
none
!” Martindale insisted yet again. “We have radar surveillance planes over the peninsula and one carrier battle group in the Yellow Sea, but except for normal patrols, we have no aircraft whatsoever involved in this situation! I repeat, we have
none
!

“Listen very carefully, please, all of you: this situation appears to be an outbreak of hostilities between North and South Korea only. Our sources indicate that South Korean warplanes crossed the Demilitarized Zone first, and that North Korean rocket and artillery forces retaliated.”

“Then you admit the South is the aggressor!” Chinese
Defense Minister Chi exploded. “You admit that this hateful act was an attempt to destroy the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea! You admit that this act of treachery is the fault of no one but your own allies, the South Koreans!”

“Mr. Minister, I admit nothing—I’m saying that our observations agree with all the others that have been reported, that it appears that South Korea started the conflict by crossing the Military Demarcation Line first,” Martindale said.

“Our information also says that the South Korean air attacks used only nonnuclear air defense suppression weapons, not nuclear or bio-chem weapons,” Prime Minister Nagai interjected. “North Korea has responded with nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons launched by medium-range ballistic missiles. Their response was clearly far out of proportion to the threat—”

“What did you expect—that the North Koreans would use flyswatters and harsh words to scare the South Koreans away?” Minister Chi retorted. “The South Korean aircraft overflew the capital with attack aircraft. The North’s response was completely justified.”

“And what will be China’s reaction to this conflict?” President Primakov asked, his intense, rapid-fire tone muted by the translator’s monotone. “Will China continue to bomb its neighbors, as you did two years ago? Will you now continue your moves against Taiwan and the Philippines?”

“And what of Japan, Mr. Minister?” Prime Minister Nagai asked. “Is this just a feint to cover an attack upon our homeland?”

“If provoked, yes, we will retaliate!” Minister Chi shouted in English. “If Russia or the United States tries to advance into North Korea or if any Chinese territory
is threatened in any way, yes! Yes, we will fight with every weapon and every last man.”

“Hold on! Everyone,
hold on
!” President Martindale shouted. “It’s clear to me that none of us is involved in this conflict—”

“It is not so clear to us,” Minister Chi interjected.

“I am telling you, the United States is not involved in this!” Martindale said sharply. “We are
not
involved. This fight is between North and South Korea. If any of us gets too trigger-happy, we’re bound to touch off a world war.”

“I find it hard to believe, President Martindale, that you have several thousand troops stationed in South Korea, plus several thousand more taking part in a large air combat exercise there, and you knew nothing about this sneak attack against North Korea,” Chi Haotian said angrily. “Do you really expect us to believe that?”

“It’s the truth, Mr. Minister,” Martindale said. “American forces are in just as great danger as the civilians on both sides. Do you think I’d keep them in harm’s way if I knew such an attack was going to take place? Don’t you think I’d have at least launched my aircraft to give them a better chance to survive? You confirmed our own air defense radar observations: only South Korean planes are airborne and crossing the DMZ, not American planes. Few of my ground units are reporting to me now, but my airborne surveillance commander assures me that
no
American forces at all launched with the South Koreans. In fact, I have lost contact with my American commanders in South Korea—apparently, all the command centers are being manned only by Koreans now. All American commanders are off the air.”

He took a deep breath, fought to calm his voice, and said evenly, “Listen very carefully, President Primakov,
Prime Minister Nagai, Minister Chi. The United States is not going to invade North Korea or anyone else. I promise you this. It is very important that we all remain calm, remain neutral, and not mobilize any of our forces in response to this conflict. This appears to me to be a Korean squabble. Let the Koreans handle it.”

There was silence on the line for a very long time. Martindale was about to say something to make sure it was still open and clear when he heard President Primakov’s voice and then the Russian translator: “What is the disposition of your strategic forces now, Mr. President?”

“American nuclear forces are on normal peacetime alert—that’s DEFCON Four,” Martindale replied. Actually, “normal” alert was DEFCON Five. But after the Chinese nuclear attacks against Taiwan—and the fact that no one officially knew who detonated the nuclear device under the aircraft carrier USS
Independence
in Yokosuka Harbor—the United States went back to DEFCON Four, which was the readiness state it had maintained during most of the Cold War.

A year later, however, in order to defuse the tense international situation, the United States unilaterally decided to remove all of its land-based intercontinental ballistic nuclear missiles from their silos and put them in storage, and also remove the nuclear weapons delivery capability from all its combat aircraft. This effectively equalized the number of nuclear warheads among the major powers. Martindale had received much criticism at home for the move, but it did serve to calm the fear that a new Cold War was emerging. “The only nuclear-capable forces we have on alert at this moment are our sea-launched ballistic missile submarines—no land-based missiles, no aircraft,” President Martindale said. “Not even our stealth bombers. It’s the same force structure we’ve maintained for the last two years. I’ll
tell you all again: the United States does not want war with anyone, of any kind, especially a nuclear war.”

“Then you must tell President Kwon to recall his air forces from North Korea and cease all hostilities,” Chinese Defense Minister Chi said. “The United States may not be directly involved, but such an attack could not have been possible without substantial assistance from the United States. It is therefore vital that the United States withdraws all such assistance and compels the South Koreans to withdraw their forces.”

“I can make that request, Mr. Minister,” Martindale said wearily, “but I’m telling you again, the United States is rendering no assistance to the South Koreans. None whatsoever. I’ve attempted to contact President Kwon but have been unsuccessful—no doubt communications have been disrupted by the North Korean nuclear detonations, and they’ll surely be down for quite some time. But you can monitor the status of American forces around the world, and you can see for yourself that we have not changed the readiness of any of our forces and have not activated the Reserves. I’m asking all of you to do the same.”

“Are you saying we should not defend ourselves?” Japanese Prime Minister Nagai asked angrily. “This we will never agree to, sir!”

“I’m not saying don’t defend yourselves—just don’t mobilize any counteroffensive or strategic units until all of us can analyze what’s happened on the Korean peninsula,” Martindale responded. “Don’t move any troops in response to a situation that does not exist.”

“And what of the American military forces in South Korea right now?” President Primakov asked. “You do not expect us to believe you will do nothing to protect them?”

Kevin Martindale took another deep breath, closed his eyes, let it out slowly, then said, “I promise all of
you, I will not move one aircraft, not one vessel, not one soldier, not one weapon onto the Korean peninsula. The
Washington
carrier battle group will stay to help evacuate American personnel, including Vice President Whiting; they will launch aircraft and deploy their vessels for self-protection and humanitarian purposes only. I will do this as long as I detect no Chinese, Japanese, or Russian forces moving in any way toward the Korean peninsula. If I get evidence of any military movements, I’ll respond likewise. But until that happens, I will not move any more forces into Korea.”

“But what of the South Korean aircraft over North Korea?” Minister Chi retorted. “Will you not order their withdrawal?”

“Both countries, North and South Korea, have a responsibility to defend their homeland and pursue whatever military objectives they deem necessary,” Martindale replied. “I will try to contact President Kwon and President Kim. But these two divided nations have been spoiling for a fight for almost fifty years now. I think it’s about time we step aside and let the two of them duke it out.”

“What kind of logic is this?” Prime Minister Nagai shouted. “What if the North continues to bombard the South with nuclear warheads? What if they decide to launch missiles against Japan? Or to begin an even bigger barrage against the South? Will you not strike back? Will you not support your allies in South Korea or Japan?”

“Our forces in the region will try to protect our allies as best we can, Mr. Prime Minister,” Martindale responded. “It was your decision to remove all American military forces from your soil—we must now both deal with the consequences of that decision. But the only way to ensure that this conflict does not spread into a global thermonuclear war is if all outside countries
stand aside, defend themselves, and let the battle in Korea go on. If the South is destroyed—well, they started the fight, and hopefully they can deal with the consequences.”

Martindale did not even bring up what might happen if the North lost the fight—the idea that North Korea’s three-to-one numerical advantage over the South would fail to protect them was inconceivable. South Korea’s military was supposed to be defensive only in both size and composition—it was almost laughable to imagine the South capable of more than knocking out a few key bases or weapons sites, then withdrawing to its own borders. It would have to preserve its forces, reorganize, and await the North’s counteroffensive, hoping the Americans would step in to back them up.

“You will not support your allies the South Koreans?” President Primakov asked incredulously. “If they beg and plead for your help in the face of a massive North Korean onslaught, will you not defend them?”