lead the advance party,” MacNamara said. “A small convoy—say, no more than twenty six-by-sixes . . .”
“That’s a small convoy?”
“We have six hundred vehicles to move. Yes, Quigley, I’d say twenty against six hundred is a small convoy. Wouldn’t you?”
“I had no idea there were that many vehicles.”
“You and I—taking with us two of my officers and, say, forty of my men, and as many of your officers and men as you think you’ll need—will go to Hamhung, reconnoiter the area, locate suitable areas for your replacement depot and my unit, and start setting up. Then you and I, having learned the route and the problems encountered on it, will bring enough noncoms back here, where they will set up convoys of the others. In the meantime, while you and I are up north, I will have my first sergeant run what I suppose you could call a driver’s school for the drivers. You have any problems with that?”
“When had you . . . uh . . . planned to . . . uh . . . launch your convoy?”
“In an hour,” MacNamara said.
“You mean today?”
“Colonel Kennedy told me, Quigley, that time is of the essence,” MacNamara said. “You can do what you like, of course, but I’m going to start for Hamhung in an hour.”
“Oh, I’ll go with you, of course, Captain MacNamara,” Captain Quigley said. “But I was wondering about an escort, I guess is what I mean.”
“What do you mean by an escort?”
“I think we have to consider the possibility that we may encounter the enemy on the road.”
“I doubt it,” MacNamara said. “If there were enemy forces in the area, I’m sure Colonel Kennedy would have told me. Anyway, we’re going to have, say, at least five men on each truck, times twenty trucks, which means we’ll have at least a hundred men. That ought to be enough to defend ourselves.”
“Well, I’ll get right on it, of course, but it will take some time to issue ammunition to . . . What did you say, one hundred men?”
“They have weapons but no ammunition?”
“You wouldn’t believe the incidents that happen when the men in the replacement stream have access to live ammunition, ” Captain Quigley said. “It’s like the O.K. Corral.”
“Well, they better have live ammo now,” MacNamara said. “A full combat load.”
“You’re right, of course,” Quigley said.
“I’ll be back in an hour,” MacNamara said.
[TWO]
THE DIRECTOR’S OFFICE EAST BUILDING, THE CIA COMPLEX 2430 E STREET, NW WASHINGTON, D.C. 1615 31 OCTOBER 1950
“May I come in, General?” Major General Roger J. Buchanan, USA, Retired, inquired of Walter Bedell Smith after he had been standing for two minutes—it seemed longer—in the open door, waiting for Smith to look up from what he was reading.
Smith lifted his eyes to the door and made a waving motion with his hand.
“Sure, Roger,” Smith said. “What have you got?”
General Buchanan had worked for Smith through most of the time Smith had been General of the Army Dwight David Eisenhower’s Chief of Staff at Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe, and had come to work for Smith shortly after Smith had been named Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
“An urgent Eyes Only The Director from General Pickering, ” Buchanan said, walking to the desk and laying a manila folder on Smith’s desk. Smith opened it. It was a thin sheaf of paper, each sheet bearing stamps reading TOP SECRET and EYES ONLY THE DIRECTOR at the top and bottom.
Smith picked up the sheet and started to read it, then looked at Buchanan.
“You haven’t read this, right?” he asked.
“Of course not, General,” Buchanan said. “It’s classified Top Secret, Eyes Only The Director.”
They both chuckled. It was a private joke. They both knew that it was impossible to transmit an Eyes Only message that would be seen only by the eyes of the addressee. It had to be seen by the cryptographer (and probably, since this was a high-level message, by the officer supervising the cryptographer) when it was dispatched, and then by the cryptographer at the receiving end (and again, more than likely by his superior). And then, after it had been delivered—in this case, to the director’s office—it had to be read by the Director’s Executive Assistant (General Buchanan), who had to know everything the director knew.
About the only use Smith and Buchanan thought the Eyes Only classification had was that Eyes Only messages—if they weren’t immediately shredded and burned—had their own filing cabinet. Which also meant that the officer in charge of