Chapter 165

I had breakfast with my mates at 0600 and then walked them back to the 406s. All of the men had driven back home last night.

Back in the Oval Office I had a list of calls to make before the Russians came.

One was to the Treasurer of the United States - Albert Morrison. I asked questions for over ten minutes, finally telling him what I needed from him and when.

I was sure from his attitude he was going to call members on the House and Senate finance committees informing them of my request and ask them for guidance.

By 0730 the Arctic Circle countries were starting to come in. I had Vice President Harrison doing the greeting of each of them. I was busy meeting with everyone it seemed.

General Ingram was keeping me updated on the progress of the Reagan Task Force voyage into the Sea of Japan and Vladivostok. The Reagan would be docking around 1600 and the B52s landing around 1630. Both would be in prime time news.

The Russian group came in as we were finishing up. At 0800 we went to the meeting room with the other five Arctic Circle nations. They had all been given a draft of the proposed treaty, its amendments, bylaws, and guidelines.

It was along here in the discussion the Secret Service agent handed me a note that a group from the UN was in the lobby demanding to be a part of the meeting.

I asked the group if anyone had notified the UN of the meeting and invited them to this meeting. No one admitted to notifying the UN but they were here.

The group decided to allow them in to observe the vote and discussion. A Secret Service agent brought the four representatives. One was from India, one from China, one from Indonesia and the other from Belgium. India and China had been problems for the last twenty years; they were both in a desperate search for raw materials for their industries. I knew as soon as I saw them they were going to try to leverage their way into the agreement.

The main table was full - the five countries had brought aides with them to help then digest the information. I had a small table brought in and placed off to the side for the UN to sit at.

The agreement was read then we went down the amendments one at a time in the first section. That section identified the participants and how much land area each claimed to have within the Arctic Circle. There was no objections with that section.

The next section was formation of a council to oversee all exploration. The council was to approve or reject any contracting firms that were to extract the minerals. It was also to have a science division looking at best practices for restoration and new and unknown minerals.

It was in this section that the UN people tried to get involved. They wanted the UN scientific committees to take control of all scientific matters, all environmental matters and control all development and extraction of all items found.

‘‘You were allowed to join this final reading to observe and are not part of the negotiations or discussions in the meetings. We have spent days working through this treaty with hundreds of hours in discussions with the seven affected countries,’’ I told the four.

‘‘If you cannot abide by those terms I will have you escorted out,’’ I said.

They were not happy campers. The leader of the group left to go call the UN Secretariat to voice his displeasure. We continued on with the discussion.

The rest of the proposed treaty was read section by section with a few changes. By 1000 we were finished. My staff made the final changes to the documents and they were printed with spaces for the nations to sign.

We signed all of them except one copy that was to be signed in public.

At 1100 the Rose Garden had been set up with a podium and tables for the signing of the treaty. For the US, the final step was a Senate vote to the make it official.

Speeches by the other leaders ran the news conference into lunch. The day was quickly getting away from me. There was a state lunch with the leaders before they left to return home.

After lunch the Russians and my group finished the last of the aid package we were going to offer. After fine tuning the wording and a final printing, we were close to signing.

We were going to sign all the agreements in the Oval Office to get them out of the way and under one folder. Then we would publicly sign a cover sheet with a list of all the other documents. It would be a less confusing event that way.

In the Oval Office I was joined by Vice President Harrison, Troy, Senators Whitby and Fordes, Kansas Rep Harvey Wallbanger and Arizona Rep Kirtland Jasper, the speaker of the house, the house minority leader and the majority and minority leaders of the Senate along with State Department Secretary Dean and Under-Secretary Borden.

The Russian delegation was led by President Orbatch and senior advisor Anton Pavlenko.

Arriving late was treasury director Albert Morrison. He and an aide were carrying four attaché cases.

The senators and two reps were invited because their committees support would be needed to pass the treaties and make them official.

For the benefit of all, copies were passed out to all present. Then my aide read through each group of documents that completed each treaty of agreement. At the end of each I asked President Orbatch and Anton if they were factual representations of our discussion and agreements. As he indicated they were, we moved on the next agreement.

We finished all the agreements and treaties then signed all of them. The last step was up to the Senate to make the treaties law.

General Ingram knocked, then came in and handed me a note, ‘‘Media will be allowed to go live in ten minutes for the Russia ventures. ‘‘

I gave it to Troy and said, ‘‘Turn on the big screen - mute it and find the channel.’’

The last item was the cash funds I had promised. I asked Treasury Director Albert Morrison if he had brought the items I had requested.

‘‘Yes Madam President - two hundred billion; four thousand treasury notes, one hundred million on each,’’ he said as he placed the cases on the table and opened them.

‘‘Do you have the paperwork for me?’’ I asked.

‘‘Yes,’’ he said as he handed me the paper.

I moved the cases over to President Orbatch and Anton, ‘‘I believe that completes the initial financial agreement we have discussed. The six fifty billion dollar payments will be started thirty days from today based on percentage of destruction of the missiles and submarines as we agreed,’’ I said.

I took out the Thimble Shoals check book and wrote out a check to the US Treasury for the two hundred billion dollars.

I placed the check on the papers Albert had given me, ‘‘Pass that down the table to Director Morrison so he can mark it paid for me,’’ I said.

‘‘A personal check for two hundred billion dollars! You have got be fucking kidding me!’’ Rep Wallbanger said.