an attack on one member state shall be treated as if an attack has been made against all. In the age of nuclear weapons, the next world war may well prove to be a holocaust. If the Russians decide to invade Montenegro or Iceland or Poland, we are legally bound to declare war against the Russians. I, for one, am not willing to shed one American life for the sake of Montenegro—let alone risk the destruction of our entire nation because of an antiquated and outmoded treaty obligation from seventy years ago. If Europeans won’t fight and die to defend Europe, why should Americans?”
This was the question. The one that would differentiate her from Ryan and the neocons in his administration, who would throw their weight behind another candidate who fell in line with them, including some people sitting in this room tonight. She had to make her point.
“Some might argue that we have to defend Europe even if Europe won’t do the job because it’s in our national interest. It reminds me of the Domino Theory. Remember? Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson all told us we had to fight in Vietnam to prevent the rest of Southeast Asia from falling to Communism. And fight we did! American armed forces fought valiantly and brilliantly against the North and South Vietnamese Communists. We never lost a single battle. And yet, having won every battle, we lost the war, at the cost of over fifty thousand American lives.
“What was the result? Southeast Asia—Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia—all fell to the Communists. Was our country subsequently threatened by these events? Did our way of life change? No. In fact, all of those countries are now falling all over themselves to do business with us. The Domino Theory was right—and it didn’t matter.
“As I said before, what is right isn’t always popular. NATO was a brilliant success, but its time has passed. The purpose of American foreign policy should be to serve the interests of the American people, not the interests of the Europeans.
“We need new partnerships, new alliances, new ways of thinking. The Ryan doctrine of expanding our military commitments in Europe has turned NATO into a mutual suicide pact. We need a new kind of leadership. We need a new kind of world that guarantees peace and freedom for the United States through strength and cooperation. China is the natural bulwark against Russian expansion into Europe. The future belongs to America and China, the two strongest national economies and the two strongest militaries on the planet.
“What NATO did for Europe in the last century, a Sino-American partnership will do for the entire world this century and the one to come. Thank you, and good night.”
50
FRENCH GUIANA
CENTRE SPATIAL GUYANAIS (CSG)
The SpaceServe heavy-payload G-series (“Goddard”) rocket stood on the recently constructed SS-1 launchpad. The scheduled night launch would put not one but three of the latest Malaysian MEASAT communications satellite payloads into a geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) at 91.5 degrees east. Launch was just thirty seconds away.
Tonight’s G-series launch was the first at the Centre Spatial Guyanais facility. The first had been fired at Cape Canaveral eight months ago, successfully placing the Azerbaijani Intelsat 39 into orbit at 45 degrees east.
The second G-rocket launched out of Vandenberg AFB two months later and successfully placed one of the new Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) communications satellites into orbit for the Air Force. The satellite also carried a secret CIA comms package operated by the National Reconnaissance Office and tied into the IC Cloud.
Tonight’s launch was critical. The Malaysian government had committed to four more launches if tonight’s proved successful. Singapore and Thailand were equally interested in this highly successful second generation of SpaceServe rockets. SpaceServe’s smaller N-series (“Newton”) had been successful, but far too many private and public contractors were nailing the low-to-mid-payload range, often with tax-subsidized funding. SpaceServe’s future depended entirely on the G-series heavy-lifters.
The G-series was currently the most powerful rocket deployed in the world. The first stage, comprising two boosters and a central core, deployed thirty engines that generated well over five million pounds of thrust at launch—the equivalent of sixteen Airbus A380 aircraft.
Its nearest competitor was the future European Ariane 6 A64 heavy-lift rocket, but it was experiencing severe development delays and wouldn’t be available for launch for at least two more years.
The best news of all, though, was the phone call Elias Dahm received from the head of NASA yesterday. The Ryan administration was actively seeking alternatives to the ultradependable Atlas V