Promise of Joy (37 page)

“This, with you ladies and gentlemen as witnesses, constitutes fair notice. I would suggest to Moscow and Peking that they respond pretty soon, or the United States will turn to the rest of the world and together we will all do our best to quarantine their madness as much as possible, and to try to organize some sort of stability and safety for ourselves without them, if it can be done.

“That’s all, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much.”

And again, before their desperate shouts for more could reach crescendo, he was off the podium and out.

President urges Russ and Chinese reach speedy decision on ten demands, let him know wishes for arbitration. Warns he may withdraw and help organize peace for world without red giants. No word yet from warring capitals. Growing civilian unrest reported as atomic casualties continue to mount. Hong Kong and Romanian listening posts say civil war “imminent” in both countries unless peace solution found.

World waits.

And he waited, remaining in the Oval Office, eating a hasty bowl of soup and a sandwich with Bob Leffingwell, Blair Hannah and the Joint Chiefs while they received the latest intelligence reports, which, worldwide, showed—nothing. No word from Moscow and Peking, no feelers sent out through anybody else—silence: indicating, he knew, great agony of spirit, great contention, perhaps actual killings, in some desperate, last-minute bunker-type struggle for control, inside the inner circles.

They finished dinner, the others stayed awhile, returned to Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon … time passed.

The press secretary reported that the members of the media were clamoring for another conference, he sent back word that he had nothing to report, would see them when he did … time passed.

He looked over the latest reports, noted final consolidation of U.S. control in Gorotoland and Panama, called the Presidents of Turkey and Egypt and the Secretary-General to congratulate them on their prompt cooperation, began to get ready to leave the West Wing … time passed.

He returned to the Mansion, looked in on Hal and Crystal to find them both dead asleep and snoring gently like tired little children, smiled to himself, went to the Lincoln Bedroom, got ready for bed, went to bed … time passed.

Fitfully around midnight, his exhausted mind finally abandoning its almost incessant whirligig of thoughts, worries, plans and alternatives, he fell at last into an uneasy slumber … and time passed.

At 2:30 a.m. exactly the Signal Corps awoke him to announce that the first faint, broken, erratic, almost indecipherable signals were coming from the underground fortresses where the men of Moscow and Peking were hiding.

At 3:15 a.m., looking tired but no tireder than his audience, he faced a gray-faced press corps, many of whose members had kept the vigil without even trying to go to bed.

In his hand he held two sheets of paper. The lights, cameras and eyes of most of his own country and much of the world were upon him as he began to speak in a grave and measured voice.

“We have received,” he said, and instantly the already great tension in the East Room leaped upward, “the first official word from the governments presently in power in Moscow and Peking.” He paused for a moment and then went on. “I say ‘presently’ because I do not think, in view of their statements, that those apparently still in charge there will be allowed by their peoples to endure much longer.

“These two statements, which the press office is presently mimeographing for you and will have ready in just a few minutes, accept nothing, acknowledge nothing and concede nothing.”

There was a groan of disappointment. He nodded.

“I share your sentiments. I feel as though I am dealing with literal madmen. The same old gobbledygook about each other and about us—the same old rehash of ideological clichés—the same intransigence, not modified one whit by what has happened between them—a complete rejection of all my suggestions with not even the slightest hint of willingness to negotiate, with me or with each other—the same dead end—literally,
dead
end.

“These are the old, tired, propaganda words of old, tired party leaders who seem unable, even now, to break out of the empty and foredoomed patterns of belief that have brought them to this final, awful confrontation.

“They would be pathetic were they not so dangerous to the actual life of mankind upon this planet.

“I reject both these statements as worthless, meaningless, subversive of the world’s desperate hopes for peace and deliberately traitorous to the universal cause of mankind.

“The only thing these statements do
not
do is threaten the immediate resumption of atomic war, though, as you will see, they both leave the possibility open. This tiny bit of forbearance may conceivably be a slight—a very slight—cause for hope.

“I call once again upon the so-called leaders of Soviet Russia and the People’s Republic of China to accept my arbitration of their dispute. I remind them that they came to me, not I to them: and they came, the world thought—not only thought, but knows—
in extremis.
In that situation, I agreed to arbitrate.

“I still stand ready, but they must modify their views. They must show themselves truly humbled by the awful, the terrible, the monstrous thing they have done to one another and to the world’s chances of survival.

“They must come to the table prepared to lay down their arms once and for all. I have taken it upon myself to state conditions but I believe they are the conditions that most of the world now favors. Certainly the response of recent hours shows that there is just one desperate yearning in most human hearts—outside the two nations and, reports of growing civil disturbance tell us, within them as well.

“That desire is peace.

“I am here to arbitrate if the present leaders of the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China want peace.”

He paused once again. Then he concluded, a somber finality in his voice.

“If they do not want peace, then my message to them is as clear and specific as I can make it:

“Let them bomb each other and be damned.”

And this time, though there was a shocked gasp from his audience, there was no clamor for him to remain, no gossip or light talk as his audience trailed slowly out. Nobody ran for the telephones, nobody pushed and shoved, nobody looked anything other than grim, gray and sad. No one, either in the room or wherever men heard his words, was any less somber than he as he turned and walked swiftly out.

Moscow, Peking reject ten demands, denounce U.S., each other. Russ say President’s conditions are “sinister capitalist plot to join Chinese in overthrow of the Soviet Union.” Chinese charge conditions are “only the surface aspect of secret U.S. alliance with Russia to destroy China.” No renewed war but no peace, either.

President sends ultimatum as red leaders refuse to change policies. Knox makes final offer to arbitrate, hints possible overthrow of governments, tells present leaders: make peace or “bomb each other and be damned.”

Many world leaders pledge continued support for president’s tough stand.

But how long he could hold them, or how long he could hold his own country and its media, he did not know.

In the event, he was happily surprised.

He had given himself ten days.

For a while, it appeared that he just might do it.

“We cannot support too strongly,” the
Times
said with a fervent enthusiasm that brought a wry smile to the lips of the man it had damned so long, “the courageous stand of President Orrin Knox as he leads the struggle to restore peace and sanity to a horrified world. Never have the many fine qualities of the American Chief Executive been more dramatically displayed than in his present unwavering determination to end the awful conflict between Russia and China. Never has his leadership been more admirable or more deserving of his countrymen’s endorsement.

“That endorsement, we believe, he has a thousandfold. When the two Communist giants launched themselves upon the ultimate insanity—the atomic insanity—last week, it appeared for a few horrible hours that the planet Earth was indeed about to go down to that fiery death so often predicted by its more pessimistic inhabitants. Then, it appeared, sanity returned. The fighting stopped. An appeal was made to President Knox by both sides.

“Seizing the opportunity, the President agreed to arbitrate under certain conditions. These conditions, we submit, while severe in some respects, were no more than world peace requires. The only condition on which he might be faulted—his insistence on American control of disputed Gorotoland and Panama—was eased by his immediate promise of free and fair elections in those two countries to permit establishment of independent governments agreeable to their peoples. All other conditions seem to us, as they must seem to fair-minded men everywhere, both judicious and imperative.

“Now those conditions have been rejected out of hand by what we can only describe as the madmen of Moscow and Peking. The fighting has stopped but all the ancient paranoia against America, and against each other, remains. Even from the bunkers, the hatred and blind stupidity snarl out. Against such a background, Orrin Knox emerges ever more clearly as the potential savior of mankind.

“We applaud his decision to stand firm. We endorse his devotion to peace. We agree that if the madmen of Moscow and Peking will not listen, they should indeed be left to ‘bomb each other and be damned,’ even though this will impose fearful and perhaps insurmountable burdens on the rest of humanity.

“There comes a time when one must stop appeasing and compromising and stand firm. President Knox, with his customary admirable candor and great strength of character—the two pillars upon which the fate of mankind rests at this moment—knows that this is the time.”

“Orrin Knox,” the
Post
agreed in an equally glowing deathbed conversion, “has emerged within the past thirty-six hours as one of the most decisive and farsighted Presidents this country has ever had. Beyond question he has emerged as the one most suited to this time of terrible crisis. His courage, his decisiveness, his grasp of world realities and his great vision of world peace maintained by firmness and unswerving strength, make him the man for the moment.

“And what a moment! The Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China, locked at last in the terrible struggle their viciously irresponsible leaders have been getting ready for, over many years—the struggle they have managed to persuade their helpless peoples was inevitable. And so it became inevitable, in a way they never planned and never dreamed in all their evil calculations.

“Into this situation stepped President Knox with a calm assurance which must be applauded by sane men everywhere. His willingness to arbitrate was based on ten conditions; all, with very few modifications, were exactly what was demanded by the awful occasion.

“Now he has been answered with spite and contempt by what he rightly calls ‘old, tired party leaders who seem unable, even now, to break out of the empty and foredoomed patterns of belief that have brought them to this final, awful confrontation.’ Even in this most desperate hour for them, and for the world, they cling to the old paranoia about America and about each other. Faced with possible civil war that could topple them all, they are yet so rigid and so locked into ideology that they apparently cannot bend. They were terrified when they called upon the President; it has taken their insane arrogance and stupidity less than twenty-four hours to return.

“We applaud the decision of President Knox to stand firm—because, as history has repeatedly shown, standing firm is the only way to establish, and maintain, world peace.

“America and the still-sane portions of the world know that in Orrin Knox they have a leader of honor, of integrity, of courage and of strength—a man who cannot be swayed by fear or favor. We applaud his efforts and we pledge him our unstinting and unwavering support. In common with all humanity, we look to him to save us, for, indeed, there is no one else.”

“This is the finest hour of Orrin Knox,” Walter Dobius solemnly informed his devoted following, “and never has he risen more nobly to the demands of history than he is rising now. Cool, courageous, determined—unflappable, unshakable, indomitable—once again, Illinois has sent the nation, and this time the world as well, a great man to meet great challenges.

“Certainly those challenges at this very hour are greater than any ever faced by any American President or, indeed, any world leader at any time. Actual atomic war has been unleashed. At this moment its full effects upon Australia, New Zealand and the entire South Pacific Basin, let alone upon the devastated peoples of Russia and China themselves, cannot be accurately predicted. The world knows they are awful, and the world knows that unless a recurrence is prevented, we may all shortly find that universal peace will finally be achieved by universal death.

“Therefore the efforts of President Knox to arbitrate the dispute, and simultaneously to readjust conditions in the world to prevent the possibility of future war, must command the respect and the fervent and unstinting support of every sane man, woman and child on this planet. Events have given him the master hand, and to date he is playing it in masterful fashion. His ‘Ten Demands’ are strong but basically all of them are sound and imperative for world peace. Their summary rejection by the present leaders of Moscow and Peking has brought the only response from him that it could bring: a rejection in turn, and a demand that they either come to their senses or, as he puts it not a shade too strongly, ‘bomb each other and be damned.’

“That they will be damned if they do so is certain, though not of much solace to a world which could in all likelihood go down with them. But there is another possibility, raised by the President and supported by growing reports out of both countries: these monstrous men who are playing fast and loose with humankind may very well be toppled from their positions of power by their own people. This possibility alone is enough to justify the ruthless pressure the President is applying upon them. Either way, the pressure seems the best chance to bring peace. If any sanity remains at all in the bunkers of Moscow and Peking, peace will come, and on the President’s terms.