Chapter 17: The Prodigal

It was a challenge to me to address some things, such as the University of Texas mass shooting by Charles Whitman, which would not happen for several years, as well as the elephant in the living room of my mind: what I worried would happen on November 22, 1963.

Quietly, I closed myself in my room, with James Bong and Natasha, my principal contacts with the Others. I know that it would be prohibitively dangerous to tell our people of major events, such as the assassination of JFK, lesser incidents of mass violence, and to be too specific about Vietnam. Would you be willing, however, to transmit technical skills to some of us, with an appropriate cover story, and in a way that no one would think oddly of their having the knowledge?

Tell us more.

I would like, at the least, Frankie, Shelley, and Edie to be excellent rifle shots, including having some knowledge of military sniping. Ideally, add Terry and Arlene, and improve my skills to the same level. I cannot, of course, warn of the assassination attempt on JFK, but I can encourage the development of countersniper capability in the Secret Service and local law enforcement.

We will consider your novel proposal. It does have the attraction of not introducing any technology that would be alien to this timeline.

Our White House operatives did have some pleasant relationships with Secret Service agents, including R.B. Jones, in the technical security side. When Edie and Frankie went to the LBJ Ranch, the Vice President liked to pull out his good Texan guns and plink rifle targets and shoot skeet. Having civilians with loaded firearms, in the immediate proximity of the protectee, was not a pleasant idea to the Secret Service. Adding Terry and Arlene made it more stressful.

Here, however, telempathy was important. Edie and Frankie were increasingly adept, while Terry added mature and refined people skills to the ability endowed by the Others. First, this was reassurance that our people intended absolutely no harm. Second, we have imparted rigorous reflexes about gun safety. Third, once our group was considered safe for security, they also could encourage the lust of agents, but without jealousy.

A little later, I heard in my mind, never assume that we have no sense of humor. We have augmented the shooting abilities of Terry, Arlene, Edie, and Frankie. While they may be able to convince LBJ and the Service that it was their mentoring that did it, our women will consistently outshoot the agents.

We will also begin experimenting with transmitting things beyond emotions and general support. You will gain this ability, and we will next give it to Shelley.

Roger told us “Nolting was instructed to suggest to Diem that Mme. Nhu be removed from the scene. Nolting asked Diem for a public declaration repudiating her remarks but after initially agreeing, Diem then demurred and postponed it.” He was usually formal in referring to foreign leads. “The bastard condescended, as a gesture to Nolting, to say something on the 14th.

“In an interview with Marguerite Higgins of the New York Herald Tribune. Diem asserted that conciliation had been his policy all along and that it was “irreversible.” He further said, in direct contradiction of a previous remark by Mme. Nhu, that the family was pleased with Lodge’s appointment.”

“Fritz tried to patch things, but his attempts were continually undercut by the Nhus both publicly and privately. They had grown increasingly belligerent about the Buddhists during the summer, and by August spoke often of “crushing” them. We asked Nolting to protest such inflammatory remarks, and began to suspect Diem’s capacity to conciliate the Buddhists in the face of Nhu sabotage.”

Roger looked tired. “In Washington, we have a conflict between there being no alternative to Diem, but that his inflaming the Buddhists would have long-term benefit to the Communists. Our military, I think, has been overoptimistic. The press is pushing hard about problems with the war effort and with the Buddhists.”

Shelley had only occasionally seen Senator John Tower since the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was, however, a genuinely warm friends-with-benefits relationship among people who could not let it be public. I suggested to her that she see If he could introduce her to a police official in Dallas. Among her many skills, one that she learned, in her Middle East childhood, was that she was an excellent shot, including with military weapons.

Shelley and Tower are connecting on a productive, if quiet, emotional level. While he could never make the relationship public, he really did think of it as friends-with-benefits, and he’d do what he can to advance her as long as it was quiet.

The two enjoyed lying in bed, face to face, with her long hair shutting out the world. “John, this may seem odd, but I’ve been wondering about the Dallas Police Department. Believe it or not, I had a dream that a madman was in a tall building, shooting at people with a rifle, yet the police had no idea how to engage them.

She stroked him. “For now, though, how about I concentrate on your gun, and later, how you can load my receiver?”

As they rested in bed, Shelley concentrated on sending a message, a mental technique that was very new to us. Mention A. Slidell and a rifle order to Klein’s Sporting Goods, in Chicago, to the Dallas police.

1 July

At our daily meeting, I had Lorna and Micki brief the group on a change in responsibility for a different part of peasant security, the Civilian Irregular Defense Group program involving Montagnard troops and villages. Previously, this program had been run by the CIA, with logistical support directly from the Embassy, as Operation SWITCHBACK.

This made MACV happy, as it now thought that it had control of all armed units that would be fighting the Communists.

Sometimes, it seemed appropriate to paraphrase Churchill: “Never, in the course of human conflict, have so many supervised so few.” In addition to MACV, reviews and comments came from the Department of the Army, the Army Staff, the Special Warfare Center at Fort Bragg, the CIA, U.S. Pacific Command, and U.S. Army Pacific.

Roger mentioned that Kattenburg was involved with trying to get Lodge’s nomination approved by the Senate, which was snarled with that of Admiral Anderson as Ambassador to Portugal.

“Paul is a wise man in the process. Still, Koren tries to get influence over the Task Force, and pull it under the Office and Nolting. Michael Forrestal pulls and pushes from the NSC staff. Lodge is influencing from Saigon.

“I personally think that Diem has to go. Paul is even more pessimistic about the overall American role in Southeast Asia, but he’s told me he has to keep thinking.

2 July

LBJ announced Administration support for the March.

3 July

Roger told his team, I’m briefing the President tomorrow.” Later that day, he met with us. “Within our geases, what messages are we sending to the President?”

I looked him in the eye:

• First, accept that the Diem government will not last. There will be one or more coups. That’s analysis, not any ... ahem ... special insights of mine.

• Second, a stable government in the South might not necessarily be strongly anti-communist. We simply don’t know if there’s a neutral path to rejoining the Vietnams

• Third, sooner or later, under one government or another, Vietnam will unify, no matter what the US does. One possibility is a Tito-style nationalist communism not controlled by China or the Soviets.

• Fourth, American military forces might have a transitional role towards stability. I don’t agree with all of Vann’s ideas in this area, but he does have original thoughts. Some may be that a command relationship more like what we have in Korea might be better than letting the South Vietnamese use without accountability, unless they want a scapegoat.

• Fifth, covert action to destabilize the North is fruitless. Intelligence collection is fine, as long as it’s recognized that agents won’t survive in that police state.

4 July

Roger, Paul Kattenburg, and Brute Krulak briefed the President. All were frustrated that the US had no way to remove the Nhus, yet it was only a matter of time until there was a coup -- which might lead to a civil war in the south. The Brute, though, felt we were committed to Diem.

Roger was slightly optimistic, however, that the political infrastructure in the south was more stable, and a civil war was not a certainty. Key to avoiding civil war could well be finding a solution acceptable to the moderate Buddhists, which could accept coexistence with the Catholics and the sects, but not the Diems. “Harold, we don’t have an alternative to Diem. I think the best we can do is to try to identify an uneasy coalition of coup plotters. Conflict with the Buddhists are hurting the U.S. in other, majority Buddhist countries of the region, such as Cambodia and Sri Lanka.

“Edie, Frankie, and our other influencers need to reinforce that in the President’s mind.”

8 July

LTC John Paul Vann was back in Washington, awaiting his tour at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, a senior service school whose students were usually regarded as potential generals. Vann, however, had a flaw that would keep him from wearing stars. I hoped that we could find a way to redirect his immense talent, manage his personal weaknesses. In my timeline, he found a unique role as a civilian who commanded military forces after escalation. I hoped to find a way to avoid escalation.

LTG Barksdale Hamlett, the Deputy for Operations on the Joint Staff, tried to have Vann brief the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). “Vann had a lot to say about what was going on in Vietnam, which was completely counter to the reports we were receiving through JCS channels. He was personally blocked by Army Chief of Staff Wheeler and Chairman Taylor. Vann did get to Secretary Gilpatric and his more sensible staff, some of the most rigid of whom had gone with McNamara to his own job. He also met with Lansdale.