00:06 (Washington Time)
Sunday, December 9, 1973 ‘C’
Room 412, Hotel Hay-Adams
16th Street Northwest, Washington, D.C.
U.S.A.
Ingrid had been soundly asleep for a bit over one hour in her room at the Hay-Adams Hotel, situated in close proximity to the White House, when the telephone on her night table started ringing. Still groggy from fatigue, she extended her right hand and grabbed the receiver, then spoke in it with a sleepy voice.
‘’Yes?’’
‘’General Ingrid Dows?’’ said a male voice, making Ingrid sit up on her bed.
‘’Yes! Who’s speaking, please?’’
‘’This is Brigadier General William Hanson, at the NMCC{3}. We have a crisis situation concerning Taiwan and China and you need to go at once to the White House situation room to attend an emergency meeting with the President and the Joint Chiefs.’’
Ingrid felt immediate dread on hearing the word ‘Taiwan’, but did her best to control her voice.
‘’Taiwan? What is happening exactly, General Hanson?’’
‘’I can’t say much on this line, General, except that the Chinese are attacking Taiwan, starting by striking Taipei with a nuclear-tipped missile.’’
Tears started flowing at once and Ingrid couldn’t help sobbing audibly, unable to speak for long seconds and prompting Hanson to speak with alarm on the telephone.
‘’General Dows, are you okay?’’
‘’N…no! My daughter works at the American embassy in Taipei.’’
It was the turn of Hanson to be silent for a moment, embarrassed for having involuntarily caused such grief with his call.
‘’I am truly sorry about that, General. Still, you are needed urgently at the White House.’’
Taking a deep breath to regain control of herself while wiping away her tears, Ingrid managed to reply to Hanson in a shaky voice.
‘’Tell the President that I will be at the White House in twenty minutes at the most. Thank you for calling, General Hanson.’’
‘’You’re welcome, General. I will advise the President right away.’’ said Hanson, who wisely decided not to end his call with a customary ‘good night’. On her part, Ingrid hung down her receiver, then freely let out her grief, crying for a good minute before forcing herself to get up from bed and starting to put on her uniform. Eleven minutes after receiving the call from the NMCC, she was walking out of her room and heading down to the ground lobby of the hotel. From there, she only had to walk for a few hundred meters before arriving at the guarded access point to the White House at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and of the West Executive Avenue. There, she presented her military identity card and her White House security pass to the Secret Service agents and the marines guarding the access point. The senior marine in charge, having obviously been told to expect her, gave her back her security pass and looked at one of his marines on duty.
‘’Alvarez, get into your jeep at once and drive General Dows to the White House.’’
‘’Right away, Master Sergeant!’’
The NCO then saluted again Ingrid.
‘’Corporal Alvarez will drive you to the White House, General.’’
‘’Thank you, Master Sergeant!’’ replied Ingrid while returning his salute. She then climbed aboard Alvarez’ jeep, which had been parked next to the guard house, with the marine then starting to roll at once towards the White House, some 400 meters away. While Alvarez drove, Ingrid did her best to chase away her grief and prepare mentally for the coming emergency meeting. Since the Chinese had made a first use of an atomic weapon against Taiwan, then her command, which included the American intercontinental ballistic missile force based in fixed silos in the continental United States, was certainly going to be solicited. Another division of her command which was assured to be solicited was her squadron of strategic photo-reconnaissance spaceplanes. She had time to decide on a number of measures and priorities by the time that Corporal Alvarez dropped her at the main entrance, where she presented again her security pass to the marines and Secret Service agents posted there before being admitted and escorted towards the underground Situation Room.
She arrived at the Situation Room to find it still mostly deserted, except for a military White House liaison officer, a staffer from the National Security Council and three Secret Service agents. The military liaison officer came at once to her and saluted her.
‘’General Dows, you are the first member of the JCS{4} to arrive at the White House. The other members should arrive within half an hour.’’
‘’And where is the President, Major?’’
‘’He is making a few urgent phone calls from his Oval Office but should come down soon.’’
‘’And what do we know already about the situation around Taiwan?’’
‘’Details are still sketchy, General, but the Communist Chinese apparently launched two medium range nuclear-tipped missiles about an hour ago. According to our surviving units in Taiwan, those two missiles struck both the city of Taipei and the Taoyuan Airbase, west of Taipei, destroying completely those two locations. Our airwing based in Taoyuan is assessed right now as effectively destroyed, while all communications with Taipei are cut. One of our destroyers, which was patrolling inside the Taiwan Strait at the time, reported after seeing both of the nuclear blasts that it encountered a Chinese invasion fleet approaching the Taiwanese West Coast. Unfortunately, that destroyer was then attacked by a number of Chinese aircraft and is not responding anymore to our calls.’’
‘’Damn! Have the Chinese leaders gone completely mad? They should know what kind of retaliation to expect from us after this. I will need to make some urgent phone calls myself on a secure line.’’
In response, the Air Force major pointed to one of the padded chairs around the conference table which filled most of the room.
‘’You have a secure telephone at your assigned seat around the conference table, General.’’
‘’Thank you!’’
Taking place in her chair, Ingrid placed a call to the operations center of her base in Vandenberg, California, where she got the duty officer, a colonel, on the phone.
‘’Colonel Parsons, this is General Dows, presently in Washington. First, before anything else we say, I want you to put our whole command on top alert, with special emphasis on our ballistic missile force and our spaceplane reconnaissance squadron. I will wait on this line while you do that.’’
‘’Understood, General! Please give me a minute.’’
Ingrid patiently waited while she heard the colonel shout orders and directives around his operations center. The man then returned on the line some forty seconds later.
‘’The alert has been passed around our whole command, General.’’
‘’Good! Have you received any reports or warnings yet from the NMCC concerning the situation around Taiwan?’’
‘’We were advised some twelve minutes ago about an apparent military attack against Taiwan by Communist China, General.’’
‘’That’s it? Did that report specify that the Chinese used two nuclear-tipped missiles against Taiwan?’’
The shocked silence at the other end of the line said everything to Ingrid, who then continued on an urgent tone.
‘’Well, we will review that later, Colonel. Right now, I want our strategic reconnaissance squadron to prepare at once three spaceplanes for orbital launch, to effect photo-reconnaissance missions over East Asia. One will overfly Taiwan and report on the state of both Taipei City and of the Taoyuan Airbase. I want to know the exact extant of the damage to those two locations. Our second spaceplane will overfly the Taiwan Strait and look for a possible Chinese invasion fleet approaching the West coast of Taiwan. Our third spaceplane will overfly the coastal area of China opposite Taiwan, to look at the posture of the Chinese military forces stationed along the coast. Make it concentrate its attention on the Chinese ports and airbases there. It should also keep an eye for any unusual deployment of mobile missile launchers near the coast.’’
‘’Got that, General! Anything else for the moment?’’
Ingrid inhaled deeply before answering that, fully realizing what could follow.
‘’Yes, Colonel! I want our two remaining C-2000 heavy transporters to load up two more spaceplanes armed for nuclear strikes. Each of these spaceplanes will carry three OGM-2N orbital strike nuclear missiles with warheads set to their maximum yield of two megatons. As soon as they are armed and launched into orbit, I want them to assume waiting orbits which will allow them to strike on command any point around Eastern China, including Beijing and Shanghai. Have Major General Meserve call me back at the White House Situation Room as soon as our spaceplanes are in the air. Finally, tell our ballistic missile division to be prepared for possible strikes against Communist China. That’s all for the moment.’’
‘’Understood, General. We’re on it!’’
The colonel then hung up, followed by Ingrid. The latter then closed her eyes, dreading what could very well come next. Next, tears reappeared in her eyes as she thought about her adopted daughter. Wiping her tears away, she did her best to concentrate on the television set in the Situation Room which was permanently tuned to the CBS News Channel. Apparently, the medias had not caught up yet to the Chinese nuclear strikes on Taiwan and were only reporting mundane daily news. As she was watching the television set, the liaison officer took a call at his station and, after a brief conversation, hung up and spoke to Ingrid.
‘’General Dows, the President has ordered all our forces in the Asia-Pacific region to go to DEFCON ONE and to consider the United States to be at war against China. The NMCC is passing that directive to all of our commands and services, including yours.’’
‘’Thank you, Major! Did he mention anything about the USSR?’’
‘’Uh, no, General.’’ replied the officer, taken off balance by her question.
‘’Then, I will need to speak with the President. Can you please get me on his line?’’
‘’Right away, General.’’
A few seconds more and Ingrid had a line to Robert Kennedy and spoke to him in a sober but urgent tone.
‘’Mister President, I am calling you to counsel you so that we quickly reassure the Soviets that our moves are only reactions to Chinese acts of aggression and are not meant to threaten the Soviet Union. If we don’t do that, then the Soviets may think that we are going to attack them as well and they could as a consequence either become an obstacle to our moves or even throw their support behind the Chinese. I believe that, at a minimum, the Soviet ambassador in Washington should be reassured by us to that effect or, even better, that you call Secretary Brezhnev to explain the situation to him. With any luck, we then may see the Soviets try to moderate the actions of the Chinese.’’
There were a few seconds of silence as Kennedy processed mentally Ingrid’s advice.
‘’You may be right about that, Ingrid. If we could split the Soviets from the Chinese, that would make our job much easier. I will call the Soviet ambassador right away.’’
‘’Thank you, Mister President. Before you hang up, I want to inform you that I have ordered my spaceplane squadron to immediately launch five spaceplanes in orbit. Three of them will fly photo-reconnaissance missions over Taiwan, the Strait of Taiwan and the eastern coast of Mainland China, while the remaining two spaceplanes will take off with three nuclear missiles each and will take waiting orbits over Eastern China, ready to strike at your command.’’
‘’That was an excellent initiative on your part, Ingrid. If the two Chinese nuclear hits on Taiwan are confirmed, then we will have little choice but to retaliate in kind. The only question then will be to what extent.’’
‘’Mister President, I would keep for the moment any nuclear retaliation on our part strictly limited. We don’t know who in China ordered this attack on Taiwan and all this does not feel to me like it was authorized by Chairman Deng Xiaoping. In fact, I would not be surprised to learn that there was some kind of coup against him organized by all those hardline generals who are partisans of the late Mao’s rigid doctrine.’’
‘’I will keep your advice in mind, Ingrid, but many may disagree with you on that. I will think this over for now and will call the Soviet ambassador after this.’’
‘’I will be in the Situation Room if you need me, Mister President.’’ said Ingrid before Kennedy hung up.
The next person to arrive in the Situation Room was Admiral Thomas Moorer, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who went at once to Ingrid to shake her hand.
‘’I am glad to see that you came here this fast, Ingrid. Your presence may be crucial to this meeting, as you control one element of our nuclear triad. Do we know anything other than the two nuclear missile hits on Taipei and Taoyuan Airbase?’’
‘’Yes! One of our destroyers patrolling the Taiwan Strait signaled that it had detected a Chinese invasion fleet heading for Taiwan, then came under Chinese air attack and stopped responding to calls. I have placed a call to Vandenberg Space Base and ordered my spaceplane squadron to scramble three spaceplanes on photo-reconnaissance missions and two more on standby nuclear strike missions.’’
‘’Good! We will definitely need the reconnaissance reports from your spaceplanes in order to establish a clear situation about what happened.’’
Before Ingrid could reply to that, the secure telephone at her table position rang, making her nearly run to it and grab its receiver.
‘’General Dows speaking!’’
A female voice she knew very well then sounded on the line.
‘’Ingrid, this is Gertrude. I called to advise you that our first reconnaissance spaceplane just attained orbit and will overfly Taiwan in about 33 minutes. Also, I got a call from Hong-Kong…from your daughter Hien: she was in Hong-Kong for diplomatic reasons at the time of the Chinese strike on Taipei. She made a long-distance phone call from Hong-Kong to our operations center, to reassure you about her. She says that she is safe and healthy.’’
Ingrid had to sit down, blood rushing to her brain and an intense wave of relief washing over her. It took her a couple of seconds before she could speak in her receiver.
‘’Thank The One! I was already grieving her loss. This is one big weight off my shoulders. When do you expect our other spaceplanes to be in orbit, Gertrude?’’
‘’All four of our other spaceplanes will be up in orbit within the next half hour, Ingrid.’’
‘’Good! You got the word from the NMCC to go to DEFCON ONE?’’
‘’Yes, we did! Our intercontinental missile squadrons are on full alert and ready to execute any strike on China ordered by the President.’’
‘’Hopefully, things won’t go down to a full nuclear strike. Ideally, I would like us to make only a couple of strikes on Chinese national command centers in response for them nuking Taipei and Taoyuan. That’s what I will counsel to the President anyway.’’
‘’Then, I will call you back the moment that our strike spaceplanes will be in range of continental China. Do you have any other orders for me at this time?’’
‘’No! The President is not yet in the Situation Room and I prefer to wait for firm decisions before giving more orders to our command. Thanks for calling: I will keep you posted.’’
Maybe ten seconds after she hung up, President Kennedy entered the Situation Room with his Secretary of State, Edmund Muskie, and Secretary of Defense Harold Brown, with the ones already present coming to attention and saluting Kennedy. Within a minute, they were joined by Admiral Zumwalt and General George Brown. That was when Robert Kennedy decided to start the meeting.
‘’Since time is of the essence and the main players are now here, let’s start dealing with this crisis. Please take your seats, lady and gentlemen.’’
Once seated, President Kennedy looked briefly at the regional map of China and Taiwan shown on a large wall projection screen.
‘’Okay, people, what do we know for certain right now?’’
‘’For sure: not much, Mister President.’’ replied the military liaison officer. ‘’The only solid reports we have state that two nuclear blasts occurred at about 23:27, our time tonight, over the location of Taipei City and of Taoyuan Airbase. One of our destroyers patrolling in the Taiwan Strait saw the two nuclear explosions, then reported encountering a Chinese invasion fleet heading towards the western coast of Taiwan. Unfortunately, that destroyer, the USS MITSCHER, then came under Chinese air attack and has since stopped answering our calls. That is all that we have as solid information goes, Mister President.’’
‘’Mister President,’’ said Ingrid at once, jumping in, ‘’one of my spaceplanes equipped for photo-reconnaissance will pass over Taiwan in about 28 minutes, followed soon afterwards by two more spaceplanes which will cover the Taiwan Strait and the eastern coast of China. By then, two other spaceplanes will be in orbit as well, each equipped with three nuclear-tipped strike missiles with yields of two megatons.’’
‘’Excellent! Once the destruction of Taipei and of Taoyuan will be confirmed, I will want us to do a limited nuclear retaliatory strike on Mainland China. I want the Chinese to understand at once that they can’t win at that kind of game. We will use General Dows’ spaceplanes for those strikes. Do I have suggestions on what two targets we should strike first?’’
‘’I say, Beijing and Shanghai, Mister President.’’ answered at once Admiral Zumwalt. ‘’They are the two most important government and military command centers on the Chinese East Coast, followed by Canton.’’
‘’I would refrain as much as possible from striking Canton, Mister President.’’ added urgently Ingrid. ‘’It is quite close to Hong-Kong, which is still British territory.’’
Robert Kennedy only had to think that over for a second before nodding his head.
‘’I agree! Let’s keep Canton, or any other Chinese center in proximity to either Hong-Kong or Macao, out of our nuclear target list for the time being. Now, about that Chinese invasion fleet approaching Taiwan. What can we do about it? Do we have enough ships near it which could intercept and stop that fleet?’’
‘’Negative, Mister President!’’ answered Admiral Zumwalt, his expression grim. ‘’The MITSCHER was our only ship present inside the Taiwan Strait. The bulk of our Pacific fleet is in port right now, in either the Philippines, Japan or Hawaii. We do have one carrier group at sea, the USS FORRESTAL group, but it is presently sailing east of Japan and would take a good day to arrive close to Taiwan.’’
‘’Mister President,’’ intervened again Ingrid, ‘’We could use one of my spaceplanes armed with nuclear missiles and strike the Chinese invasion fleet with a two-megaton airburst. That should be enough to sink or gravely damage most of the Chinese ships, especially if they are sailing in tight formation.’’
‘’I like this, Mister President!’’ added Zumwalt in an enthusiastic tone. ‘’Such a strike would be devastating to any surface fleet. It would also have the advantage of exposing any Chinese soldiers surviving the strike to massive radiation doses which would make them quickly combat ineffective. Even if they would manage to land on Taiwan afterwards, those Chinese soldiers would be in essence dying men.’’
General Brown, the head of the Air Force, immediately supported that proposition, making Robert Kennedy nod his head in approval.
‘’I’ll buy that! Ingrid, tell your spaceplane to reserve at least two nuclear missiles to deal with the Chinese invasion fleet. We won’t wait until confirmation of the destruction of Taipei before striking that invasion fleet: I don’t want it to be too close to Taiwan before we blast it with a nuclear weapon.’’
‘’Understood, Mister President!’’ replied Ingrid before grabbing her secure telephone receiver and calling Vandenberg Space Base. As she was talking with Gertrude Meserve on the secure line, Secretary of State Edmund Muskie slapped one hand on the table, frustrated.
‘’WHY? Why would the Chinese do such a reckless move now? I thought that Deng Xiaoping was more reasonable than that.’’
‘’General Dows theorized to me that Deng could have been victim of a coup by old-guard Chinese Red Army generals.’’ volunteered Robert Kennedy. ‘’The more I think about that, the more her suggestion makes sense to me. If that’s so, those Chinese generals may have thought that we would not risk a nuclear exchange just to defend Taiwan and Tchang Kai-Chek’s regime.’’
‘’Maybe, Mister President, but they just destroyed our 401st Tactical Air Wing in Taoyuan and probably sank one of our destroyers.’’ shot back General Brown. ‘’That alone is enough for them to deserve a retaliatory nuclear strike, and those Chinese generals should have understood that.’’
‘’Should is the operative word, General.’’ replied Admiral Zumwalt. ‘’Who knows how those old Communist fanatics think or reason? What is important is their acts, and our response to them. I say: blast that Chinese fleet to Hell!’’
‘’Does anybody haves an objection to that? No? Then, we will proceed with that strike as soon as feasible.’’ said Robert Kennedy before looking at Ingrid, who was still on the phone. ‘’Ingrid, your spaceplane is authorized to nuke from orbit the Chinese invasion fleet as soon as it will be within range. Tell your pilot to be on standby to receive my authorization code for launching his missiles.’’
Ingrid nodded her head, then spoke more on the phone before looking at the President.
‘’My command is establishing a link with the White House right now. You will be able to send your authorization codes in a few seconds, Mister President.’’
‘’Understood! Captain Benning, put my nuclear briefcase on the table and open our target list binder to the pages on China.’’
Reacting quickly, the officer carrying the President’s ‘nuclear football’ unlocked his secure briefcase and opened it in front of Kennedy, then laid down on the table the ‘Top Secret’ binder containing the nuclear target lists and opening it on the list of Chinese possible targets. By the time that he had done so and that Robert Kennedy had taken out of a vest pocket his sealed launch code, a link had been established between the nuclear football and the Vandenberg Space Base’s operations center. Robert Kennedy first entered his personal entry code in the command box, then typed in the codes of the targets he wished to see struck with nuclear weapons. Everybody in the room was silent and tense as they watched the President enter his codes, then push a large red button to send the strike authorization signal while listening to Gertrude Meserve on the telephone receiver of his nuclear football.
‘’You have received my authorization code for strikes against China, General Meserve?’’
‘’Yes, Mister President. It is being transmitted right now to our strike spaceplanes. We have just received the first in-flight report from our pilot overflying Taiwan, Mister President: both Taipei City and Taoyuan Airbase have effectively been obliterated by large nuclear blasts.’’
‘’Then, proceed with retaliatory strikes against Beijing and Shanghai, as well as against the Chinese invasion fleet, General.’’
‘’Will do, Mister President!’’ replied Meserve in a sober tone, fully realizing what those strikes would cause.
‘’Thank you, General Meserve! Stand by and be ready for any other extra target I may judge to be deserving of a nuclear strike in the next few minutes and hours.’’
Robert Kennedy then hung up his receiver and sat back in his chair, his expression grim.
‘’May God help us now! We have just embarked into the first nuclear exchange in history. Let’s hope that we will be able to limit the damage to the minimum.’’
12:20 (China Time) / 01:20 (Washington Time)
U.S. Military Space Command SP-10D spaceplane METEOR
In low Earth orbit above the Strait of Taiwan
Major Stuart Roosa shook his head as he looked through the viewing lens of his spaceplane’s powerful photo-reconnaissance camera, which was pointed down at the Chinese invasion fleet.
‘’What an eclectic bunch of ships and boats! And they call that an invasion fleet? There are more fishing boats in this so-called armada than there are true warships.’’
‘’Yes,’’ replied his copilot, Captain Geena Armstrong, ‘’but what they don’t have in terms of military quality, they compensate with sheer numbers. There must be over 200 fishing boats and commercial ferries in this fleet, all apparently able to carry a minimum of fifty soldiers and with the bigger ones having a carrying capacity of at least 200 men, if I can judge from their dimensions. The important thing is that the decks of all these boats are crammed full of soldiers. This fleet must be carrying at the least 30,000 soldiers.’’
‘’Well, eclectic or not, this ragtag fleet will soon be history. James, is our first missile armed and ready?’’
The man occupying the seat reserved for the mission payload specialist, which also had a special command panel for receiving nuclear authorization codes during strike missions, nodded his head once.
‘’Missile Number One primed, armed and ready to go, Major. The presidential authorization codes are now locked inside our fire control computer. Which part of this fleet do you want our missile to target? That fleet covers a good four square miles of ocean surface.’’
‘’Aim for the center of mass of the fleet, James, with an airburst altitude of 300 feet. With such a collection of flimsy boats, a two-megaton airburst explosion should wipe out pretty much the whole fleet. If any of those ships survive, they will still be both seriously damaged and heavily irradiated. One missile should do the trick. Fire when ready!’’
‘’Understood!’’ said Captain James Young, who then used the radar return of the Chinese fleet to select his point of aim and enter it in his fire control computer. A green light lit up on his control panel after three seconds.
‘’Firing data entered in the computer and missile trajectory calculated. Launching Missile Number One now!’’
The launch of their first missile was actually not very impressive visually, as it was simply ejected at low speed from its launch rail and rose above the spaceplane floating in orbit. The two-ton OGM-2N orbit-to-ground missile’s solid-fuel retro-rockets then lit up when it was a good fifty meters from the spaceplane. The retro-rockets burned for more than twenty seconds, cutting drastically the missile’s orbital speed and making it reenter the first layers of the Earth’s atmosphere. The empty retro-rockets were then ejected away before the friction with the atmosphere started heating up the nose shield of the big, squat missile. The OGM-2N was actually the second generation of American orbital strike missile and was much improved over its predecessor, the OGM-1N, the biggest improvements being in its electronic sensors and guidance components. In truth, while all of the models of aircraft and missiles developed and introduced by Ingrid Dows in the early 1950s were still in service and going strong, their electronics had been vastly improved over twenty years, with successive retroactive refits giving both brand new lives and much better mission performances to those original planes and missiles. Engines had also been improved, but to a much smaller degree.
Now firmly inside the stratosphere, the big missile followed a pre-calculated trajectory towards the surface, using its inertial guidance system and a number of small liquid propellant rocket thrusters to maneuver it. While still in hypersonic gliding mode, the nose heat shield separated away, uncovering the radar and infrared guidance sensors. However, those sensors were activated only once the missile had arrived at a certain distance from the intended target point, taking over the active piloting of the missile from the inertial guidance package. The image formed by the missile’s radar antenna was then compared to the radar image of the Chinese fleet taken from orbit by the METEOR, a process called image-correlation. Being still a fair distance away from the Taiwanese coast and being alone by itself on its corner of ocean, the radar image of the Chinese invasion fleet was an unmistakable one for the missile’s guidance package, with the OGM-2N steering straight for the center of mass of the fleet while lighting up its cruise ramjet engine, in order to keep its speed to over Mach three. With the American missile falling from the sky at high supersonic speed, the Chinese sailors and soldiers of the invasion fleet couldn’t hear it approach, while its visual signature was limited to a short blue exhaust flame behind it. The short-range rada