Chapter 180

The kitchen sent up breakfast to go with the pot of coffee. I looked at the updates that were on my desk. The CIA had a folder of satellite pictures - the Chinese were sending one of their carrier task forces into the Indian Ocean. The intercepted messages indicated it was on a port call to its base in Djibouti. It would arrive in the area in a couple days.

It was probably going there to monitor how effective multi-carrier operations were run. They were far too late to help Iran.

At 0730 the generals were in with the latest reports. They were given by Marine General Gorman and the Chief of Naval Operations.

‘‘At noon on Saturday twenty San Antonio class, eight Wasp class and four America class amphibious landing and assault ships landed twenty five thousand Marines on Iranian territory. The landings were backed by two hundred and fifty A10s and Cobra helicopters. There was little opposition and we immediately began taking prisoners,’’ General Gorman said.

‘‘The amphibious assault ships are transferring the twenty thousand army troops, tanks and trucks from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to Iran to expand the front. Logistics and supply lines are keeping up. Causalities have been very light,’’ the Chief of Naval Operations said in closing.

‘‘Twenty thousand from Germany and England will be arriving tomorrow and Wednesday. The deals you made with King Elaud to allow so much equipment to be prepositioned for war games has been a Godsend,’’ Army Four Star General Mike Johnson said.

I asked if the map room had been converted into a usable map for this operation.

‘‘Yes it has and it is being kept up to date, if you would like to look at it,’’ General Ingram said.

‘‘Yes I would,’’ I replied.

I looked at the progress the troops were making and was satisfied so far.

‘‘Are we still on track to drop leaflets tonight and stand down the heavy bombing for twenty four hours to allow them to have a discussion about a surrender?”

“That heavy bombing stand down is not to affect localized ground operations,’’ I said

‘‘Yes that is still the plan,’’ General Ingram replied.

‘‘I want another major missile launch by the Navy and bombings by both the Air Force B21s and B52s MOAB and Seismic before midnight. I want them shaking before the calm,’’ I said.

‘‘The next step I need to put in play is the diplomatic effort,’’ I added.

I called Secretary of State Dean and asked him to come to the White House and bring his Iranian experts.

An hour later we were in the Oval Office writing out the documents of surrender that would be offered to Iran’s diplomatic UN mission when they were ready. Another document that we worked on were the directives included if they did surrender.

Secretary Dean made the calls to the UN to put the process in play. He requested a video meeting with the Secretary General of the UN Manuel Santos, the Iranian delegation led by Bahar Farzad, and the US Ambassador to the UN Victor Mason.

A copy of the pamphlet written the three dominant languages that were being dropped tonight on the major Iranian cities was faxed to the US Ambassador as was the surrender document. That document was simple and straight forward.

It took an hour for all the people at the UN to assemble in a room that had the ability to video conference.

‘‘Good afternoon Secretary Santos, I’m glad you could make this meeting. I asked for this meeting to announce that there will be twenty four hour suspension in the heavy bombing campaign against Iranian military and Iranian government installations starting at midnight tonight. ‘‘

‘‘During the lull the pamphlets will be dropped advising the Iranian people and the government to unconditionally surrender and the process for Iranian soldiers to surrender to American troops.’’

‘‘If at the end of twenty four hours they - the government - have not chosen to surrender, the bombing will resume with bigger and more powerful bombs and current restricted sites will become first strike targets,’’ I said.

‘‘Iran will never surrender. I have received no word that any serious damage has been done to my country. Centuries of resistance to outside armies cannot be swept away in six days. I do not believe you,’’ Ambassador Farzad said.

‘‘If you want to visit what’s left of Iran I will arrange safe passage with escort for you. But such a trip from New York will not be completed before the bombing resumes.’’

‘‘I would suggest you seek the assistance of your Pakistani Ambassador to make the trip and give you a report. The same offer of safe passage with escort will apply. The international airport at Tehran is closed but one runway is still operational,’’ I said.

‘‘You must extend the cessation of the bombing and begin negotiations to end this conflict,’’ Secretary Santos said.

‘‘There is nothing to negotiate - there is only one solution that I will accept and that is for Iran to unconditionally surrender. The bombing will only be stopped twenty four hours.’’

‘‘In case you haven’t been made aware of it the ground assault has begun. We have forty thousand troops on the ground in southern Iran with twenty thousand arriving tomorrow. We control all territory below the thirtieth north parallel,’’ I said.