by Allen Drury
“Everything we have always stood for, in terms of individual freedom and international cooperation, would go down before this on-rushing tide. Our friends and allies in Europe and the Pacific would go under like dominoes, one by one. We would then truly stand alone, not in the idealistic sense President Knox attempted to portray yesterday, of the great preservator of civilization, but as the last forlorn citadel of civilization, doomed to fall. What will it profit us then, to have been noble and refrained from intervention? Not a thing, Mr. President! Not a thing!”
“Mr. President,” Bob Munson said with a patience he tried to keep from sounding too exasperated, “the Senator from Minnesota is begging the question. He is also overlooking two fundamental facts.
“The first is that there is no evidence at the moment that Russia is actually facing defeat, so what is all the shouting about? She has apparently suffered some reverses in the past few hours in a sector of one hundred miles, more or less, along a border of some four thousand miles. Does that spell the end of a great power even under such conditions as now prevail over there? Is that why we are letting Fred Van Ackerman and a lot of our timid countrymen stampede us into discussing intervention? One hundred miles out of four thousand? And a reversal that may itself be reversed even as we are speaking?
“Shame on us, Senators, to let ourselves be stampeded like this! This is no way to find our way through the very terrible difficulties we face right now. It is desperately important that we remain absolutely calm and objective. We are getting much too emotional.
“Secondly, let us remember, always remember, that this is atomic war we are discussing. A week ago this was still a fact so vivid that it terrified us all. Today, even though it may be resumed on a large scale at any moment, the human mind has somehow adapted itself to the point where we are discussing, quite matter-of-factly, quite as though it had no relation to atomic war, whether or not we should intervene. We are talking as though it were a conventional war, some ordinary dispute in foreign affairs, something customary, common, familiar.
“Already, perhaps, it is familiar—such is the dreadful adaptability of the human mind.
“I sometimes think the sheer adaptability of the human mind will be the death of us yet.
“Maybe this is the time.
“So, I suggest to Senators, and indeed to all our countrymen, that we remember that Russia may not be at all in a situation where she needs intervention. Certainly she hasn’t asked for it. A hundred miles out of four thousand! A temporary reverse! What are we talking about?
“And secondly, let us remember that it is still atomic war that’s involved here—dreadful, awful, cataclysmic, horrible atomic war.
“We need arguments more noble than racism to warrant even thinking about intervention under conditions such as these.”
“I still say we cannot afford to stand idly by and watch a basically similar society go down before a culture that is foreign to our ways and our traditions, and is apparently bent upon all-out imperial conquest,” Tom August replied stubbornly in the hushed, uneasy Senate.
“I still say,” William Abbott said, “that we need something more than an evil racism and the phony threat of ‘alien culture’ to warrant our even thinking for a single moment about intervention in atomic war.”
“I still say this House would be derelict in its responsibility if it permitted Russia to go down without assistance before the advancing tide of a way of life that is completely foreign and completely inimical to ours,” Bronson Bernard replied stubbornly in the hushed, uneasy House.
In the Senators’ Lobby, just off the floor of the Senate, and in the Members’ Reading Room just off the floor of the House, the news tickers suddenly came to life. Bells rang, keys chattered. Responding swiftly, Representative Henry “Pep” Kowalski of Michigan and Senator Warren Strickland of Idaho ripped off the message, read it hastily and carried it with trembling hands into their respective chambers.
Flash, it said. Chinese drive many miles into Russia as furious death charge continues. Report Russian resistance crumbling at many points.
This was followed moments later, while proceedings in both houses stood in temporary suspension as members crowded around to pass the news from hand to hand, by another
Flash—Russ launch new atomic attack on Chinese cities. Chinese retaliate.
And an hour later, both houses in recess but nobody leaving, members milling about talking worriedly to one another, calling back and forth to members of the media and visitors in the galleries above, all pretense of business and order gone, everyone desperately worried and waiting for no one knew what, there came yet another
Flash—Moscow appeals for immediate U.S. intervention.
And so the bell tolled once more, and perhaps for the last time, for the President of the United States of America.
***
Book Five
The Promise Of Joy
1
“My Countrymen,” he said at 9 p.m., looking tired, strained but unyielding, “you all know the terrible news that has come to us in the past couple of hours from Asia.
“In a desperate mustering of her remaining strength, China has managed to break through the Russian lines over a relatively broad sector—according to reports reaching me just a moment ago, about three hundred miles. Her troops, tanks and atomic field weaponry have penetrated in depth about a hundred miles, and they are still advancing. Russian resistance in many sectors of the front seems to be collapsing.
“In response, finding herself being pushed back on the ground and in the air by the desperate fury of the Chinese assault, Russia has resorted once more to atomic attack on a score of Chinese cities, some hit two weeks ago, some new targets. For the first time Peking has been attacked, and is partially destroyed.
“In response to that, the Chinese have renewed atomic attacks on an equally large number of Russian cities, including for the first time Moscow.
“So the war has been fully resumed, in even more awful form than before.
“And as of this moment, the Russians, whom the world had confidently expected to win if war should come again, are losing.
“As a result, as you all know, I have received a desperate and urgent appeal from Moscow that the United States intervene on the side of Russia.
“This appeal,” he said, and he looked somberly straight into the cameras, “has already, as you also know, received considerable support in this country. No doubt that support has increased a hundredfold in the past couple of hours. No doubt it will increase still further if Russian defeats continue.
“You have a right to know—the world has a right to know—what your government intends to do about it.”
He paused, took a sip of water with deliberate slowness, raised his eyes again to the cameras. An enormous tension gripped the watching earth. Across the street in Lafayette Square, where NAWAC and its sympathizers had mustered a crowd estimated at more than one hundred thousand in the past two hours, someone shouted, “Save the West!” and there was a great answering roar of endorsement and support.
“For the time being,” he said slowly, “we shall do nothing other than offer our good offices should both sides wish to make another attempt at peaceful negotiations.”
In Lafayette Square the roar turned to a savage groan, and throughout America similar groans competed with relieved applause wherever his countrymen watched. At the moment, he would have been pleased to know, the balance was still about fifty-fifty, not yet as far gone on the other side as he feared. He devoted himself in his closing brief paragraphs to an attempt to shore up the neutrality he considered so desperately imperative.
“This decision will appall some of you and gratify others. I can only hope a majority will presently conclude that it is right.
“In any event,” he said quietly, “it is the course your government will pursue until the situation in Asia is better clarified by events.
“We will do so for the same reason I gave the Congress sc
arcely twenty-four hours ago—because we must stay out, stay strong, and stand by to help restore some semblance of civilization in Asia when the combatants at last either collapse exhausted or decide to talk again.
“We shall do so because we believe that neither antagonist, whatever the temporary Chinese gains at the moment may be, can really conquer the other. The countries are too vast, the populations too huge, the administrative problems in the wake of such a war too humanly impossible. Neither China nor Russia can do it. In the long run they simply cannot win. Therefore, they must eventually stop fighting. Given the already extensive weakening of their forces in the first exchange, and the great fury with which they are fighting now, the end cannot be very long delayed.
“When it comes, we must be in the clear and in a position to help, for the need will be enormous.
“We cannot do this if we allow ourselves to be drawn in now. We must be calm—be patient—be firm—be unafraid—and be uncommitted to either side. Any other course, in my judgment, would be disastrous not only for us, but for people everywhere who look to us to restore some order and balance after this terrible contention ends.
“I urge you not to worry, and to be of good heart. Your government has carefully and prayerfully considered what it should do. It acts always with your best interests and the safety of America in mind. It is also acting, we believe, in the best interests of the warring powers and all other nations that may be affected by their warring—in other words, all of us.
“Our refusal to respond to Moscow’s appeal does not mean that we are choosing sides, favoring China, knocking down Russia or anything else. It just means that we are trying to be calm, to be sensible and to act with responsibility, forethought and careful planning in a most dreadful and difficult situation.
“God bless you, and good night.”
Aid-Russia resolution introduced as congress meets in emergency night session following president’s speech. Bitter debate rocks both houses. Foreign committees to take up measure tomorrow morning, try to get it to floor at noon.
Russ fallback continues as Chinese drive ahead through devastated land. Vast new casualties reported from latest a-bombing. New cloud drifts toward Europe.
President calls midnight talk with congressional leaders, top advisers. Possible veto seen if resolution passes.
“Thank you all for coming,” he said, “particularly after such a hectic session. Why was it felt necessary to hold one, by the way?”
“Well, sir,” Jawbone replied promptly, “it was jes’ obvious that there was pressure buildin’ there, yes, sir. Pressure buildin’ up so high we had to do somethin’, Mr. President, sir. Seemed to me we jes’ needed a safety valve in view of Russia’s appeal, and the way things are goin’, and your speech, and all.”
“Some safety valve,” he said dryly. “Did either of you know the resolution was coming?”
“Tom August was going to introduce it this afternoon,” Arly Richardson said, “but I persuaded him to hold it until you spoke. I couldn’t get him to hold it any longer. And apparently Bronson Bernard and his friends were waiting in the House.”
“Yes, sir,” Jawbone agreed.
“You still didn’t have to meet until noon in the regular order of things,” the President said. “Why the emergency session? Isn’t life dramatic enough, these days?”
“We have our right to drama, too, Mr. President,” Arly said with a dryness to match his own. “As Jawbone says, a safety valve. Actually, I didn’t think feeling had started to run quite so high as it apparently has. We really had a bitter debate, as you know.”
“We, too, Mr. President, sir,” Jawbone agreed emphatically. “We, too!”
“In which,” he said, “my two leaders in the two houses not only didn’t come to my support but actually cooperated in plans to get the resolution through as fast as possible.”
“We have to live with one another,” Arly Richardson said almost indifferently.
“Why?” he demanded, trying not to sound as frustrated as he felt. “You traveled with me, you saw the situation. Why do you want us to get involved? What earthly good would it do this country, or anyone else?”
“It isn’t the good it would do, exactly, Mr. President,” Jawbone said carefully. “It’s jes’ a kind of feelin’ that mebbe, if things are gettin’ so bad over there, if Russia’s really gettin’ desperate and on the ropes, then, mebbe it’s right what Fred Van Ackerman and them say—mebbe we should stand by the people that’s basically like us. Mebbe we should defend the world against those yellow hordes. Eight hundred million of ’em, Mr. President—almost one billion. Look at ’em now, pushing and sweepin’ through the Russian lines in a livin’ tide because they jes’ don’t give a damn about human life, they got so all-fired much of it. They jes’ don’t give a damn. And where does that leave us if they beat Russia and turn our way, Mr. President? Where does that leave us?”
“He answered that in his speech,” Bill Abbott said with an angry impatience. “It isn’t going to happen, this sweeping over Russia, this sweeping over the world, this—this ‘threat to our own shores,’ as your side put it in the debate. Russia’s too big, they can’t conquer her, any more than she can conquer them.”
“Eight hundred million on a death mission against two hundred million?” Arly Richardson asked with an angry impatience of his own. “Use your arithmetic, Bill!”
“I am using it!” the ex-President snapped. “I am also, I hope, using a little common sense. My God, man, you people want us to get involved in atomic war—atomic war. What’s the matter with you, anyway?”
“Now, just a minute,” Senator Richardson said sharply. “Just a minute. Do you mean to tell me that if we come in fresh, select a few targets, get in and out fast, against a nation that has just suffered its second round of atomic devastation, a nation that is engaged completely and absolutely in a titanic struggle with its neighbor, that we would suffer the same way either one of them is? It would be a surgical strike, Bill. In and out. Not a bog-down. A surgical strike.”
“Yes, I know that’s the pet phrase you all came up with tonight,” Bill Abbott said, “and no doubt it’s the pet phrase we’ll begin to hear from the media if you’ve managed to get them on your side, which I hope to hell you haven’t because this is tough enough without them yapping and yammering. ‘Surgical strike,’ all very neat and clean, against ‘yellow hordes’ we won’t admit are ‘yellow hordes,’ because that upsets our concept of our noble selves. ‘Surgical strike’! It doesn’t work that way in this day and age. We’d never get home scot-free.”
“It would work,” Jawbone insisted stubbornly. “Yes, sir, Bill, it would. And as for those ‘yellow hordes,’ now, they are hordes and they are yellow and they aren’t like us, and I say we’ve got to stop ’em! We’ve got to stop ’em right now while they’re busy and can’t handle both Russia and us together. That’s what makes sense, Bill, not maunderin’ on about neutrality and savin’ the world and such.”
“Is that what it is?” the President demanded sharply. “‘Maundering’? And who’s talking about ‘saving the world’ if you aren’t?”
“Many, many people in Congress and throughout the country,” Arly Richardson said, “are coming to think that our way of saving it is better than yours. We honor your motives, Orrin, as I hope you honor ours, but we really think, for all its risks, our way might be better. The situation has simply become that bad.”
“And it doesn’t seem that bad to me?” he inquired, and pushed himself back with ironic disbelief. He placed his hands before him on the desk for emphasis. “Look: against all reason, against all logic, against all their own best interests and the best interests of humankind, these two giants have let themselves be driven by the worst elements in human nature, by hatred and fear, into warring upon each other, at what an awful cost. And now you want me to let us be driven by hatred and fear into jumping in, also against all reason, all logic, our own best interests and the best interests of humanki
nd. I won’t do it. I won’t do it.”
“‘Won’t’ is a big word, Mr. President,” Arly said softly, “when your country and the Congress say, ‘will.’”
“They haven’t said it yet,” he replied sharply, “nor will they, if I can help it. I will not have my hands bound. I must be free to decide what is best as circumstances dictate. I want that resolution stopped before it gets to the floor. Bob and Blair”—he turned to the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense—“I want you to go to the Hill first thing tomorrow morning and lobby everybody you can get hold of on those two committees. I won’t ask you to help, Arly, or you either, Jawbone, because it’s obvious I’ve already lost you both. But I’d like you to, Bill, and you, Cullee and Hal, and I’ll ask Bob Munson and Lafe and Warren and Stanley and some others, and we’ll put up a hell of a battle, anyway. And if worst comes to worst”—he paused and looked slowly from face to face, expression grim and unyielding—“I always have one little string left in my bow.”
“If it goes through the way I think it may go through,” Arly told him, “we’ll have enough votes to override your veto.”
“Oh, no, you won’t,” he said firmly, praying he was right.
“We’ll see,” Senator Richardson said calmly. “We’ll see.”
“So we shall,” he agreed, rising to his feet, extending his hand in good-night to each in turn. “It’s past midnight, the day will come fast and be busy for us all. Thank you for coming. Cullee”—the Vice President, who had remained silent and somber throughout, paused in his turn toward the door—“stay for a minute, will you? There’s something I want to talk to you about.”
“Sure,” Cullee said, his tone surprised. “Good night, Arly,” he said half humorously as he sat down again. “Watch out for my rulings this afternoon. I’m going to be awfully tough.”
“But fair, I assume,” Senator Richardson said.
