“That he would be even more cooperative with the local commander?”
“I think it’s perfectly natural for any senior officer—including you—to be uncomfortable with the notion of having people playing on their fields whom they do not control. And to do whatever they can to get that control. In the case of the Tokyo CIA station chief, you did just that. Or Charley Willoughby did, which is the same thing.”
MacArthur stared at him icily for a moment.
“Granting, for the sake of argument, that I did, or General Willoughby did, manage, so to speak, to bring your station chief to think of himself as a member of the team, what harm was done?”
“I was less than completely honest a moment ago when I implied I’m going to relieve the station chief for having allowed himself to be sucked into Charley Willoughby’s— and your—orbit. The fact is that he was derelict—even criminally derelict—in the performance of his duties.”
“In his case, it was an act of what I have to believe was intentional failure to do his job properly. It was either that, or he was, literally, so inept or so stupid that he didn’t know what was going on.”
“And what was going on?”
“A report was prepared by an intelligence officer on the staff of the Naval Element, SCAP, strongly indicating that the North Koreans had prepared an invasion force.”
“I know of no such report, and, frankly, Pickering—”
“General, there was a report. I’ve seen it. You apparently didn’t get to see it because General Willoughby ordered it destroyed.”
“That’s an outrageous accusation!”
“Unfortunately, it’s true,” Pickering said.
“What intelligence officer?” MacArthur said. “What we are going to do right now, General Pickering, tonight, is get General Willoughby and this intelligence officer of yours in here and get to the bottom of this. After which I will take whatever action seems appropriate.”
“You can get Charley Willoughby in here, General, if you like, and I will repeat to him what I just told you. If that is your desire, I would suggest that you also summon Captain Edward C. Wilkerson—”
“Who’s he?” MacArthur interrupted.
“The Chief of the Naval Element, SCAP. He’s the other villain in this sad affair. He acquiesced when General Willoughby ordered the report destroyed.”
“I don’t believe any of this,” Jean MacArthur said.
From the look on Douglas MacArthur’s face, neither did he.
“We will start with the intelligence officer who allegedly prepared this report,” MacArthur said. “And then . . .”
“Unfortunately, he’s not available tonight,” Pickering said.
“Why not? Where is he?”
“On Tokchok-kundo Island,” Pickering said.
“Where?”
“From which, early this morning, he launched an invasion of Taemuui-do, Yonghung-do, and Taebu-do islands in the Flying Fish Channel, which, as of 1500 this afternoon, are under our control.”
MacArthur stared at him in disbelief.
“Do I understand you correctly, General Pickering, that you have launched an operation—without any consultation, much less permission from myself or anyone on my staff— that may—without question will—seriously impact the Inchon invasion?”
Pickering didn’t immediately reply. But he smiled, which caused MacArthur’s face to turn white.
“I fail to see the humor in any of this, so perhaps you would be good enough to tell me why you are smiling?”
“Forgive me,” Pickering said. “I was thinking about General Patton’s reply to General Bradley during the Sicilian campaign. . . .”
MacArthur, after a moment, chuckled and then laughed.
“I don’t understand,” Jean MacArthur said.
“Bradley was concerned, darling,” MacArthur explained, “that the mutual dislike between George Patton and General Montgomery would see Georgie take extraordinary—possibly too risky—steps to be in Palermo before Montgomery could get there. So he messaged him words to the effect, ‘Do not do not take Palermo without my permission. ’ To which Georgie replied, ‘I hold Palermo, should I give it back?’ ”
She chuckled. “I’d never heard that before,” she said.
“Would that this situation were as amusing,” MacArthur said to Pickering.
“General, I think I should tell you that President Truman was aware of my plan,” Pickering said.
“Would you tell me why you did it?” MacArthur asked.
“General, I’ve been privileged to be in on the planning of many of your invasions,” Pickering said. “I like to think I learned from watching you.”
“Why didn’t you come to me?”
“Your staff was determined to take the islands on D Minus One,” Pickering said. “You agreed. I thought doing so would give the enemy twenty-four hours’ notice of our intentions. That question had come up and been decided in favor of D Minus One. If I had come to you with this, you would have been forced to choose between your