Bronze Star,” Pickering went on. He stopped himself as he was about to add “and the President agreed with MacArthur that Pick gets the Navy Cross.”
Why did I stop? So Proud Papa won’t be boasting?
No, it’s something else.
Because I don’t see where what he did deserves the Navy Cross?
I didn’t think I deserved mine, either. I was just doing what a Marine is supposed to do.
Isn’t that what Pick did? What a Marine is supposed to do?
How the hell did I get on this line of thought?
“General,” Jennings said, “I didn’t do anything that should get me the Bronze Star.”
“I’ll straighten it out,” Pickering said. He raised his champagne glass to Jennings and smiled.
“I’m about to send a message I think you ought to see,” Howe said. “Can we go upstairs for a minute?”
“Sure,” Pickering said. “What’s upstairs?”
“The communications,” Howe said. He smiled. “I keep forgetting the laird of this manor has never been here before. I’ll have to show you around.”
“It’s not what I expected,” Pickering said.
“Very few things ever are,” Howe said with a smile as he waved Pickering out of the room ahead of him.
They went through the foyer and up the stairs. Pickering was not surprised to find Koreans armed with Thompson submachine guns blocking entrance to the corridors on both the second and third floors, but he was surprised when Howe knocked on a door on the third floor and it was answered by a Korean woman holding a .45-ACP-caliber Grease Gun.
“Di-san,” Howe said, “this is General Pickering.”
She smiled. In perfect English, she said, “General, we were happy to hear your son has been rescued.”
“Thank you,” Pickering said.
"I want to show General Pickering my message,” Howe said.
She nodded, motioned them into the room, and took several sheets of typewriter paper from a table.
TOP SECRET/PRESIDENTIAL
OPERATIONAL IMMEDIATE
DUPLICATION FORBIDDEN
<<<<>>>> TOKYO TIME 16
OCTOBER 1950
FROM: CHIEF PRESIDENTIAL MISSION TO FAR EAST
VIA: USMC SPECIAL COMMUNICATIONS CENTER CAMP PENDLETON CAL
TO: WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS CENTER WASHINGTON DC EYES ONLY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
BEGIN PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM MAJOR GENERAL HOWE
DEAR HARRY
I JUST GOT WORD THAT GENERAL PICKERING IS ON HIS WAY HERE TO SEOUL. HIS SON IS TO BE TAKEN FROM THE CARRIER BADOENG STRAIT TO PUSAN ON A DESTROYER AND FLOWN FROM THERE TO SASEBO AND FROM THERE TO THE STATES. PICKERING UNDERSTANDABLY WANTS TO SEE HIM BEFORE HE GOES HOME.
BUT TYPICAL OF PICKERING, DUTY FIRST.
BEFORE HE GOES TO PUSAN HE’S COMING HERE AND TO SOCHO-RI, THE BASE FROM WHICH MCCOY OPERATES ON THE EAST COAST. HE HAS WITH HIM COLONEL BANNING, WHO HAS BEEN HANDLING THESE COMMUNICATIONS AT CAMP PENDLETON, AND WHO WILL NOW, I PRESUME, SERVE AS HIS DEPUTY HERE.
THE FIRST BAD NEWS IS THAT I DON’T THINK WE ARE GOING TO GET GENERAL DEAN BACK. THIS I’M PRETTY SURE OF AS IT COMES FROM LT COL VANDENBURG, THE OFFICER SENT WITH THE MISSION OF GETTING HIM BACK, MCCOY, AND BILL DUNSTON, THE CIA SEOUL STATION CHIEF. THEIR AGENTS, OR THEY PERSONALLY, HAVE SPENT A GOOD DEAL OF TIME BEHIND THE ENEMY’S LINES AND THEY ALL TELL ME, AND I BELIEVE, THAT DEAN HAS BEEN TAKEN TO CHINA.
Second, unless something has happened that i don’t know about, macarthur probably told you on wake island what he told me before he left, that the chinese and/or the russians are not going to come into the war and that it’s really a moot question, because even if they did it would not pose a problem and would give us a chance to bloody their nose.
MCCOY AS I WRITE THIS IS SOMEWHERE BEHIND THE ENEMY’S LINES IN THE FAR NORTH TRYING TO EAVESDROP ON SOVIET ARMY RADIO COMMUNICATIONS TO SEE IF HE CAN LEARN SOMETHING OF THEIR DISPERSAL, SIZE, AND INTENTIONS. HE IS NOT DOING THE SAME FOR THE CHINESE COMMUNISTS BECAUSE HE BELIEVES THAT THERE ARE SOME SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND CHINESE—THAT’S RIGHT, SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND—IN THE FOURTH FIELD ARMY EITHER ON THE BORDER OR ALREADY SLIPPING INTO NORTH KOREA AND THEY ARE NOT USING THEIR RADIOS.
THERE IS NO QUESTION IN EITHER MCCOY’S OR DUNSTON’S MIND THAT THE CHINESE ARE COMING INTO THE WAR. THEY ACKNOWLEDGE THEY DON’T HAVE ENOUGH HARD INTELLIGENCE TO MAKE THAT JUDGMENT VIS-A-VIS THE RUSSIANS.
WHEN I, WITHOUT MENTIONING MCCOY OR DUNSTON, ASKED MAJ GEN CHARLES WILLOUGHBY, MACARTHUR’S INTELLIGENCE OFFICER, WHETHER HE HAS ANY INFORMATION ABOUT CHINESE BEING ON THE BORDER, HE FLATLY STATED THERE WERE NOT, AND IF THERE HAD BEEN ANY UNUSUAL MOVEMENT OF CHINESE TROOPS HE WOULD KNOW ABOUT IT, AND ASSURED ME THAT