“Arnie, do I have the power to stop this?”
“Yessir. But you’d have to do it publicly. You’d have to say,
“Well, I plainly cannot do that.”
“Not if you like working here.”
“What I meant was, can I just ask you to express on my behalf a general disapproval of putting these brave men through some kind of a trial? Might my disapproval not be enough?”
“Nossir. It would not. The Navy is obliged to inquire into the loss of any warship. We cannot just put it down as bad luck and write the ship off. No one would put up with it. Least of all the Senate Armed Forces Committee. We cannot be held unaccountable for our actions. Not least because such an attitude would be held over our heads forever…
“Well, Arnie, I really do not want any criticism or blame attached to anyone over this.”
“Sir, you might make that view known. It worked for the Brits after the Falklands War back in 1982. They found it politically convenient to avoid any courts-martial, which there probably should have been…they lost seven ships, for Christ’s sake. But there was no action beyond regular Boards of Inquiry. But I do not think your admirals would ever approve of a presidential restriction being put upon the men inquiring into a very serious disaster that cost the Navy a coupla billion dollars.”
“How about the other tack, Admiral? How about I threaten not to approve the massive increase in shipbuilding budgets unless they do what I say over this inquiry?”
“Sir, if anyone other than my loyal self ever heard you say that, proceedings would begin to have you removed from this office. Remember, sir, it’s Linus. His presence, right in the thick of this mess, makes you an interested party…interested to see your son exonerated from whatever blame there may be.”
“Arnold, I am interested. I do not want Linus in disgrace. And I’m not having it. You heard my threat. Do not ignore it. Though I shall deny ever having said it.”
“Sir, I am going to pretend I never heard any of the last few sentences you have uttered.”
“That may or may not be a wise move on your part. It could cost your beloved Navy a couple of aircraft carriers.”
“Then so be it, sir. The budget veto is your privilege. But I could not recommend you use it as a blackmail weapon to save Linus’s reputation.”
The President stood up and walked to the end of his office and back. And then he asked a question that had plainly been on his mind: “Have you seen the preliminary reports from
“Nossir.”
“Are they in? Have the admirals read them?”
“I do believe so, sir.”
“Do you have any idea what they contain?”
“Nossir. Except there was a mighty problem right before the collision in the South China Sea.”
“Do you have details?”
“Nossir.”
“Could I demand to see the reports?”
“Yessir.”
“Would they acquiesce?”
“To the parent of one of the officers? I doubt it.”
“No, Arnold. To their Commander-in-Chief.”
“Possibly, sir. But they have one weapon that will always finish you. Any one of them could just say, ‘
“Knowing them, sir, they might all do it. You are contemplating very dangerous ground. But right now I have no reason to believe Linus is in any danger. Take a worst-case situation…let’s say he made some kind of mistake, maybe compounding another. That’s not life-threatening. Maybe a reprimand or a letter of censure. Maybe nothing. Just a warning. It’s part and parcel of command in the U.S. Navy.”
“Arnold, I do not want my son to be reprimanded publicly. Do you understand me?”
“Yessir”
“Can you and I save him from that? With the combined powers of persuasion that we have?”
“Nossir. The Navy will not tolerate interference in a case as serious as this. Long after you’re gone, they’ll still have to answer to Congress.”
“Then we’ll just have to see about that. Thank you, NSA. That’s all.”
The Board of Inquiry was charged with investigating “the circumstances surrounding the accident to USS
A tall, graying man of 55, Admiral Cameron was a former Fifth Fleet Commander. In the 1990s he had served for several years as commanding officer of the state-of-the-art guided missile cruiser USS
Seated to his right was the Commander of the Seventh Fleet, Vice Admiral Albie Peterson. To his left sat Rear Admiral Freddie Curran, Commander Submarine Force Pacific Fleet (COMSUBPAC). Flown in from New London was the newly promoted Trident commander, Captain Mike Krause. The final member of the five-man board was Captain Henry Bonilla, commanding officer of
At the end of the long mahogany table sat Lt. Commander Edward Kirk, the Pentagon’s attorney, whose task it was to restrict the inquiry to those matters relevant to the effective seizure of the American submarine by the Chinese. Not, understandably, the aftermath. Everyone was given to understand that when Lieutenant Commander Kirk spoke on a point of order, his words were to be heeded at all times. Those orders came from Admiral Mulligan in person.
And the CNO had serious reasons for ensuring that the inquiry did not somehow get out of hand. For the month previous to the opening session, he and Admiral Morgan had endured bruising hours with the President’s personal advisers, all of whom were attempting to arrange the fairest possible treatment for Lt. Commander Linus Clarke.
The CNO had argued for a week that the preliminary reports were private to the United States Navy, and that no one beyond CINCPAC should have access to their contents, certainly not the parent of one of the significant officers. Certainly not the father of the man who might very well have had the conn of the submarine on that fateful morning.
But the President’s men had come out fighting, arguing that as Commander-in-Chief of the United States Armed Forces he had the right to see any documents he so wished. For five days the rights and wrongs of the Presidential position had been debated, and finally it was agreed that the deadlock should go to immediate arbitration, and the decision of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Tim Scannell, would be final.
General Scannell took only a half hour to rule against the President, on the grounds that it would compromise him unforgivably throughout the investigation. It would be, he said, “just plain wrong for the President to be seen trying to gain any advantage whatsoever for Lieutenant Commander Clarke. Certainly he cannot be seen attempting to obtain a preview of the case, and then acting on it, against the interests of other serving officers.”
Nonetheless, the President had secured one advantage for his son, a most unusual advantage in a U.S. Navy Board of Inquiry. He had gained permission for Linus to have one of the best lawyers in the country sitting with him throughout the entire evidence. The attorney was the urbane and learned Philip Myerscough, who was not
