Removal (34 page)

Latham turned his head away from Gutierrez with a muttered expletive. General Terrell held up a calming hand.

‘Well, we’ve had a black president,’ he said. ‘Barack Obama served as our President, and I never heard any senior military personnel question his fitness to be Commander-in-Chief. Please remember, General Gutierrez, that this was 1965. There was a lot of paranoia involved due to the Cold War and, frankly, due to some social attitudes that many of us thought belonged in the Dark Ages. They did and said a lot of things we wouldn’t do or say today.’

‘Then why are we having a meeting today?’ Gutierrez asked. ‘If we wouldn’t do it today, why is any of this relevant? It’s because the Vice President is a woman, isn’t it? Isn’t that what you’re talking about? Jesus Christ. I don’t believe I’m hearing this.’

General Hessler had been shifting in his seat, listening to the discussion with growing impatience. ‘Ellen Trevathan is not only a woman,’ he broke in, almost savagely. ‘She’s a radical left-winger. That’s why it’s relevant.’

Gutierrez laughed incredulously. ‘Ellen Trevathan, radical? Left-wing? You must be joking.’

‘You don’t think so?’

‘Next to Genghis Khan, she’s left-wing, maybe. Not in any real-world scenario.’

‘Well, that’s your opinion,’ Hessler muttered.

Latham held up his hands. ‘May I suggest we look at the evidence?’ he pleaded. ‘You’ll find the text of the original Williamsburg Resolution behind tab two in your folders, but we don’t need to review that right now. Can I ask you to turn to tab three?’

Those around the table complied with little apparent enthusiasm. Latham began to run through the materials he had carefully selected for inclusion in the folders.

‘Ellen Louise Trevathan, born 7 February 1949, Erie, Pennsylvania. Father was Edwin Trevathan, a lifelong railroad man and union organizer who became Treasurer of the Amalgamated Brotherhood of Railroad Engineers. Suspected of communist sympathies, brief involvement with the House Unamerican Activities Committee, which came to nothing…’ Seeing Gutierrez about to react, he continued quickly. ‘Again, that may have been of interest in 1965, maybe not today. Mother was Annie Gibb Trevathan, high-school teacher, political sympathies, if any, unknown.’

He paused for a sip of water. ‘Over the page, please. Ellen’s résumé. She is educated locally, wins a scholarship to Penn State, double major in political science and history. Brilliant grades. On to a masters followed by a doctorate in political science at Yale. Assistant professor of political science, George Mason University, appointed 1977, rises rapidly through the ranks to full professor. Later enters political life, which we can pass over for the moment. Tab four, please. Now we come to the point.’

‘About time,’ Gutierrez said quietly.

‘May 1964,’ Latham continued, pointedly ignoring the Air Force Chief. ‘A conference is held in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. The Conference of Heads of State and Governments of Non-Aligned Countries. The conference concludes with a Declaration calling for more effective cooperation on international problems with a view to contributing to international peace and security and peaceful relations between peoples. Marshall Tito, Head of the State of Yugoslavia at the time, is trying to promote his image as an international statesman, and invites some young people of school and college age from different countries to attend the conference as observers. The proceedings have an annex with a list of names. The sole American representative is named as a fifteen-year-old Ellen Louise Trevathan, of Erie, Pennsylvania.’

Gutierrez shrugged. ‘So?’

‘In case you forgot, General,’ Hessler said. ‘Yugoslavia was behind the Iron Curtain.’

‘Ancient history,’ Gutierrez replied. ‘And I assume the State Department must have approved her application for a visa at the time. In any case, Tito was no communist, and he never bought into Soviet doctrine. He was far more interested in playing us and the Russians against each other and hitting us both up for money.’

‘Possibly so,’ Latham conceded. ‘But the declaration issued by the conference is of concern. Take a moment to read the summary provided by my staff, please. Not only does it call for total disarmament in the field of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. It also calls for the abolition of weapons and military capabilities generally. In short, it’s a call for pacifism.’

Latham waited for those around the table to digest the summary.

‘She was fifteen.’ Gutierrez said.

‘Turn the page, she’s all over the Vietnam War protests,’ Latham said. ‘Surveillance shows her at various marches and demonstrations, though she seems to have avoided arrest. Over the page again, please. Fast-forward to September 1967. International Youth Conference for Peace and Disarmament, held in Florence, Italy. Guess what was on the agenda there? Once again, among the delegates was one Ellen Louise Trevathan, now a little over eighteen years of age. You will note one or two other conferences of a similar kind. I could go on, but I’m sure you get the point.’

Latham looked around in an effort to confirm his assumption, but his audience seemed absorbed in flicking through the documents.

‘Tab five, please. This is extracted from her résumé. A list of academic writings by the Vice President in various journals over the years, published both here and abroad. My staff have been through them in detail, and you will find summaries of each article. I think it’s fair to say they show a consistent pattern of anti-militarism, and criticism of American foreign policy as being, in effect, colonial and based on the use of unequal force. I’m going to give you a few minutes to look through this material.’

Latham stood and walked slowly to what passed for a window in this ghastly cell-like room, thick chunky squares of opaque glass which reminded him of a prison. It was an image he preferred to suppress. He loosened his tie and tried to breathe normally. The air seemed hot and suffocating. After several minutes, the Chiefs decided they had read enough and he returned to his seat.

‘These are just a few articles out of many in a long career,’ Gutierrez said. ‘If you look at the list of her writings, most of it is about politics and government, the relationship between the states and the federal government, that kind of stuff, nothing to do with the military at all. I notice your staff didn’t summarize any of that. But that’s the stuff she was known for.’

‘There was limited time,’ Latham insisted. ‘My staff summarized what seemed important. Some of these papers were prepared for and delivered at conferences behind the Iron Curtain, two or three in Belgrade, for which she seems to have developed a special fondness, one in Prague, one in Warsaw.’

Gutierrez shook his head. ‘Next, you’ll be telling me she speaks French.’

‘And finally, tab six. Position papers written by Ellen Trevathan for several so-called think tanks, detailing grounds for opposing military involvement in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and advocating the closure of Guantanamo Bay and the end of what she calls torture and extraordinary rendition. She believes that the United States should not act alone militarily, but that we should cooperate fully with the United Nations in taking military action as a member of the, quote, international community, end quote. She also advocates strict compliance with the Geneva Conventions, regardless of the amount of information about terrorism we would have to forego by doing so. You have summaries of these also. Please take some time to review them.’

The process took more than twenty minutes. Latham’s staff had gone to town on these papers, which they obviously regarded as the pride of the collection, and in some cases the summaries were not a great deal shorter than the papers themselves.

‘Any questions?’ Latham asked.

Gutierrez pushed his folder away across the table. ‘Obama voted against the Iraq war when he was in the Senate. A lot of people agreed with Trevathan about all those things.’

‘A lot of people were ready to sell America out.’ Hessler said. ‘That’s the way I’d put it. I don’t want to make one of them President.’

‘Bullshit,’ Gutierrez said. ‘And this is all because of some Cold War fantasy game they played in 1965 to persuade themselves they were keeping the world safe for democracy? The best thing we can do with tab two, and any other copies of this crap, is to make a bonfire of it all outside.’

‘Let’s not get carried away, General,’ Latham said. ‘I understand that this has probably come as something of a shock to you. I assure you that you would have been initiated into the Williamsburg Doctrine in due course. Because you were appointed so recently, there wasn’t time for that. I’m sorry it’s had to be put to you in this way. But there isn’t much time, and we have to make a decision.’

‘A decision?’

‘Yes. We have to decide whether, in the event the President is impeached, the Military will let the succession proceed, or whether certain corrective steps will be taken. It’s entirely up to all of you. It’s your policy. All the President is doing here is asking for your input. He needs to know where he stands if he’s impeached.’

Gutierrez rose from his chair.

‘I’ll tell you where he stands, Mr. Attorney-General. He stands on the front lawn of the White House waving goodbye before he boards his helicopter out of there.’

‘That’s not your decision, General,’ McGarry said.

‘That’s exactly right, Admiral. It’s not. That decision was made by the framers of the Constitution.’

‘The framers of the Constitution didn’t have to address this issue,’ McGarry said. ‘Women weren’t allowed to vote, let alone be Vice President.’

‘Neither were black slaves. So what?’

‘So, we have to interpret the Constitution for our own times, in the light of our own circumstances.’

‘It’s not a question of interpretation,’ Gutierrez shouted. He was now leaning against the back wall of the conference room. ‘It’s a question of reading what it says. The Constitution provides that the President shall be removed from office.’

‘Yes, it does,’ Latham said. ‘But that presupposes that it is possible to remove him, or perhaps it raises the question of who would remove him.’

‘He removes himself,’ Gutierrez said. ‘How could he not? What else could he do?’

Latham looked at the ceiling.

‘Well, he could stay put, and await the judgment of the people. Ultimately, all power derives from the people. If the President’s judgment were to be wrong, the people would remove him very quickly, wouldn’t they? But if the people agreed with the Joint Chiefs… well, that would be a different question. In this case, President Wade is a very popular man. Most polls seem to say the people don’t want him to be impeached.’

‘That is totally beside the point,’ Gutierrez replied. ‘The decision is in the hands of the Senate. If the people don’t like it, they can voice their displeasure the next time they get to vote for their senators.’

‘Yes. But by that time, the Vice President would be President. The President is not sure that would be in the national interest. That’s why he is asking the Joint Chiefs to consider the matter.’

‘He apparently had no problem with campaigning with her through two elections,’ Gutierrez pointed out. ‘I don’t see anything in these papers to cause alarm.’

‘That’s not the same as the question facing us now,’ Latham replied. ‘Campaigns are designed to give the people an attractive package to vote for. They don’t always reflect reality.’

‘The point,’ Hessler said, ‘is that we could not rely on her if the United States were to be attacked, or if we had to take action abroad to protect our national interests. She’s a pacifist who advocates the abolition of the military. She is too dangerous.’

There was a frustrated silence around the table.

‘The Williamsburg guidelines call for a vote to be taken,’ Hessler continued sourly. ‘I don’t see any point in wasting the whole day talking about it. The President has asked us to consider it. Let’s consider it. Let’s take a vote.’

‘You don’t see any point in talking about it?’ Gutierrez laughed out loud. ‘It’s such a simple matter for you to commit treason?’

Hessler threw back his chair and stood bolt upright. He began to walk towards Gutierrez.

‘What did you say?’ he asked. ‘What the fuck did you just say?’

Gutierrez did not flinch.

‘You heard what I said, General. This talk is treasonable.’

‘You little…’

Gutierrez did not flinch as Hessler sprang at him. He raised both arms and pushed Hessler violently away. Before the Marine Commandant could renew his assault, Terrell and McGarry leapt to their feet to restrain him. Hessler reluctantly allowed himself to be escorted back to his chair.

‘I’m not through with you,’ he muttered venomously.

‘Any time you want a piece of me, you know where I am,’ Gutierrez replied quietly.

Latham banged his water glass down on the table. He shook his head in the direction of the stenographer, who was asking with her raised eyebrows whether the details of the last exchange should be recorded.

‘Order,’ Latham said firmly. ‘I must ask you all to behave in a manner appropriate to this meeting.’

Gutierrez resumed his seat.

‘What manner would that be exactly, Mr. Attorney-General?’

Latham ignored the question.

‘The matter we have to resolve is this. The President has raised the issue of whether the Vice President, having regard to her long history of support for left-wing and radical causes, falls within the terms of the Williamsburg Doctrine. He expects the individual opinion of each of you. Please understand that the President has made no decision. It would be premature for him to do so before the outcome in the Senate is known. At this point, he seeks only your opinions. Depending on events, and on what those opinions might be, he may later request further action.’

Latham surveyed those around the table again. ‘General Hessler is correct in saying that a vote is appropriate under the guidelines. If there is to be no further discussion, I suggest we proceed.’

A furious silence hung over the room.

‘Very well. I will proceed in reverse order of seniority. General Gutierrez?’

Gutierrez exhaled heavily and shook his head. ‘It’s very simple. There’s no problem with Ellen Trevathan in my mind. But that’s not even the point. We all took an oath to uphold the Constitution. If the President is impeached, he is to be removed. If he doesn’t remove himself voluntarily, our duty is to do it for him.’