Battle Born

all military weapons and devices, including weapons of mass destruction,” Kwon said. “It will authorize the establishment of a positive control system, supervised by the president and the minister of defense. It will authorize training, maintenance, and deployment of all types of weapons now on Korean soil. And it will authorize that these weapons be deployed against whatever power threatens the peace, security, and sovereignty of United Korea.”

Kwon waited to let his words sink in, then went on: “With all due respect, Mr. Martindale, I was not able to believe you when you showed concern for Korea and expressed your hope that we would help contribute to world peace by turning over our weapons of mass destruction. You hoped we would do so because you asked us to. You hope that we will do so now because then you can save face before the Chinese government. Although we no longer look to the United States for our protection, the Chinese still believe we look to you for guidance and support — they believe we are still American puppets. You were hoping this was true. It is not.

“The weapons we have confiscated will stay in Korea until such time as we feel they are not necessary to secure our citizens, our borders, our government, and our way of life. I sincerely hope all such weapons can be destroyed around the world. But we must do it together.Until then, we will look to ourselves for our security.”

“President Kwon, I think you’re making a big mistake,” President Martindale said. “China… no, the world will react negatively to the news that Korea has decided to keep perhaps several hundred WMDs. You will undo all the great things you have accomplished in the past several weeks.”

“Was France ostracized and in danger of attack from Russia or the United States because it broke away from NATO and decided to control the fate of its own nuclear weapons?” Kwon asked. “Did the United States dismantle its nuclear arsenal because the Soviet Union was upset about you aiming ten thousand nuclear warheads at its cities? We will not willingly surrender any weapon in the hope that belligerent nations will follow suit and lay down their weapons too. That is a typical American folly that Korea will not repeat.

“I hope you are wrong, Mr. Martindale,” Kwon went on. “I hope China sees us as a stabilizing influence in Asia and not a destabilizing one. But it does not matter what they think. Korea will use all the resources available to it to defend its borders, its government, and its people. If it means war with China — well, many have said such a war was inevitable, that two such ideologically opposed nations can never coexist or even peacefully share a border. China has dominated Korea in the past, and if history shows us anything, it is that it may happen again. But this time we are united. Any who wish to attack or invade will find a stronger, more determined Korea standing in their way.”

“President Kwon, please, let me meet with you as soon as possible,” President Martindale said. “In Tokyo, in Singapore, in Manila, in Paris — anywhere you wish. We must sit down face-to-face and talk more.”

“I am very sorry, Mr. Martindale,” Kwon said, “but I have a fledgling country to run — and a military to organize. If China is indeed a threat to us, as you say, we must prepare. Good day to you, sir.” And the video- conference connection went dead.

Martindale was exhausted, physically and emotionally, when he dropped the receiver back on its cradle. He shook his head and massaged his aching temples. “You were right, Ellen,” he told the others in the Oval Office. “They aren’t going to give up the weapons. He sees them as his best opportunity to hold off another invasion by China. Kwon must be crazy to think he can stop China.”

“Kwon is not crazy, not by a long shot,” Vice President Whiting said seriously. “He is like a grand chess master, which in reality I believe he is: he can see six moves ahead, and he is dogged in his determination. He has infinite patience and a simple, clear, concise set of objectives — the creation of a united Korean nation. If keeping hundreds of WMDs will help him achieve that, he’ll do it.”

“I can certainly see his point,” General Freeman said. “He knows that China can march right in and take Korea at any time if they choose to do so. Having a WMD arsenal, with missiles powerful enough to hold Beijing itself at risk, is the only way they can hope to deter China.”

“But if China was going to invade, they could have done it a long time ago.”

“Not with American troops stationed there,” Freeman pointed out. “We were only a trip-wire force there, true, but it was an effective trip wire. Our little forty-thousand-troop force successfully held hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers at bay for forty years — backed up by our nuclear deterrent, of course. The only time we ever felt threatened by the Chinese is when we started to draw down our strategic forces to the point where China believed it could withstand an American retaliation. They took a shot at subduing Taiwan, and only by stepping in with substantial firepower did they back off.”

“And now, with Korea?”

“It’s deja vu all over again — except China might have the public opinion advantage in this one,” Freeman replied. “You are absolutely correct, sir — if Korea keeps those weapons, they’ll be perceived as the antagonizers, perhaps even as the aggressors. It is as if Cuba suddenly acquired a tremendous nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons arsenal and then dared us to ignore the fact — the world would condemn Cuba. China can claim it is a destabilizing event. The world will not only be horrified to learn that North Korea had a nuclear arsenal greater than most any other non-superpower nation on earth, but that now United Korea has those weapons. China must respond to this development.”

“How?”

“They might increase the number of troops on the border and in the region, increase the throw weight of missiles and artillery aimed at Korea — all peaceful, all on their side of the line, and all fully justifiable,” Freeman went on. “This could continue for months, even years. The world could be on the razor’s edge for an indefinite period of time, even with continuous and strenuous negotiations going on. But worse: if something happens — an accident, an error, a skirmish — all hell could break loose in the blink of an eye. We destroyed China’s intercontinental ballistic missile fleet in 1997 during the Taiwan conflict, but we didn’t put much of a dent in their medium-or short-range ballistic missile arsenal. Most of it is intact, and it’s potent.”

“And Korea no longer has all of the Patriot antiaircraft and antimissile systems it had just one month ago,” Ellen Whiting pointed out. “We took most of those systems home with us when our troops left, didn’t we?”

“Yes. Less than a third of the thirty Patriot batteries are still there,” Freeman said. “Each battery has three launchers, one radar, and six reload canisters. That’s about forty shots against aircraft — Patriots always fire in two-round salvos — and less than twenty shots against tactical ballistic missiles. This means one attack could deplete their antiaircraft and antimissile capabilities. Plus, Kwon has to face the idea of dispersing those ten batteries throughout the entire peninsula, not just the South. Thirty batteries located in South Korea protected the nation very well against just about any airborne threat — but ten batteries spread out over the entire peninsula will be stretching it pretty thin.”

“And what do we do if Kwon wants to buy more Patriots?” Vice President Whiting asked. “What do we tell him? Or what if he goes to Russia, or Israel, or Great Britain, looking for air defense equipment?”

“Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves here,” the President said, holding up a hand. “One crisis at a time, please.” He thought for a moment, then said, “Okay. What do we have in the region right now? Anything at all we can add to increase the deterrent factor?”

“All of our assets are afloat,” Philip Freeman replied. “The America and the Eisenhower carrier battle groups are in the area. The America is in the Yellow Sea, helping move our remaining troops out of Korea; it was to have been decommissioned two years ago, but with the destruction of Indy, it’s still in service. The Eisenhower is in the Sea of Japan, standing by to help, trying to monitor the situation, and providing some cover for Japan. Not that Japan needs it — they’ve been flying regular MiG-29 patrols right up to the Korea-China-Russia frontier, with Korea’s blessing. We have two other carriers, Roosevelt and Vinson, en route to the area.”

“That’s it? No other forces near Korea?”

“Sir, that’s one-third of our carrier fleet,” Freeman acknowledged somberly. “And they all must operate with minimal forward-basing capability. Seventh Fleet was forced to move from Yokosuka to Pearl Harbor because of the Independence disaster, and all attack-capable military units were removed from Japan following the nuclear attack on the Independence. We have a few assets at Yokota and Misawa, all air defense and transport units. It took two years of hard negotiating to keep our bases on Okinawa. The units on Okinawa are there to maintain air base operations and provide fleet support only — we are prohibited from basing or staging any attack forces from there. Anderson Air Base on Guam is still uninhabitable; Agana Naval Base on Guam is just coming back up after being heavily damaged in the Chinese