United States Air Force, and indeed the fate of our military forces and the nation itself, will be determined in the next several years by the decisions we make today.
“I characterize the ballistic missile attacks on Taiwan and Guam by the People’s Republic of China as a repudiation of thirty years of arms reduction efforts and a warning to the United States armed forces that we must develop a multilayered antimissile defense system immediately. We bargained away our antimissile capabilities in the 1970s, believing that nonproliferation would lead to peace. Now, in the face of renewed aggression, rearmament, terrorism, and the spread of small-scale and black-market weapons of mass destruction, I feel we have no choice but to rebuild our defensive forces. The days of believing that our conventional precision war-fighting capability obviated and obsoleted decades of nuclear warfare strategy and technology are history.”
“Apparently so,” one committee member said ruefully. “I for one am mystified and angry about this waste of time, money, and resources. We’ve spent hundreds of billions of dollars on these new ‘smart’ weapons, and now you’re saying they won’t protect us?”
“I’m saying that the rules are changing, Senator,” General Hayes said earnestly, “and we must change with them.
“We gave away our defensive capability because we kept a large, strong offensive force, including nuclear deterrent forces. We then dismantled those deterrent forces when the threat from other superpowers diminished. Now the threat is back, but we have neither defensive nor deterrent forces in place. That leaves us vulnerable to criticism at best and attack at worst. The China incident is a perfect example.”
“That’s all fine and good, General, but these budget numbers are staggering, and the path you want to embark on here reminds me of the nuclear nightmare times of Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Reagan,” the senator went on, motioning to his staff report. “You’re asking for billions more on some truly horrifying programs, like antiballistic missile lasers, space-based lasers, and these so-called plasma-yield weapons. What’s going on, General? Is the Air Force so desperate for a mission right now that you’ll even go back to ‘mutually assured destruction’ doctrines of the Cold War?”
“Members of the committee, I asked Secretary of Defense Chastain and Secretary of the Air Force Mortonson to give the Air Force a budget for the deployment of a new class of weapons not to shock or galvanize the Congress, but because I truly believe the time has long passed for us to be thinking about this kind of war fighting,” General Hayes went on. “China’s recent nuclear attacks on Taiwan; its suspected nuclear sabotage of the aircraft carrier USS
“It’s a warning, all right,” another senator offered. “But it seems more a warning to avoid stepping up to the edge of that slippery slope. Do we want to start another nuclear arms race?”
It seemed as if most folks in America had all but forgotten what had happened only three years ago, Hayes thought grimly. In 1997, just before their “Reunification Day” celebrations, the People’s Republic of China launched a small-scale nuclear assault on Taiwan, which had just declared full independence and sovereignty from the mainland. Several Taiwanese military bases were decimated; over fifty thousand persons lost their lives. At the same time, a nuclear explosion in Yokosuka Harbor outside Tokyo destroyed several American warships, including the soon-to-be-retired aircraft carrier USS
The reverberations of that fateful summer of 1997 were still being felt. Japan had closed down all U.S. military bases on their soil and had only recently begun allowing some limited access to U.S. warships — provisioning and humanitarian shore leave only, with ships at anchor in the harbor, not in port, and no weapons transfers in their territorial waters. South Korea was permitting only routine provisioning and shore leave — they were allowing no weapons transfers within five miles of shore and prohibited staging military operations from their ports. It was the same for most ports of call in the western Pacific. American naval presence in the Pacific was almost nil.
And America’s response to China’s attacks was… silence. Except for one massive joint Air Force/Navy defensive air armada around Taiwan that all but destroyed China’s Air Force, and an isolated but highly effective series of air raids inside China — largely attributed to American stealth bombers, aided by Taiwanese fighters — the Americans had not retaliated. It was world condemnation alone that eventually forced China to abandon its plan to force Taiwan back into its sphere of influence.
“I’m concerned about the path Russia, Japan, and North Korea are taking in the wake of the economic collapse in Asia and the conflict in the Balkans,” Hayes went on. “Russia appears to be back in the hands of hard- liners and neo-Communists. Food riots in North Korea have led to the slaughter of thousands of civilians by military forces foraging for food. Japan has isolated us out of the Pacific and is proceeding with plans to remilitarize, all in an apparent attempt to shore up confidence in its government. I don’t believe the United States sparked this return to the specter of the Cold War, but we must be prepared to deal with it.”
“We are all shocked and horrified about all those events as well, General,” the senator pointed out, “and we agree with the President that we must be better prepared for radical changes in the political climate. But this… this buildup of such powerful weapons that you’re asking for seems to be an overreaction. What you are proposing goes far beyond what any of us see as a measured response to world events.”
General Hayes swallowed hard. This was turning into a much harder sell than he had expected. While the world slowly went back to an uneasy, suspicious peace, President Kevin Martindale was roundly criticized for his inaction. Although China was stopped and an all-out nuclear conflict was averted, many Americans wanted someone to pay a bigger price for the hundreds of thousands who had died on Taiwan, Guam, and onboard the four Navy warships destroyed in Yokosuka Harbor. The hawkish President was slammed in the press for abandoning the capital onboard Air Force One during the attacks on Taiwan, while failing to use most of the military power he had spent his entire career in Washington trying to build up.
No one could say precisely what Martindale should have done, but everyone was convinced he should have done something
“Then what is a ‘measured response’ to those attacks, Senator?” General Hayes asked. “The People’s Republic of China devastated Taiwan and Guam with nuclear weapons, taking hundreds of thousands of lives. Our response was to secretly attack their last remaining ICBM silos. Although we caused a lot of damage and prevented China from launching any more attacks against the United States, that country still retains a tremendous nuclear force and is still a threat. Our best conventional weapons didn’t work.”
Army Chief of Staff Marshall spoke up to reinforce Hayes’s point. “My concern,” he said, “rests with other rogue nations that may want to use nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons against us. Intelligence reports say China has delivered nuclear warheads to North Korea via Pakistan in exchange for its missile technology. Combine that with North Korea’s new long-range missiles and nuclear-capable aircraft delivery systems, and it could have a first-strike nuclear force in place in a few years, perhaps sooner. Iran, Iraq, Syria, and even Japan could be next.”
“The question is, Senators, what does the United States do if another attack from one of these rogue nations occurs?” General Hayes asked. “Obviously, our conventional weapons superiority failed to deter China — it certainly won’t deter any smaller nation. Do we use strategic nuclear forces? No American president would dare consider using a city-busting bomb unless the very existence of the United States itself was in jeopardy.
“Does this mean we do nothing, as the world thinks we did against China? That would be the safest move. But we look indecisive and weak, and I think that perception makes us appear ineffectual to our allies and ripe for more attacks by our enemies. South Korea and Japan think we abandoned them, and both are clamoring to renegotiate defense treaties to allow them to build up their military forces once again. As you know, Japan doesn’t allow any more U.S. warships to home-port or even dock there. And they’ve concluded a multibillion-dollar defense deal with Russia for MiG-29 fighters because they’re afraid of not being able to buy American jets.
“To the Air Force,” Hayes went on, “the answer is costly and politically hazardous, but absolutely clear. We must put a multilayered aircraft, satellite, and ballistic missile defense system in place immediately and rebuild our rapid-response intercontinental heavy-strike forces. The cornerstone of the five-year plan we are requesting is early deployment of the airborne laser and additional funding for the space-based laser defense system.”
“Well, let’s get into the specific programs and their status right now, gentlemen,” the subcommittee
