Brown, Dale - Patrick McLanahan 09 (12 page)

 
          
“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
forever 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, nodded, 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.”