Ultimatum (8 page)

There was silence again.

“Okay,” said Al eventually. “Well, I’ll try to see if we can meet when you’re back from the west.”

“Talk to Ben,” said Benton.

“I will.”

Benton reached forward and ended the call. He glanced at Eales.

“I’ll tell Ben to keep him out of your hair.”

Benton nodded. His core agenda was domestic. Abroad, he wanted to get American troops out of Colombia, if possible, and to minimize the presence in Pakistan. Getting out of Pakistan entirely was probably going to be impossible until late in his first term, if then. Beyond those objectives, he wanted to repair the damage that twelve years of Bill Shawcross and Mike Gartner had done to foreign relations and to use that credibility to strengthen multilateral institutions, to legitimize American leadership within those institutions, and use that leadership to promote peace and stability. “A secure and prosperous America in a secure and prosperous world.” That had been his catchphrase when he was asked about foreign policy during the campaign. His real interests—the specific things he said he would do and which the American people had elected him to do— were domestic.

Eales began tapping on his handheld.

Benton looked at him questioningly.

“I’m going to get Naylor to send you a briefing on Larry Olsen.”

~ * ~

Monday, November 29

DeGrave Marriott Hotel, Washington, D.C.

He was waiting in an armchair when Benton walked into the suite on the fourteenth floor. The senator had just hosted a gathering of nationally prominent minority leaders in the hotel’s conference center on the ground floor. Ben Hoffman had had the bright idea to get a suite upstairs, allowing Larry Olsen to slip in while the press was distracted by the photo session at the end of the meeting.

“Thanks for coming, Dr. Olsen,” said Benton.

Olsen stood up. He had an unruly shock of graying hair and a generally rumpled look to him. “They say you don’t turn down an invitation to meet with the president-elect.”

“Sit down, please.” Benton smiled. “I sense from your tone you don’t necessarily think too much of my foreign policy.”

“I think it’s too early to judge, Senator. But to be honest, I’m not sure you have a foreign policy. I think you have foreign policy values.”

“So do you like them?”

“Wait until they’re tested. Reality has a habit of doing unpredictable things to values.”

“Agreed.” Benton looked around. “You want a drink? I’m having a scotch.”

“A scotch would be good.”

“How do you take it?”

“Water.”

Benton went to the bar and poured two scotches. He handed one to Olsen. Then he sat down.

“Cheers.”

Olsen raised his glass.

Benton took a sip and savored it contemplatively. According to the briefing he had been given, Larry Olsen was an old State Department hand, fluent in Mandarin, ex-undersecretary of state for China, and with coverage of other Asian desks in the course of his career. For the last four years he had been teaching at Yale.

“You like teaching?” he said to Olsen.

“Not particularly.”

Benton smiled. “I had one year at Arizona State. I’ve had some bad years, but that was a bad one.”

“It has its compensations.”

“Like what?”

“It’s a job.”

Benton laughed. “Why’d you leave the State Department?”

“Let’s just say I didn’t see eye to eye with all the people who mattered.”

That’s what Joe Benton had heard. And that Olsen had a habit of getting under the skin of his superiors, which Benton could believe after only two minutes in the same room with him. But also that he was very smart, decisive, able to get stuff done and with a peculiar ability to gain the loyalty of the people who reported to him.

Benton liked him. Instinctively. And yet he felt in Olsen’s case that was something he needed to guard against.

“You come highly recommended,” he said.

“As what?”

“Why don’t you tell me?”

“Look, Senator,” said Olsen, “I’m flattered to be asked down to talk to you, I really am. But I don’t think you really want to hear the kinds of things I have to say. Your position is more, let’s say, inward-looking. This country’s foreign involvements are a background, if you will.”

“I’m not sure that’s right,” said Benton. “I can see why you might say that. It’s a matter of degree. Primarily, I see this country’s foreign policy as a means of creating the best conditions for prosperity within the United States. You could say that’s pretty limited. But in our global world, I don’t underestimate how much influence conditions abroad have on prosperity within this country. I don’t underestimate how important—from a domestic perspective—it is to do the right thing in relation to our friends and allies. And our enemies, I might add. So I think you can come at it from one direction or you can come at it from the other, but fundamentally, I don’t think it makes too much difference.”

“I think there is a difference.”

“Perhaps. Some. I’m no expert, Dr. Olsen.”

“If we don’t lead, Senator, we will be led. Therefore we must lead.”

“Again, agreed. There are different ways of leading, though, don’t you think?”

“Only if they achieve the necessary effect.”

Benton looked at the other man with interest. “Is that important to you? Having an effect?”

“What else is diplomacy for?”

Benton shook his head. “You must sure as hell hate teaching.”

For the first time, Olsen smiled. Ruefully.

“Tell me more about yourself,” said Benton.

Olsen did. He kept the detail sparse.

“You know Alan Ball?” asked Benton.

“Sure, I know Alan.”

“What do you think of him?”

“Alan’s got a fine mind. Always makes a good contribution. I don’t often agree with him. His outlook is probably more in keeping with where you’re coming from. I heard you’ve got him down for national security advisor.”

Benton didn’t respond to that.

“I understand you’re announcing some nominations tomorrow.”

“The economic team. The security posts are taking a little longer.”

“Well, I’m sure Alan will do a fine job.” Olsen took another sip of his scotch.

“Can I top you up?” said Benton. “Go ahead. Do it yourself.”

Olsen got up and poured himself more whiskey. Benton watched him.

“You ever read Machiavelli?” asked the senator.

“Sure,” said Olsen, sitting down. “When I was a freshman.”

“What happens if I surround myself with people who all think like me?”

“You’ll probably have very harmonious meetings.”

The senator laughed. “Good answer.”

Olsen put down his glass. “Senator, I think the secretary of state you’re looking for—if you asked me here to get my opinion, if that’s what this is about—is someone who’s going to be content to see this country play a largely reactive role. My sense is your administration is going to be highly focused on domestic issues, and your secretary of state is going to have to look at foreign policy through that prism. In other words, I don’t think he’s going to have a very strong voice within the administration. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be telling you what you’re going to be doing, that’s just how it looks to me. Personally, I think that’s a great mistake, particularly at this time in history. In fact, at any time in history. It also won’t make it much fun to be running State. But I’m biased. I’m a State guy. I’m going to say that, aren’t I?”

Benton was silent for a moment. “Tell me something,” he said.

“What?”

“Anything. Colombia. What do I do with Colombia? How do I get out? How quick do I push?”

“Colombia’s not important,” replied Olsen.

“Except that we have four House resolutions in the past three years calling for a pullout.”

“That’s exactly what I mean,” said Olsen. “The House passing resolutions is a domestic issue, and the only reason you’d respond to that is if you want the House’s support for domestic reasons. If you want to pull out of Colombia because of domestic pressures, that’s fine. But that’s a different question. That’s not a question of foreign policy. That’s not what you want State taking into account.”

“What do I want State taking into account?”

“State should be considering the geostrategic context and the implications of action, or lack of action, on the ability of the United States to achieve its objectives both in Colombia, the region, and in other parts of the world. Senator, if you want my personal opinion, here it is. Colombia is of no genuine geostrategic interest to anybody except us. We were invited in by their government as a means of dealing with a decades-old insurgency. That may have been a pretext Bill Shawcross chose to exploit, or even helped create, but there it is. Last time I heard, President Lobinas was still asking us to stay. Now, the truth is, Colombia is a failing state, and probably will fail if and when we pull out. In the meantime, our personnel suffer very low attrition—unfortunate, but we can absorb it—and we reduce the flow of cocaine into the United States by three-fourths. This is not an urgent issue for resolution. I wouldn’t expend an ounce of our credibility on it.”

“Except that every time we talk to anyone about their human rights situation—the Chinese, the Russians—they tell us to get out of Colombia before we come preaching to them.”

“But they’re not analogous situations. We’re not abusing human rights in Colombia the way China and Russia abuse the rights of their own citizens. We’re not even an occupying power. We’re not there in defiance of the local government. On the contrary, the local government invited us to come in.”

“But other countries still use it against us.”

“Correct, but the very fact that they use this—which is a nonanalogous situation—just shows that they use it because they need something to use against us. Anything. Pull out of Colombia and it’ll be something else.

“So you’re saying I do nothing about Colombia?”

“Senator, you asked me for a State Department opinion. You may have domestic reasons to do something about it. That’s why you’re the president, so you can balance all those things together. If you have domestic reasons, and if those reasons are good enough, you’d have to act.”

“But if I don’t, I do nothing?”

“On the contrary. Ideally, I don’t want American soldiers dying in Colombia any more than you do. Here’s what you do. In the first instance, you do stay in Colombia, because the interdiction of supply to cocaine is worth the price we’re paying militarily. But you also lean hard on Bolivia and Peru to get them to meet their obligations on ending cocaine production and you impose real sanctions if they fail to do so. That’s what finances the insurgency in Colombia, which is what keeps us in there in the first place. We’ve lost sight of that. We’re fighting the snake’s tail. We’re not doing anything about its head.”

Benton was silent for a moment. Then he got up and poured more scotch into his glass. He sat down and took a sip.