Battle Born by Dale Brown

Author:Dale Brown
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Published: 2011-12-05T20:44:15+00:00

THE WHITE HOUSE SITUATION ROOM

THAT SAME TIME

We see it too, Mr. President,” President Kevin Martin-dale said. He was on a four-way conference call with three other international leaders: Minister of National Defense Chi Haotian of the People’s Republic of China, President Yevgeniy Maksimovich Primakov of the Russian Federation, and Prime Minister Kazumi Nagai of the Republic of Japan. All three world leaders called into the White House nearly simultaneously, and each call was taken immediately and merged without permission from any of them by the White House Communications Center.

“President Martindale, this is President Primakov,” came a translation. “I must have assurances that this is not a prelude to a full-scale attack against North Korea! I demand it! Respond, please!”

“I am telling you, Mr. President, and all of you: the United States has no idea what’s going on over Korea, and I promise you, we are in no way involved,” Martin-dale said. In the brief time since the four-way call was established, this had to be the second or third time he had made that statement. With Martindale in the Situation Room were Secretary of Defense Arthur Chastain, National Security Adviser Philip Freeman, and Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral George Balboa, along with backup aides and interpreters. They had all quickly moved to the Situation Room, an ordinary-looking room in the basement of the White House, when the call from Vice President Whiting was cut off.

“No American forces are involved, none!” Martindale insisted yet again. “We have radar surveillance planes over the peninsula and one carrier battle group in the Yellow Sea, but except for normal patrols, we have no aircraft whatsoever involved in this situation! I repeat, we have none!

“Listen very carefully, please, all of you: this situation appears to be an outbreak of hostilities between North and South Korea only. Our sources indicate that South Korean warplanes crossed the Demilitarized Zone first, and that North Korean rocket and artillery forces retaliated.”

“Then you admit the South is the aggressor!” Chinese Defense Minister Chi exploded. “You admit that this hateful act was an attempt to destroy the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea! You admit that this act of treachery is the fault of no one but your own allies, the South Koreans!”

“Mr. Minister, I admit nothing—I’m saying that our observations agree with all the others that have been reported, that it appears that South Korea started the conflict by crossing the Military Demarcation Line first,” Martindale said.

“Our information also says that the South Korean air attacks used only nonnuclear air defense suppression weapons, not nuclear or bio-chem weapons,” Prime Minister Nagai interjected. “North Korea has responded with nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons launched by medium-range ballistic missiles. Their response was clearly far out of proportion to the threat—”

“What did you expect—that the North Koreans would use flyswatters and harsh words to scare the South Koreans away?” Minister Chi retorted. “The South Korean aircraft overflew the capital with attack aircraft. The North’s response was completely justified.”

“And what will be China’s reaction to this

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