Chapter 41

Two weeks after I left Washington, President Stevenson had a news conference and showed films of our launches on the 'secret Japanese atoll'. Since I had a thousand witnesses, I did not mind some going to testify. The Americans in our group were very proud to say that we had launched a full six months before the Russians.

Proof was given by the fact that Bell had offered the new phones and connection to our satellite system a bare month after the first unit was launched. They had displayed the system but had not shown the full capabilities, yet. Close to a thousand units had been leased and one was to the Russian Ambassador to the United States.

I let the public believe at that time that the receiving station might be on earth and connected to our new fibre optics network. This was true in a way, because in the event of a satellite malfunction, the fibre optics would take the load. It would do a better job in any case but I needed the satellites in orbit for the military and for my television broadcasting.

Right after Aron went back to school, I went to IBM to see what they had been doing for me. I had made up a fair layout of what I wanted in advanced avionics. There were four hundred and fifty seven engineers at Fish 'n' Chips, Bell and IBM working with me on various segments. Our range finder worked great but I knew of the problems with fog and smoke, so microwaves were used, too. We made the first practical maser for a war craft. Radar was used for many functions other than just distinguishing targets or threats far ahead. The controls allowed the machine to paint a picture of an entire sphere surrounding the craft when used with a similar tail unit.

Power consumption went up very steeply and much more powerful generators had to be used. These had to be driven off a very powerful turbine. Fairchild happened to make what I needed. The engine was now capable of 12,000 pounds of thrust, which was not that high but it was a much smaller unit and much more efficient than any other being manufactured. I was still aiming for 17,000 pounds, which was the engine used in the most modern helicopters.

Fairchild had made my new version of the Huey and was developing the frame and engine for the Black Hawk and the Apache. There were only three made of each and the government or military had not been seen them, yet. IBM had made controls to the belly-mounted, twin chain gun, which in turn was manufactured in West Germany. Even now, with the underpowered engine, it looked nothing but deadly.

It carried Canadian rockets similar to an old version of the Hellfire I Air-to-Ground Missile System. They only carried eight so far, because I did not see too many tanks to take out at one time.

The M299 guided missile launcher was developed specifically for our Hellfire missile. It provided the electronic and mechanical interface between the missile and the helicopter.

The Hydra-70 rockets were the same, in two pods of nineteen each. Seven more of these rockets sat in a special pod that could swing front to back to take out an attacker from that direction.

Sensors were being worked on around the clock. I needed them to adequately tell the computer the heading of the craft carrying the device and to plot what an opposing craft would be doing. Everything had to be taken into account, including wind direction and strength, even the recent history of gusts.

All this would go into the Harrier, the Challenger tank, the Black Hawk, the new Huey II and, of course, the Apache. If I had not been in on the development of these sensors the first time, I knew it would take forty years to get where we were now.

With strong enough radar and computing power, we could make an AWAC for sale. When this aircraft was tied in with our radio/telephone system and satellite reconnaissance, then momma could direct a battle from 40,000 feet or just relay data. I had orders for two dozen and they would make me a very good profit. The contracts, though, required airframes and these I had to buy. We didn't make any large aircraft, yet.

The missiles were the next thing needed and Canada was working hard to make, not only the Hellfire and the Hydra but also a whole range of other short-range missiles. The Canadian army, along with the American, took many of the missiles to Manitoba and test fired them for us.

There was no shortage of development capital, even from the notoriously stingy Canadian government. The price of this was that some of the countries would send military engineers who would be present for consultation. Depending on how good the person was, I got his orders changed and had him working hand in hand with various teams. The uneducated or inept could sit it out.

Even with all this going on, I still used some connections to get the Soviet Union and other nations to consider some joint efforts that would benefit all of us.

Castro and Cuba were a problem for me. Many people in the US supported him, when he portrayed himself as a person trying to depose the vicious dictator Fulgencio Batista. Some in the US government and the very prominent mob supported the dictator. Many companies doing things they would not dare do in the United States did, too. Right after Fidel Castro overthrew the government, the United States recognized him as the rightful leader. They didn't do this to somebody they did not like.

The problems came when large corporations and the mob pushed Castro and the United States into an untenable position. Castro had a true revolutionary's zeal but was not necessarily a Communist, although he did have many socialist leanings. The two were not the same, no matter what the governments wanted us to believe.

First of all, Batista was the typical right-wing tyrant. This was the kind that was famous throughout South and Central America. He had many very right-wing friends in high places. These were the food corporations, which owned three quarters of the arable land and used the people as slaves. His friends in low places were very prominent, too. They owned the casinos, bars, hotels and brothels throughout the island. His other friends were the dictator's cronies who were in it to get rich at the expense of anyone weaker than themselves.

Castro had thrown the mob from the island and had their assets seized. Anybody else with a shred of decency would have done the same thing. This seizure made the mob justifiably angry and they turned to their good friends, the CIA. The CIA had used the mob for assassinations so that they could say they had no part in them. At this time in the century, the mob was very powerful and many actors, singers and other people in the media worked openly with the criminals.

While Ted Kennedy was going after the mob and leading mafia figures, the FBI under Hoover denied that there even was a mafia. Later, though, I met people with much more background information. What they told me, was not gossip or conspiracy theories. Marilyn Monroe would be killed, because she wanted too much from the Kennedy brothers and mob figures. You might say her suicide by sedatives being placed in her colon was greatly assisted.

Only a fool thinks that Oswald was the only person gunning for the President that day. With hidden microphones it was revealed that the mob had everything to do with it, abetted by some government agencies. The same government agencies were in charge of the investigation.

When Castro refused to be killed by the mob, his antagonists turned to sanctions through the government, in hopes of getting another revolution and perhaps a return to their lucrative gambling and prostitution businesses on the island.

A large refinery refused to process the cheaper Venezuelan crude and it was nationalized only because it was necessary in producing the products the country needed. Many other things were done to Castro's regime and to Cuba that forced him, eventually, to turn to the Soviet Union. His strategic position made the Russians very interested in having a presence so close to the American mainland.

After the Bay of Pigs fiasco, it was easy to see the writing on the wall. The Russians sent twenty-four atomic bombs to the island to keep Castro safe. This really upped the stakes in this already high-stakes game. The bombs were never mentioned till the next century but the American government sure knew they were there. They knew he might kill his entire island but he would do the same to any invading troops. The United States did not like the thought of the radioactive clouds settling on their real estate. They were also quite pissed off at being stymied in their efforts to eradicate Communism so close to their shores.

I believe if the US had left Castro alone, or offered some help for humanitarian reasons, then the country would be more like Canada. Canada, at this time, was swinging to Liberalism and the left to see what benefits the system would bring. We even had our own Communist Party of Canada that was allowed to function and eventually died out. It occupied much of the Mounties' time to see if they were plotting to take over our country.

After the bombs came to Cuba, Nikita Khrushchev sent his missiles. The Cubans were probably told that the devices were for protection but Russian officers would control them. That was too much to take in this gigantic game of chess. Since the Russians were forced to back down, an uneasy truce was reached and an expensive blockade was put in place to punish the Cubans into getting rid of Castro. The bombs, of course, were still there, waiting for his successor to play with.

My problem was that I knew what was going to happen and could not explain how I knew. This time around, the United States was much stronger and the Russians might not back down as they had the first time. That was my reoccurring fear. If I made the west very strong, then Russia was going to see its own doom that much quicker and possibly attack. They were very twitchy already and had stepped up their attempts to solicit friends in Central America rather than in Africa like they once did.

Aid was going to many countries in Central America and I was worried that one would take the bribes and allow the Soviet Union a base to work from.

I didn't have that much time, because Castro came to power the first of January 1959. That was just four months off and I had already changed many of the factors that brought him to power and the Soviets to Castro. I didn't know about commercial fleet movements in the other time but I knew that many more ships had called in on Cuba and other small countries on the gulf.

I had formulated plans long ago, with what resources I had. It looked like the one that involved me and my assets the most, was the only one viable. All I had was forty-six men in Cuba with a dozen of those in Havana. I was working on getting a special contract with Batista himself. The men working for me were trying to find out what I needed to know. When I found too many indications of Soviet involvement, I had to see if I could find a way to keep the Russians out. The bad part was that the powerful countries of the world did not want a weak ruler. They needed someone they could deal with and who would be in power next year and the year after. Castro could still be that man, or the one supporting a strong leader.

A partial solution to me was to start a rumour that would stop this chain of events. If Castro died, then the mob would continue to suck blood from the lives of the people in Cuba and provide a place to avoid American laws. This was not foolproof, for others could take up where he left off. Cuba had many revolutionary groups actively fighting Batista all the time.

If Castro were allowed to take power, then there had to be a way to keep him and his leftist tendencies, from shifting more to the left and assisting the Russians. This would also mean that I would have to make sure the mob would not go after Castro, or if they did, they would not get their friends in the CIA to help them in swaying the public opinion and getting sanctions established.

IBM welcomed me with open arms, considering that I now owned 56 percent of the company. I was taken on a tour of the new facilities. We were working on very high-end computers that they were justly famous for in my other life. They made servers and above, to serve the industry and military. We even had our own super computer project that was as good as any that had been made fifteen years later in my old existence.

The military section had made some improvements on the threat analysis equipment we had worked out at Silicon Ridge and Bell Labs. There was a bit of give and take but the system was better than what we had originally laid out. The targeting radar was basically unchanged and I think it would only find some improvements after being tested in combat.

The maser, too, was mostly unchanged. The real work would come when it had to be fitted into small, oddly-shaped crevices in a plane's fuselage. There, other component could and would, affect its properties and it, in turn, would affect other equipment. A mock-up of the areas in question was already in place, as were the units made to fit the available space. Twice we had to change the unit's position because of vibration, heat, or interference.

The electronic countermeasures suite was not doing as good. Our circuit was sound, so I went looking for possible interference. After half an hour I saw it. Two chokes sat on different plates but a metal bracket brought the magnetic field from one coil of wire to the other. "Change that bracket to aluminum."

The engineer who was in charge looked chagrined and I just patted him on the back. "It happens to me all the time, too."

Later in the afternoon we went out to kill some worms. I was only a fair golfer but I was never too interested in the game. Like parties at night it was just an excuse to get together and talk about business. In my case, I talked politics and about Castro.

I usually relied on others to pass the word but time was running short and I spoke up strongly against what the revolutionary might bring down on all our heads.

Our foursome was composed of another large shareholder of IBM stock, a banker and a railroad executive. "How can the military," I said as if it were easy to see, "be so blind as to what Castro will be forced to do? Batista deserves a bullet many times over but not at the expense of what the new leader will put us through."

I listed what would happen and included Castro's final victory date as the end of the year. I went on to tell them what would happen to the casinos and the mobs reaction. When even assassination attempts failed, then the man would be forced to turn to a strong protector. The smuggling of atomic weapons onto their shores to forestall any American attempt to take the island and then the same thing again with the missiles, would come. Then there would be none of the expanse of Canada to stop the flight of atomic death.

I won the game, I think, because the men were now worried about the vision I had just shown them. At the party that night I did the same thing and the hostess was angry with me for turning a happy party into one of gloom.

"Would you rather I don't let you know what will happen? Would you rather a low-ranking Communist comes into this home and throws you into the street to make room for the poor?" I had to play this game carefully, for I had much too many ifs that led to my conclusions.

"No, no I don't want that."

"That is what will happen if you are still alive after the missiles come in to Florida and allow the Communists to make a bridgehead. There is not much to stop them going north. Any of your weapons would just kill more of your country along with an invader. In my opinion, it is much easier to deal with this now, while it is still a matter of a few thousand men with rifles and explosives."

The party was very gloomy and even the host was powerless to get the mood lifted. Two old soldiers were right behind me and helped my cause but I think they were just reliving their past through the possible future.

In the next four days I sabotaged two more parties. At the end of the week my appointment to see the President was more than just due.

"What are you doing, Alex? I heard how you are stirring up the population to take out this Castro of yours. Experts in the field tell me that he has no chance of winning. I heard all your old concerns and they are not as extreme as you think."

"We both play chess. I can see exactly what is probably going to happen. One of your sources of information is the CIA and I know that they are already using the mob to do some of their dirty work. If you do not know this, then you would not be the first President to be lied to.

"Are you willing to let the revolution succeed, then push the new ruler into asking Russia for help, because your country keeps trying to kill him? Soon, I figure, your country will try to use Batista's supporters to retake the small country so close to your shores. Did I not tell you that Nikita Khrushchev was going to be the next Russian leader? Did I not say, just a month ago, that Iraq's monarchy was going to be overthrown by Arab nationalists? I warned King Faisal about my concerns and where is he now? He and his family are dead. I said that you had to move some troops to Lebanon but in this case you didn't do it till it became obvious to even your blind advisors."

He said in his defence, "We just can't go into every nation and police them. The people are tired of war."

I retorted, "Are they tired of being dead or herded by a commissar as he teaches them the glories of Communism? There are many Americans and their companies in Cuba. Protect them like you did Lebanon and give Batista a taste of American military tactics by showing him how to deal with some insurgents who may go Communist. Either do it now and do it right, or we will all be dead in a few years or our survivors will be trying to learn Russian."

"I can't go on just your say-so, Alex. My experts say that Castro will never succeed."

"Batista needs to be shot. You can offer him some of your CIA types who already like assassinations and give them a lot of hardware. Make it look like they are selling him equipment. If you don't get troops there to brace him like you did for the French in Indo China, he will fail." I hated to do this, for Batista had to go, not be protected but perhaps I could do something more with a greater breathing space.

The man stopped to think and before he could speak I said in a low voice, "So far I have been right or much more so than your other eyes and ears. This is the time I am right, too. If you can't take the island because of Russian bombs, then what are you going to do when Russian missiles are less than a hundred miles from your shores? North Vietnam and North Korea are a buffer to China and Cuba is much closer to us. You have precedence here to back you up. China can't object too much, because they got the same thing."

The next day I went into a room filled with CIA types and the military. I could see the President did not like to be in a bind. He would like us to fight it out and the winner must be the way his country should go. This had to be handled very carefully, because these men worked on facts and I had very little to prove my point. Their mob connection was mentioned and this, I knew, coloured all my words. They, too, could see, although they did not want to admit it. I explained in brief what I thought would happen and then I went into detail.

"How can you back up your statements? You said you have men in Cuba looking for you and some have infiltrated a few of Castro's and other terrorist camps."

"There are some watching Batista, too. I know some from each group are either dead or can't communicate. They have our phone system and cameras and would be able to communicate if they were able. The last transmission came in from a man in one of Batista's own terror brigades. He said that they are following Castro and trying to intimidate all his supporters. Castro is not fighting that much, because it is easier to just call on a few people here and there to do the work for him. There are also many groups that are actively opposing the dictator besides Castro.