Castro's Bomb (35 page)

Hartford nodded solemnly.
 
Cordero was telling him that there had been some fighting and that Cordero's boys had gotten the crap kicked out of them.
 
Otherwise he would have crowed about the so-called victory.
 
Good for Ross and Cullen.

"General Cordero, Lieutenant Ross is a wolf, a predator.
 
I am afraid that anybody searching for him and the others would be much better off not finding him.
 
Ross is a killer."
 
For an accountant, he added mentally.
 
He had absolutely murdered debits and credits.

Cordero laughed. "Major, once again, please.
 
He was a bookkeeper, not a combat marine.
 
Any success he might have had against us is either due to blind luck or the abilities of his sergeant, this Joseph Cullen."
 
Or the likely criminal incompetence of Sergeant Gomez, he chose not to add.

Hartford shrugged.
 
"I would suggest that you don't sell him short.
 
He is a well trained and highly qualified marine officer. And as to my inviting him or ordering him to surrender, that is out of the question.
 
I appreciate the offer of safety, but our Code of Conduct would not permit it.
 
Ross may decide to surrender if and when the situation becomes desperate and untenable, which would justify his actions, but that does not appear to be the case right now, does it?"

Cordero shifted uncomfortably.
 
"No, it doesn't.
 
Nor does your answer surprise or disappoint me.
 
I would have said the same thing.
 
Honor is not yet exhausted, is it?"

Hartford rose.
 
"I hope it is never exhausted.
 
I trust that your men will always treat mine according to the laws of human decency and the Geneva Convention."

Cordero also stood, aware that he had just deferred to a lower ranking officer.
 
Damn.
 
"I can only hope that your lieutenant's obstinance and misplaced sense of honor does not result in tragedy for him, his men, and the young woman with them.
 
Yes, we will try to abide by the Geneva Convention as well as the rules of decency, but so many things happen in the heat of battle that it is impossible to guarantee anything."

Especially, he thought with a twinge of sadness, with an animal like Gomez searching for Ross and the others.

The Executive Committee, ExComm, was a flexible group of men that that included as many as a couple of dozen high ranking government and military officials.
 
Usually, though, a half dozen or so represented the key areas of the military and the executive branch of the government.
 
The president was present for this meeting, as was the vice president, the military chiefs, the attorney general, and the secretary of defense.
 
McCone of the CIA was also present.

With the exception of John F. Kennedy and his brother, they were all angry to a degree.
 
This time, the military was not going to use General Shoup as their spokesman.
 
This time, it was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Maxwell Taylor who would speak for the assembled military.
 

"Mr. President, it is now the end of January.
 
There are more than eight army and marine divisions either at sea or poised to attack and invade Cuba.
 
There are five carrier groups surrounding the island and, along with ground air from Florida, they are continually but ineffectively pummeling the island.
 
I say ineffective because you have given us no specific timetable which we might use to hit targets more specifically and intensely.
 

"Simply put, sir, this situation cannot go on forever.
 
For all intents and purposes, the entire southeastern quarter of the United States is an armed camp.
 
Airports in Miami, Tampa, Mobile, and elsewhere have been closed to civilian traffic for weeks which is causing untold harm to the economy as well as inconvenience to the civilian population.

"Sir, when are you going to turn us loose?
 
Or are you going to cede Guantanamo to Fidel Castro?"

Kennedy felt the rebuke like a slap.
 
He wanted to lash out at Taylor, but the hard of hearing old general was right.
 
The situation could not go on forever.
 
He looked about for allies.
 
Lyndon Johnson was not in his camp.
 
He was with the military.
 
Secretary of Defense McNamara was deep in thought, probably counting up the cost of the military situation to date, and adding to it the cost of actually going to war.
 
The dollars and cents cost, Kennedy thought unkindly, not the human cost.
 
McNamara was a money man not a military man.

Even his own brother, Bobby, looked impassive and not supportive.

Kennedy cleared his throat.
 
"Gentlemen, I want a resolution to this crisis as soon as possible, but I want to avoid war if it is at all possible."

"Appeasing Cuba would be one way," LBJ sneered.
 

Oh how I hate that bastard, Kennedy thought.
 
Why the hell did I agree to let the son of a bitch be vice president?
 
Oh yes, because the Republican candidate, Richard Nixon, was such a threat that the Democratic ticket needed a man of Johnson's stature.
 
Well, it had worked but now he had to deal with LBJ as his vice president.
 

"Appeasement is not on the agenda, Lyndon, and it never will be.
 
I want diplomacy to be given every chance to succeed before Americans start dying.
 
I have again spoken to Secretary Rusk and he feels that it is just a matter of time before the blockade of Cuba begins to show results."

"Bullshit," said General LeMay, coming to the point and obviously speaking for the others and that included Admiral Anderson, the Chief of Naval Operations.
 

General Taylor looked annoyed at the outburst.
 
"Sir, we do not believe there is any reason for Secretary Rusk to believe that a blockade will be effective.
 
Cuba has or can grow enough food to feed her people for a very long time.
 
A blockade will not work.
 
And, while we are so totally focused on Cuba, there is always the chance that China will attack Taiwan, North Korea will invade South Korea, or Russia will make a grab at Berlin.
 
I know that Director McCone has said that the Soviets will not move against Berlin, but they could always change their mind.
 
And, as that Russian said to McCone's agent, they have no control over the Chinese.
 
Now, we may not believe that, but it does point out the fact that we cannot go on forever with so much of our military tied up in the Caribbean."

"Don't atomic bombs worry you?" Kennedy asked.

"Of course they do," General Taylor answered with a touch of anger. "But the Cubans have only one and it's a small one.
 
Yes, it can do a lot of damage to whoever is hit with it, but we would still have overwhelming strength.
 
Sadly, sir, nuclear casualties may just be the price of a modern war."

Kennedy squirmed and not from his back.
 
"The fact that the Cubans have at least one nuke will come out in a couple of days. Pierre Salinger was approached by a gentleman from the New York Times who said he had proof that we know the Cubans have a nuke. He even named the item as a Frog 3 missile."

Shoup was outraged.
 
"There's a god damn leak somewhere."

"Obviously," Kennedy retorted.
 
"And the FBI is searching for it.
 
However, the fact remains that the secret is out.
 
Almost.
 
The reporter agreed to sit on it for one week when we appealed to his sense of national security."

“Nuclear casualties remain a price that might just have to be paid," Taylor said.

"And I'm sure you're all aware of the pressure I'm under to settle this peacefully.
 
Last night I received another letter from Pope John XXIII who urges us to pray for peace."
 
He chuckled.
 
"Although I had the distinct impression that His Holiness wouldn't be too upset if we kicked the crap out of the godless communists and returned Cuba to the bosom of Catholicism and Holy Mother Church."
 

"The pope's a good man," Shoup said solemnly.

"And this morning I got a request from the Organization of American States.
 
Adlai Stevenson reports that the UN is about to pass another general assembly resolution calling for us to leave Cuba to the Cubans.
 
It won't pass, but the vote is getting closer."

Lyndon Johnson glared at Kennedy.
 
"Have all of these worthy assholes forgotten that Cuba started this mess, that Cuba has killed or wounded hundreds of our military and civilians, and that Cuba has attacked and damaged or sunk two of our warships on the high seas?
 
It looks like the OAS and the UN are suffering from politically selective memory."

"Lyndon, I absolutely agree and so does former president Harry Truman.
 
He called this morning and told me to get off the pot and hit the Cubans hard and where it hurts.
 
But that is the world we live in.
 
And what about civilian casualties?
 
They could run into the hundreds, if not thousands."

General Maxwell Taylor looked at him coldly.
 
He had fought his way through Europe in World War II, including dropping behind enemy lines on D-Day as commander of the 101st Airborne Division. He had been called out of retirement just a few months earlier to take over as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

"I once said I thought that nuclear warfare was unlikely and I still feel it will not happen between Russia and the United States.
 
However, if a rogue like Castro has a nuke, then all bets are off.
 
He must be stopped and that nuke must be taken away from him, regardless of the cost.
 
If we show weakness now, regarding either Guantanamo or that missile, our enemies will nibble us to pieces because they will know we will not respond with all the weapons in our arsenal, and that means we will not use nuclear weapons, although we will allow others to use them.
 
We will have no allies and no credibility.

"And regarding civilian casualties,” Taylor continued, “they are an unfortunate necessity, a fact of life in modern war.
 
And you're right; the numbers are likely to run into the thousands, sir, not the hundreds.
 
Please recall, that in the weeks running up to D-Day, we bombed the daylights out of France's transportation network and did so with DeGaulle's full knowledge and reluctant cooperation.
 
Perhaps as many as twenty thousand French civilians were killed."

LBJ glared at Kennedy.
 
"There's an old saying, Mr. President, you can't make an omelet without breaking the eggs.
 
The general's right.
 
There will be casualties and we can't back away from doing the right thing because we're afraid of them."

At this moment of decision, Kennedy was torn.
 
He wanted Guantanamo back.
 
He hated Castro and wanted him out of Cuba.
 
He wanted success but he wanted it to come at a cheap price.
 
He couldn't abide the thought of American boys being killed by an atomic bomb, however small the damn thing might be.
 
Nor could he abide the thought of thousands of innocent Cuban women and children being blown to pieces by conventional American bombs and artillery.

Before entering, Director McCone had handed JFK a note saying that his agent, Elena Sandano, had an important piece of information for him.
 
She was waiting a few rooms away.
 
He needed a break.

Kennedy stood.
 
"I agree we must have a decision.
 
I will get back to you in one hour."

"Lieutenant Ross, I have good news and I have interesting news that maybe isn't quite so good."

Gunnery sergeant Cullen had been poring over a coded message and had obviously completed the translation.

"Let me have the good news," Ross said.

"You've been promoted to first lieutenant.
 
Congratulations and it's long overdue.
 
I guess that asshole you insulted couldn't hold you back forever, could he?"

Andrew flushed as Cathy laughed.
 
Did everybody know about his situation?
 
"I think you should buy us all a drink," Cathy suggested.

"Will a sip of brackish and warm water from a canteen suffice or will you take a rain check?"

"Rain check," they chorused.

Cullen signaled that he wanted to talk to Andrew alone.
 
Nobody questioned it.
 
They'd done it before.
 
The two men walked a few dozen yards away from the others and stopped.

"Like I said, lieutenant, the second part is interesting.
 
We're instructed to be on the lookout for a tracked vehicle, a cut-down tank chassis, carrying a missile launcher."

"What kind of missile are we talking about?"

"They called it a Luna or a Frog 3, and, sorry, but those are names I'm not really familiar with, so I don't know what the hell makes them so important.
 
I just felt just the two of us should talk about it first."