Lee looked at him. “You must be Commander Magruder,” he said, sticking out his hand. “Welcome aboard. I’m Lee … Arthur Lee. Staff Intelligence man. I’ve heard a hell of a lot about you. Some of it was even good.” He grinned as they shook hands. “The UN vote finally went down last night. Twelve to two, with China abstaining.”
“And it wasn’t worth a damned thing because of the Russian veto,” Magruder finished for him grimly.
“So much for the ‘New World Order,’” Owens put in. “That’s what comes of letting the bad guys have veto power.”
Stramaglia stayed out of their conversation, but inwardly he knew how they felt. While the Russians cut through Norway’s defenses, President Connally had been stalling American reaction until the United Nations could act. It was as if he’d learned all the wrong lessons from the conflict with Iraq, where America had mobilized UN support only after guaranteeing assistance for Saudi Arabia. Resolution 782, calling for a peaceful solution to the Scandinavian crisis and condemning the USSR for its aggression, had gone exactly nowhere. And in the interim nearly a week of precious time had been lost. Connally could claim now that he’d exhausted every peaceful means before turning to a military response, but in the process he might just have given the Russians everything they needed to make their attack on Norway stick.
For nearly a decade Stramaglia had been regarded as a bit of a dinosaur where the Russians were concerned. Hotshot youngsters at Miramar had been fond of claiming that future conflicts would follow the pattern set down by Operation Desert Storm: small, outclassed opponents facing the overwhelming air superiority of American technology. But Joseph Stramaglia had never entirely counted the Russians out, not even after Yeltsin had emerged as the leader of the new Russian Commonwealth. There had been too many unknowns, to Stramaglia’s way of thinking. Too many factions, like the hard-liners in the military, who hadn’t been heard from.
And now it looked like he’d been right after all.
“Attention on deck!” a junior officer called out as Admiral Tarrant strode into Civic. Every man in the briefing room came to his feet in response.
“As you were,” he said quickly, strolling purposefully toward the podium at the far end of the long room.
As Tarrant reached the podium he scanned the lines of seated officers. Brandt was sitting near the front, with his Exec, Commander Parker, and several members of Tarrant’s Flag Staff. As he studied their faces, he wondered what they were thinking.
He saw Captain Stramaglia and other officers from Jefferson’s Air Wing at the back of the room. Most of the striking power of the battle group was contained in the carrier’s air complement, and their role in the next few days would be crucial. Tarrant hoped they would be up to the challenge. Stramaglia had a good reputation, but he hadn’t been at sea for over a decade. Did he still have the edge?
And then there was Captain Vic Gates of the Shiloh, the battle group’s Aegis cruiser. He looked distinctly uncomfortable. His ship, with its powerful radar systems and missile defenses, would be a key player if they faced a major attack. In the Indian Ocean two years back Jefferson had come through with minor damage, but her Aegis cruiser escort had been all but crippled. Maybe Gates was thinking about that.
But they’d all have their parts to play, the DDGs Lawrence Kearny and John A. Winslow; the battle group’s three frigates, Gridley, Esek Hopkins, and Stephen Decatur, and the two 688-class submarines, Galveston and Bangor. A carrier battle group was more than just the carrier itself. It was a balanced task force in which each ship, each aircraft, each man had a vital role to play.
Tarrant cleared his throat and stepped behind the podium. It was time to let them know the score.
“Gentlemen,” he said formally. “You all know what’s been going on in Norway. We’ve been watching the Russians overrun the country for close to a week, and I’m sure most of you have been wondering what the United States plans to do about it. Well, some recent developments have finally shaped our course. We received orders from CINCLANT late last night, and I felt you should all be brought into the picture. Commander Aiken will bring us up to date on the military picture first. Commander?”
Commander Paul Aiken was head of OZ Division, the Intelligence branch of Jefferson’s Operations Department. A small, precise man with a dry manner and a face that betrayed no emotion, Aiken was responsible for coordinating all information gathered by a variety of means and making it available to the carrier’s command, air, and flag staffs. He advanced to the podium carrying a bundle of papers under one arm. The lights dimmed as one of his officers switched on the projector.
“The situation in Scandinavia has, quite frankly, developed in a totally unexpected manner,” Aiken began. He gestured to the screen behind him, where a map of the region had appeared. “During the Cold War it was always assumed that any attack into Norway could be delayed by local forces long enough to allow NATO reinforcement before the Soviets could make significant territorial gains. The entire defensive posture of the country was predicated on this assessment.”
He checked his notes before going on. “The Norwegians have a long tradition of avoiding European entanglements, and they were somewhat reluctant to get involved in NATO at all. However, the experience of Nazi occupation in World War II showed them that it was necessary to seek protection from stronger powers. Northern Norway guards the main approaches to the bases of Russia’s Red Banner Northern Fleet in the White and Barents Sea areas, and this has made the country both a strategic prize for the Russians and a critical strongpoint for the West. Land-based aircraft operating from Norwegian air bases could play havoc with any Soviet fleet sorties, and in addition could protect our own ships making incursions into their waters. Because the Northern Fleet also contains the bulk of the Soviet ballistic missile submarine force, the defense of which takes top priority in Russian naval thinking, the threat of a NATO strike has made it certain that the Russians would seek to neutralize Norway as part of any larger war in Europe.”
Aiken stopped to take a sip from a glass of water on the podium. “In this case, though, the outbreak of hostilities in Scandinavia does not seem to be part of any larger war effort but rather an end in itself. As a result the Soviets have been able to concentrate far more striking power against the region than had been allowed for in any of our Cold War planning. The scope of operations by Spetsnaz and other covert elements alone is on a scale that has caught us completely by surprise.”
“Does that mean they were planning this all along?” Commander James Tennyson asked. He was CO of the Lawrence Kearny, DDG-59, a big bear of a man whose rough exterior concealed a surprising intellect.
“It certainly suggests it,” Aiken replied carefully. “But our intelligence sources haven’t been able to confirm that theory. If the Soviets had intended to provoke a conflict there seems little enough reason for their President to negotiate a compromise agreement … unless we’re seeing an extreme case of the breakdown of cooperation between the political and military sides of their government. There is a temptation to see the assassination as KGB or GRU work designed both to create a pretext for invasion and at the same time to remove the voice of liberal reform which might otherwise have stood in the way, but without more facts at our disposal that must remain an attractive but unconfirmed theory.”
It was a theory, Tarrant thought, that fit the facts damned well. Since the collapse of the Commonwealth and the restoration of the Soviet Union, the struggle between hard-liners in the military and the KGB against liberal reformers and breakaway ethnic, religious, and political groups had been turning Soviet government into a precarious balancing act. The President of the new Union had started out as little more than a front man for the military hard-liners who had reestablished the central authority, but lately he had been striking out on his own, often in direct opposition to military interests. Now that he was gone it looked as if the Soviet Union was speaking with one voice again. And it was the old voice, the voice of Stalin and Khrushchev, the voice of aggression, that was speaking this time.
Tarrant turned his attention back to Aiken, who was continuing from the podium. “Regardless of Soviet intentions, we must accept the realities of the position in Scandinavia. Gentlemen, Russian troops have already overrun most of Finland. The government in Helsinki offered little more than a token protest, and finally capitulated entirely four days ago. And the power brought to bear in Norway will accomplish the something there in a very short time unless the Norwegians receive significant support. That support, sadly, is going to be slow to materialize. NATO is barely capable of functioning in its old role now that the EEC countries are more interested in negotiating compromises instead of taking a hard line. There are rumors that the Labor government is going to lose a no- confidence vote in Britain, but even so, it would take time for the Brits to mobilize anything. And you all know how
