It is in the best interest of all concerned that this integration be accomplished in a peaceful and constructive manner. If it is necessary to bring Taiwan into the People’s Republic of China by the use of force, then that is the method that will be used. Let us hope that it is not so. In this regard, interference by outside forces will not be tolerated.
No doubt you would consider it a declaration of war if a foreign power from halfway around the world came to the aid of the state of California if it declared its independence and seceded from the United States. The People’s Republic of China regards Taiwan in the same light. We are certain that you and the people of the United States understand and will not interfere. We will defend Taiwan as a part of the People’s Republic of China.
As of this morning, we have informed those inhabiting the Island of Formosa that they are, indeed, part of one China and that we will integrate them in all respects into our nation in the immediate future. Letters similar to this one have been sent to the governments of Japan and Russia to inform them of our decision.
Respectfully,
Sung, Chiang
Prime Minister
People’s Republic of China
“Swell letter Sung writes,” stated Thornton sarcastically. He leaned forward to switch his intercom button. “Peggy, call a meeting of the National Security Council in one hour. Invite everybody. We have some late breaking news here.” He leaned back in his chair and looked at Marge Talbott. “What did he say with his body language, Marge? Was he happy, morose or the usual inscrutable Chinaman?”
Marge Talbott grinned at her boss. “He was the usual inscrutable Chinaman, Mr. President. I couldn’t tell how he personally felt about it. I suspect, however, he was dancing a jig inside.”
When the appropriate departmental secretaries and the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff arrived, Peggy Parsons passed around copies of the letter from Sung.
After reading it, all of them looked at the President and waited.
“Well, people, is this an objective of theirs, or is it a diversion from another objective? Opinions? Marge, as Secretary of State, you first.”
“Mr. President, I do believe it to be a diversion from a real objective of the Caspian Sea basin and perhaps the Middle East. They haven’t formed any more armies of which I am aware along their eastern seaboard. Such armies would be absolutely essential unless Taiwan agreed to unconditional surrender. I have had no such reply from the government of Taiwan when I queried them on receipt of this letter. I think Taiwan will fight, and China knows it. The Chinese won’t risk war on two fronts, in my opinion. Then, too, they know that Taiwan will hurt them. There could be some truth to the rumors that the Taiwanese have acquired a number of nuclear warheads that formerly belonged to the Soviet Union. At that short range, Taiwan couldn’t miss.”
“Ed?”
“I concur with Secretary Talbott, Mr. President, for the same reasons, and more. Caspian Sea oil and the Middle East are far more important targets. World energy consumption, demand for energy, is increasing close to 50% between now and the year 2050. No doubt about that. Both India and China were really consuming the energy until the war. The Chinese have to have greater amounts of raw materials, especially oil and natural gas. They are burning tremendous amounts of coal to generate electricity right now. Consequently, many of their eastern cities are so polluted that it is almost dark until mid-morning, or sometimes noon in a few of them. You would think a sandstorm blew in from the desert. It is not healthy to breathe the air in China.
“They can’t sustain their current employment without a greater abundance of raw materials, particularly energy, at lower rates than they are now paying. Another point is that all of their coastal cities are easily within the range and accuracy of missiles from Taiwan. We know Taiwan has secretly built intermediate range missiles with nuclear warhead capability. No doubt China knows this as well. I don’t know if the Chinese know that the previous administration gave small nuclear warheads to Taiwan or that they acquired some from the former Soviet Union. Although these missiles have never been tested by firing one, there is no reason to believe they won’t be highly functional and accurate. Neither have we observed any concentration of Chinese air forces along their coast. That would be essential for an invasion of Taiwan.”
Jason Thornton looked at his flag officers, who were all mildly nodding their heads in agreement with their boss. They agreed because they agreed with his assessment, not because he was their boss. His National Security Advisor was also nodding affirmatively.
“Well, it seems to be unanimous. We all agree that, for the moment, this is a political diversion. No doubt that in the future it will be an objective, just as it is spelled out in this letter, but for now, I suspect it is to tie down our naval forces in the Strait of Formosa and Sea of Japan while they invade the Middle East. That is where we will stand. Ed, you and Admiral Stark plan on the naval forces we need to move into the Arabian Sea in the immediate future.”
“While we are all here, what has transpired about weapons procurement and shipment? Have you made any progress, General Anderson?”
“Mr. President, we have an open-ended contract with Sturm, Ruger and Co. for all the Mini-14 and Mini-30 model rifles they can build. They have agreed to hire sufficient workforce to produce these rifles around the clock with their current workforce. It will take those about three months to get fully geared up because of machinery requirements to increase production over their current ability. They have to train machinists even with CNC equipment. These two rifles use our standard NATO 5.56 millimeter and the former Soviet 7.62 by 39 millimeter ammunition respectively. This way, we can take advantage of whatever ammunition sources the recipients already have. We have contracted with Colt Firearms, Rock River Firearms, and the Armalite Corporation while Fabrique National of America is negotiating, for all the M-16 type rifles in semi-automatic configuration they can manufacture. Additionally, we have let contracts for ammunition and magazines to fit them. Our contracts have taken these sources quite by surprise. When queried as to who would be the recipients, I instructed our contracting officers to state that we are building a national stockpile. It took a couple of days for the bureaucrats in the Army Acquisition Corps to get their act together to comprehend we wanted these rifles ASAP, as many as we could get. Once they grasped that, they got on the ball. The biggest question remaining regarding procurement is: where will the funding come from?”
“The funding will come out of pots from other departments, not from other DOD pots, I might add. They will be purchased essentially out of the Health and Human Resources budget. We will have to shift some funds somehow, legally or otherwise. I don’t want the word out on this just yet. For now, consider they are coming from the public housing funding. Go on.”
“We have spoken secretly with the Russian, Polish, and Hungarian military attachés. We are all agreed that arms could and should flow through those states into the Central Asian Republics, Afghanistan, and possibly Pakistan if anyone there is still alive. The Russian attaché has tentatively agreed, pending approval by their government, to allow us the use of air bases close to the CAS borders as bases for C-130s to drop the arms into the CAS and Afghanistan. By flying over the Caspian Sea in international air space, we are keeping international involvements to a minimum. A couple of our people assigned to Afghanistan are doing a little exploring on the Afghan-Pakistan border as we speak, about who is left and where. We have drones over that area, Global Hawks II at 50,000 feet, and over Pakistan watching for movement, especially of regular army, militia or paramilitary organizations. It is ironic we are going to re-arm these clans and tribes who are still in the nineteenth century after we went to so much difficulty to disarm them ten years ago, Mr. President.”
Jason Thornton had to smile on that one. “It appears to me that you have accomplished a great deal in one week, General. My compliments.
“Marge, have you heard anything from our so-called Allies in Europe?”
“Yes, Mr. President, and it is a mixed bag. The countries of Eastern Europe are with us, the French are against us, the Germans can’t make up their mind, and the British are protesting in the streets, both in front of our embassy and the Chinese embassy. Poland, Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic, Serbia and even Turkey are with us. They all fear a horde of Chinese overrunning them. Russia is with us one hundred percent. They will go along with anything we want to do. It seems that even the Russian Mafia is taking the threat of invasion very seriously. They are beginning to realize that they could be next. Historically, Russia and China have fought along the Amur River for decades, ever since Russia expanded east in the eighteenth century. Most of those countries I have mentioned are already recruiting and training troops for their defense. Their arms plants are also going twenty-four-seven, Mr. President. I think we can count on them all. I do believe they will no longer accept any foreign yoke of any kind, now that they have tasted freedom.”
“Inform them each in turn, Marge, that we are drawing the line. If Chinese forces come within 150 kilometers of the Russian or Iranian borders, we will initiate nuclear strikes against China. It is all we can do. We cannot let them control the Middle Eastern oil fields. There is no recourse. They could plunge us all back into the dark ages by simply shutting off the oil supply. Western Europe and the United States would be resorting to cannibalism before the year is out. I’d rather force them to face a nuclear winter along with us rather than go down alone. Tell them all that and see if they change their minds.
“Now, with the exception of the Joint Chiefs, Marge, Ed, Jim, George and Ralph, I thank you all for coming and hope you have a good afternoon.” After the room had cleared except for the named, Thornton asked, “Where do we stand on preparation for taking down the Canal Zone? Jim, let’s hear from each of your folks in turn regarding their respective services.”
Jim Neville nodded, and said, “Admiral Stark, if you would care to lead off.”
The Admiral nodded to his boss and opened the briefing. “We have coordinated with the 101st Airborne, which just arrived at Norfolk for practicing loading and unloading procedures from cargo carrying vessels. We will do that far enough offshore that we are out of observation.
“We borrowed an idea from the Germans in World Wars I and II in that we are converting some of our cargo vessels into what were called Q boats. We can drop open a door in the side of the ship and open fire with five inch naval guns. We are installing them on half a dozen vessels, two guns per side of each ship. They can provide direct fires in support of the 101st ashore.
“I have sent submarines to monitor each end of the Canal, really to search for any submarines that might be there. I have ordered that no action be taken against them at this time, just locate, observe and orient. Navy SEALs are being briefed on the construction of the locks and dams. They are being informed of where and what to look for to prevent their destruction. They will go in just a few hours before dawn and clear any explosive charges. We will have a carrier standing 50 miles offshore in the Atlantic just in case any extra support is needed. That’s it for the Navy so far, Mr. President.”
“For the Army, I have ordered the Commander of the 101st and his staff to draw up plans for invading the eastern two thirds of the Canal Zone, using the Navy ships as their means of transportation. He will use the entire division of 12,000 personnel less their heavy weapons. They will disembark from the cargo vessels just before first light. He is assigning specific targets and activities to his brigades and battalions. I have left the details up to him. He is very capable, and I have utmost faith in him, Mr. President. I have assigned the western third of the Canal Zone to the Commander of the 82nd Airborne Division. He is to have a brigade of paratroopers dropped into the western one third. He is completing his plan as we speak. These two units will simultaneously attack the majority of the bases. Special Forces and Army Rangers will make surreptitious entry into the Canal Zone on the night before to take down the suspected warehouses, headquarters and communications facilities. Both division commanders have been informed of which of these facilities have been assigned to Special Operations. Spec Ops have increased training by practicing stealth exercises at night, hand to hand combat, weapons firing on the target range, explosives and demolitions, identification and elimination of high priority personnel, and all the other things snake eaters do.” He nodded to General Mark Leonard, USMC.
“As far as the Marines go, I have ordered two Marine Expeditionary Units to prepare for both amphibious and vertical envelopment operations. One MEU will be assigned to each end of the Canal. I have ordered the MEUs to add two additional Joint Strike Fighters to each amphibious ship capable of supporting them. The strike fighters will provide close air support on call to the Marines, the 82nd, and the 101st. These two MEUs will undoubtedly command the initial attention of the Chinese. They are, to some degree, a diversionary force. They are also acting as reserves, capable of supporting any of the Army units which run into unexpected difficulties, through vertical envelopment with C-22 Osprey aircraft and direct amphibious assault with amphibious light armored vehicles. No disparagement on the Army, but each unit has 3500 gung-ho Marines who want to get into the action. We will also have a Marine EA-6B Prowler on call on that Navy carrier standing off shore to jam any electronic signal communications if it becomes necessary.” He grinned and nodded at General Anderson, who grinned back. General Leonard nodded to General George Shelton, USAF.
“The Air Force has initiated increased training with F-16s as missile interceptors. We are flying three squadrons to bases in south Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. Additional squadrons are being assigned along the Gulf Coast to intercept any missiles fired towards the eastern seaboard. The 82nd will make a low level drop from Hercules C-130 aircraft. We will fly out of Fort Hood, TX, over the ocean at less than five hundred feet to avoid radar detection by any radar units the Chinese might have established. They, a five thousand man brigade, will be dropped precisely at dawn right over their targets. The pilots are practicing now for low-level flights over water at night. Each target is precisely pinpointed for its drop.”
Robert Wha Lee enjoyed himself very much. He did like to fish and was good at it. The weather in the Georgian Bay in November can be very treacherous. Consequently, he stayed relatively close to the island. The days were warm, but the nights cold. Sudden winds often whipped the Bay into whitecaps. After catching enough fish for several good meals and sufficient photographs taken by Frank to support his trip, Lee decided he should return to the United States. The night before he decided to leave, the weather took a turn for the worse. It rained heavily for six hours, and then the temperature dropped. The first snow storm of the season blew in during the pre-dawn hours of the morning he checked out of the Lodge. The launch took him back to the mainland, along with two other fishermen, the last of the season.
