Promise of Joy

by Allen Drury

  “You, the people of Russia and the people of China, have in your own hands the power to do this.

  “You are the only ones who have this power.

  “It does not belong to the cowardly leaders of Moscow who at this moment are hiding safely in underground caves near Kiev while you suffer the awful consequences of atomic attack.

  “It does not belong to the cowardly leaders of Peking who at this moment are hiding safely underground in the mountains near Chungking while you suffer the awful consequences of atomic attack.

  “It belongs to you, the people.

  “You, people of Russia, people of China! It is to you I talk, not to your cowardly leaders who are safe and sound while you suffer.

  “I have tried to talk to those cowardly men and they have refused me. The outside world has joined me in appeals to them, and they have refused us all.

  “They would rather have you suffer, while they stay safe from harm, than end your suffering and make peace.

  “They would rather have your wives, husbands, sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, families, friends, die in the ashes of your shattered cities than give up their own lust for power and their own insane ambitions.

  “They would rather have all of you suffer torn flesh, terrible wounds, awful atomic sicknesses, horrible deaths, than give up their insane lust for power and their insane hatred for one another.

  “People of Russia, people of China! You do not hate one another, for all men are brothers. You do not want to war upon one another, for war only means the destruction of everyone. You do not want to suffer horrible things because cowardly men in secret caves decree that you must die while they remain hidden and safe.

  “You want peace, as we, all the other peoples of the world, want peace. You who are still living want to bury your dead, bind up your wounds, rebuild your lives and your families, return to your quiet ways and live together in peace.

  “Evil and cowardly men who control your two governments do not want this.

  “They want you to suffer.

  “They want you to know terror.

  “They want you to die.

  “Destroy them, people of Russia, people of China! Rise against these monsters who have already devastated so much of your two countries!

  “Already they are making new threats against one another. Already they are calling for new war. This means that you will die.

  “Destroy them before they can cause the final destruction of the Celestial Empire and Mother Russia! Save your countries from them! Kill them before they can kill you!

  “You have the power and you can do it.

  “The cowardly leaders of Moscow are hiding in underground caves near Kiev. The cowardly leaders of Peking are hiding in underground caves near Chungking.

  “Find them! Search them out! Destroy them! Kill them before they can kill you!

  “People of China, people of Russia, take back your countries into your own hands. Take back the power these monsters have used to kill your wives, husbands, sons and daughters, mothers, fathers, relatives, friends. Look at your wounds. Look at your dead. Look at yourselves, poor hunted animals whom these men would utterly destroy.

  “Find them, kill them, destroy them! We, the world, will help you. You will be free. You will be safe. You and your families and friends will not die any more. You will have peace, with each other and with all the world. We will greet you with open arms when you have done this, and there will be peace and no more war.

  “They are hiding near Kiev.

  “They are hiding near Chungking.

  “Find them, kill them, destroy them!

  “Kill them before they can kill you!

  “People of Russia, people of China, do it now!

  “Now!”

  Which was not, he reflected again wryly as his somber face faded away and the flags of the United Nations, minus the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic, floated past in silent review before the screens went blank, exactly the sophisticated, prim and proper language one might use in a parliamentary debate. But when one was dealing with more than a billion captive, terrified, frantically desperate people there was no time for subtlety, smooth words or gentleness. It was a time to be rough, tough, blunt and crude, as stripped down to naked essentials as the situation itself.

  Although he knew there had been feverish attempts directed from Kiev and Chungking to jam his words, he was confident that the massive transmission mounted by his own government and assisted by all the rest had reached its target. He did not have to wait long for confirmation.

  “Mr. President!” they cried again, together, their voices sailing up hysterically as they demanded recognition from a stern and righteous Australia in no mood to be tolerant or forgiving.

  “Yes?” he said icily. “What do the delegates from the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China wish to say to us now? What further wrecking of mankind’s hopes do they have in mind this time?”

  “Mr. President!” Nikolai Zworkyan wailed in English like the trapped and wounded animal he was. “Mr. President, my government protests the monstrous attack of the President of the United States! My government calls upon the conscience of this Council, yes, the conscience of the United Nations, the conscience of the whole world, Mr. President, to oppose the dastardly attempt of the President to destroy the government of the Soviet Union! We appeal to the world to help us, Mr. President! This is against all the decencies of mankind, Mr. President, all the civilized methods of dealing between nations! We beg of you, members of the Council, help us against this monstrous man! Help us…!”

  But around the silent table and across the silent room, there was no indication of help for Nikolai Zworkyan and his terrible government, facing at last the judgment they had invited so many times, over so many cruel, destructive, ruthless years. Only an impassive pitiless quiet, in which sane men watched with a dispassionate interest, as they might observe the writhings of a dying snake.

  “Does the delegate of the People’s Republic of China have anything to add?” Australia inquired in the same icy, unforgiving tone.

  “Mr. President!” Sun Kwon-yu exclaimed, his voice, also, trembling between anguish and hysteria. “Mr. President, my government too protests the evil attack of the President of the United States! It is terrible, Mr. President! It is monstrous! It is uncivilized! It is barbaric! It is the act of a savage! The world must help us against this evil, evil man, Mr. President! The collective conscience of mankind must rise against this murderer, this destroyer! Where is the United Nations, Mr. President? Where is the United Nations? It must help us! It must help us—help us!”

  But again there was only the impassive pitiless quiet; and into it Australia remarked finally, in an impassive pitiless voice:

  “The Council has heard the two delegates. Does any member of the Council wish to comment or respond?”

  He looked slowly from face to unyielding face around the circle. No one moved, no one spoke. They simply watched, with a stillness awful and implacable. Finally Australia leaned forward again.

  “Is there any further business to come before the Council?”

  “Mr. President,” Ceil said, her voice showing strain but coming clear and steady over it, “I move the Council reconsider the vote on the resolution of the United States amending the Charter to abolish the veto.”

  “Mr. President!” Sun and Zworkyan cried together again; but this was the last time, for even as they hunched forward in frantic desperation over their microphones there appeared at separate doors of the chamber a white-faced, frightened Russian and a white-faced, frightened Chinese. And after they had rushed forward to their respective delegations at the big circular table there followed several minutes of wild, excited talk, exclamations, shouts, groans, angry and frightened arguments. And after that, the delegate of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the delegate of the People’s Republic of China leaped from their chairs, stared wildly about for a moment like men demented, as indeed they
were, and rushed from the room, followed in pell-mell, tumbling, terrified haste by their disheveled countrymen.

  A wild excitement filled the room, rose to a crescendo, stopped abruptly as Australia crashed down the gavel and shouted, in a voice unsteady but triumphant:

  “The Council will be in order! The Council will vote to reconsider the vote on the resolution of the United States! The vote will start with Australia! The Secretary-General will call the roll!…

  “On this question,” he announced five minutes later, voice still unsteady but now even more triumphant, “the vote is 13 for, none opposed. The resolution is again before the Council.”

  And five minutes later, triumphant again:

  “On this question the vote is 13 for, none against. The resolution repealing the veto is adopted.

  “This emergency session of the Council now stands adjourned—to await,” he added with a sudden inspiration that obviously delighted him, “the pleasure of the President of the United States.”

  “My God,” Walter Dobius said to the general director of the Post three hours later in an East Room of the White House so full of bodies that it seemed they must begin piling up to the roof if one more was allowed to enter, “how he must be feeling! How he must be feeling! All the things we’ve said about him … and now he has overturned the world.”

  “And who’s to put it back together?” the Post inquired moodily. “Do you think he can? A world in the image of Orrin Knox?”

  “I think,” Walter replied, “that from now on we are going to have to accept the fact that this is the kind of world it’s going to be.… And not so bad, either,” he added after a moment with an honesty that did not sound at all grudging. “I think he’s been very, very good in these last few hours.”

  “He has been rather amazing, I’ll admit,” the Post conceded. “And now, I suppose, he’s going to tell us who he has appointed to run Russia and China.”

  But he did not go quite that far, nor could he. Instead he began by announcing formally the unbelievable facts that they had all guessed must be so, when the press secretary had announced this sudden new conference so soon after the abrupt departure of the warring delegations from New York.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” he said gravely as the room quieted down to an attentive hush and the cameras concentrated once again upon the face that for the time being dominated the world, “I have asked you to come here tonight so that I might confirm what your own sources are beginning to report to you from overseas:

  “The government of the Soviet Union headed by Chairman Tashikov and the Politburo of the Communist Party has been overthrown.” There was a deep gasp, for it was unbelievable. He continued calmly. “The government of the People’s Republic of China has been overthrown. Revolutionary juntas are in control in both countries.

  “Although sporadic skirmishes are continuing in both countries, there has apparently been very little successful resistance from the old regimes. It appears that most local party leaders in the towns and villages have been slaughtered by the people and the major national leaders are either already executed or soon will be.

  “Apparently when the structures began to crack they cracked all the way, very fast. Apparently, as we have long had reason to suspect, there has been no real loyalty to any of the individuals in positions of leadership, as individuals—no personality who could hold either country together. Just politburos and committees, which, unfortunately for them, aren’t very lovable. Both countries have been laboring along under terribly repressive artificial superstructures created by their respective Communist parties. Both have apparently been ready for revolt for quite some time. The awful nature of the war was the catalyst—my speech perhaps provided the extra push—and suddenly it’s happened.

  “The new government of Russia, which is returning to Moscow, has informed me that it wishes to be known as ‘the United States of Russia.’ The new government of China, which is returning to Peking, has designated itself ‘the United Chinese Republic.’ The United States has already recognized both these governments and urges all countries to do likewise.”

  He paused, reached for a glass of water, took a sip, looked out thoughtfully, resumed.

  “I think I should tell you that both governments have invited me to come over and help them settle the war. I have accepted these invitations. I shall leave tomorrow for Moscow and will go from there directly to Peking. Possibly in the interests of reaching agreement I may then return to Moscow. In any event, I intend to stay there until things are buttoned up—if they can be buttoned up.” He looked suddenly somber. “They had damned well better be.…

  “Those of you who wish to accompany me should make arrangements immediately through the press office. Estimated time of departure for Moscow is 9 a.m. tomorrow. We will take as many press planes as necessary to accommodate all of you who wish to go.”

  He smiled, and for the first time since the crisis had begun, looked fully relaxed and at ease.

  “Tonight I shall reward you for your long and faithful vigil through these two fantastic days by answering questions. I am sure you have some. Walter?”

  “Mr. President,” Walter said, and his colleagues listened respectfully as they always did to this long-famed, distinguished figure—and so did Orrin, though he could not keep a little twinkle out of his eyes which was not lost on Walter—“evidently, if this change has come about so rapidly in both countries, it must pretty much have come from within, mustn’t it? They must have been palace revolutions, backed by the military, right?”

  “You’re a shrewd man, Walter,” the President said, neither sarcastically nor effusively, just stating a fact he had always recognized, no matter what their bitter differences. “I would say your assumption is correct—at least so we believe on the basis of the information we have now. We haven’t very much, yet, you know—just the bare bones. It will become clearer when we get there.”

  “And when it does, Mr. President,” Walter pursued thoughtfully, “what is it that leads you to believe that the new governments, being palace-revolutionary, military-backed governments, will be basically any different in their views, or any less intransigent, than the old ones?”

  The President studied him for a moment, as thoughtful as he.

  “To tell the truth, Walter,” he said slowly, “I don’t know the answer to that yet. I don’t think anybody does, except maybe the new men in charge over there—and I suspect maybe even they don’t know. I hope to get there in time to persuade them, if they have any funny ideas.

  “But”—and his voice became flat and emphatic, the old Orrin—“I can tell you this: by God they had better be willing to be less intransigent, by God they had better be willing to cooperate with what the world wants them to do. This is the last chance they have, probably the last chance any of us has. It has got to work, and they have got to help make it work.

  “I am confident that they will realize this, and that we will find when we get there an attitude of cooperation and willingness that will restore peace and save the world.”

  “You hope,” Walter observed moodily.

  “Yes—” he said, and though there were quite a few more questions before they pushed one another out the doors to file their bulletins and hurry to the press office to make their arrangements for the trip, the exchange with Walter was obviously the gist of it:

  “—I hope.”

  With a fervent unanimity that in a grim sort of way amused him, all the most powerful among his countrymen hoped with him.

  “The opportunity which now opens before the President of the United States, and the background of events against which it will unfold,” declared the Times, “are absolutely breathtaking. All who hope for the salvation of the world—and that must include every rational being on this planet—can only pray that all will go well with Orrin Knox as he embarks upon his great, historic journey.

  “Two powerful governments which only yesterday seemed solid and unshakable, pillars of the earth�
�s society as we have known it for so many years, are utterly gone, vanished in the irresistible popular rebellions of half a day. ‘The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics’—‘The People’s Republic of China’—they are as dead as Nineveh and Tyre. Today there stride forth upon the world’s stage new alignments of power, new men in charge of these two giant countries whose actions have such a profound bearing upon the future of all mankind. They call themselves ‘the United States of Russia’ and ‘the United Chinese Republic’ To the U.S.R. and the U.C.R. we say: ‘Welcome to the councils of the nations. May your success be great and your lives be long.’

  “Like President Knox, all Americans must hope that the new governments in Moscow and Peking will seize the opportunity to settle their differences, join in organizing the peace and cooperate in the great new era of international relationships already well launched by the President’s proposals, the support of nearly all other governments and the unanimous actions of the United Nations.

  “Indeed, there is no alternative. The new governments of Moscow and Peking must cooperate with the rest of humanity. Otherwise, humanity is lost.…”

  “It is significant,” the Post pointed out, “that Orrin Knox did not reiterate his famous ‘Ten Demands’ before agreeing to mediate the war between Russia and China. Several of those demands have already been met, in any event; but we suspect there was much more to his restraint than that. We suspect that there has occurred an act of supreme statesmanship on his part, typical of the shrewd skill with which he has manipulated the cataclysmic events of these fantastic days.

  “It could be argued that by imposing conditions they believed they could not accept, he goaded the former leaders of Russia and China to continue their intransigence to the point where it brought about their inevitable downfall. And by treating their successors gently, with great consideration and respect and without ‘demands’ or arbitrary conditions, it can be argued that he is going as far as he possibly can to encourage them to be accommodating, responsible and truly cooperative with the rest of the world as it seeks to re-establish lasting peace.