Brown, Dale - Patrick McLanahan 06

Fatal Terrain

Dale Brown

G. P. Putnam’s Sons

New York

 
         
G.
P. Putnam’s Sons
Publishers Since 1838
a
member of Penguin Putnam Inc.

200 Madison Avenue
New York
,
NY
10016

Copyright © 1997 by Target Direct
Productions, Inc. All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be
reproduced in any form without permission. Published simultaneously in
Canada

Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Brown, Dale, date. Fatal terrain / by Dale
Brown.

p. cm.

ISBN 0-399-14241-X (alk. paper) I. Title.

PS3552.R68543F38
1997                                        
97-9564 CIP

813'.54—dc21

Printed in the
United States of America
123456789 10 This book is printed on
acid-free paper. ©

Book design by Deborah Kerner

Acknowledgements

 
 
 
         
Thanks
to Harold J. Hough, military technology journalist and author of
Satellite Surveillance,
for his help in
researching modern Chinese military capabilities and strategies.

 
          
A
valuable resource on ancient Chinese military thought from which some of the
quotations in this book were taken is
The
Seven Military Classics of Ancient China,
translated by Ralph D. Sawyer
(Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1993).

 
          
To
Diane: Thanks for starting the adventure with me.

 
          
 This
novel is dedicated to the nineteen U.S. Air Force soldiers who lost their lives
as a result

OF A TERRORIST BOMBING IN
DHAHRAN
,
SAUDI ARABIA
,

in June of 1996. Sun-tzu said, “Compel
others: do not be

COMPELLED BY THEM.” OUR LEADERS, MILITARY
AND

civilian, should remember and heed these
words.

 
Disclaimer
 
 
          
This
is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or to
any actual place, organization, or event is coincidental and purely a product
of the authors imagination. The thoughts and opinions expressed are solely
those of the author.

 
          
Please
leave your comments and suggestions for me at:

 
          
ReaderMail@Megafortress.
com

 
          
or
visit my Web site at: http://www.Megafortress.com.

 
          
I      
promise to read everyone’s comments, but due to the tremendous number of
messages I receive, it may take a while to reply. Thanks!

 
        
 REAL-WORLD
NEWS EXCERPTS

 
 
          
jane’s intelligence review, special report
#7,
“Territorial Disputes,” 1995—There is one particular instance of an
island dispute which could certainly prove very dangerous—the island of Taiwan.
There is no doubt that
China
is very sensitive to any possibility that
Taiwan
may drift into complete independence from
the mainland . . .

 
          
Should
Taiwan
be seen to embark on the course of
independence,
China
would almost certainly use force to stop it, and full-scale war could
easily result. . .

 
          
...
Many analysts believe this to be the most serious long-term threat to
Asia
’s security . . .

 
          
“prescription for peace and PROSPERiTY”~speech
by former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, 17 January 1996,
Taipei, Taiwan—The principle of the balance of power, in which several weaker
forces combine to counterbalance a stronger one, is often underrated. In fact
it makes for stability. But there also has to be one global power, a military
power of last resort, to ensure that regional disputes do not escalate to
uncontainable levels. That power is and can only be the
United States
. It is in all our interests to keep her
committed to upholding international order, which means remaining a Pacific and
indeed a European power.

 
          
That
requires encouragement and support from
America
’s allies and those who benefit from
America
’s presence. It would have been a rash
person who would have predicted at the end of the Vietnam War that
America
would still have substantial forces in
Asia
two decades later. But thank goodness
America
has had the stamina and resolve to stay
because its presence is the critical element in the Asian security equation . .
.

 
          
BEIJING
WARNS
U.S.
IT’S READY TO ATTACK TAIWAN-01 /24/96-NeW

 
          
York—Reuters—China
has warned the United States it has completed plans for a limited attack on
Taiwan that could be launched in the weeks after Taiwan’s president wins an
election in March, the
New York Times
reported
on Wednesday.

 
          
However,
a senior
U. S.
official was quoted by the
New
York Times
as saying the
Clinton
administration had “no independent
confirmation or even credible evidence” that
Beijing
was considering an attack.

 
 
          
The
New York Times
report from
Beijing
said the most direct warning was conveyed
through former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense Chas Freeman, who held
discussions this winter with senior Chinese officials.

 
          
Freeman
told
National
Security
Advisor
Anthony
Lake
that the Chinese army had prepared plans
for a missile attack against
Taiwan
at one strike a day for 30 days, the
newspaper said. *

 
          
BEIJING
REAFFIRMS CLAIM TO ROC AS “PART OF
CHINA
”
(JAN

 
          
30/DPA)-Beijing—DPA—Taiwan
is an “inalienable part” of China, Chinese Prime Minister Li Peng said Tuesday
on the anniversary marking the reunification initiative of state and party head
Jiang Zemin.

 
          
“There
is only one
China
in the world and
Taiwan
is an inalienable part of it,” Li said.
“Whatever changes might occur in the way in which the leadership in
Taiwan
is chosen, they cannot change the fact that
Taiwan
is a part of
China
and its leaders are only leaders of a
region.” Li warned, however, against using a change of government leaders in
Taiwan
as an excuse to put their separatist
activities in legal guise.

 
          
PERRY DECLINES TO SAY THAT
U.S.
WOULD DEFEND
TAIWAN
(Feb

 
          
7/Blmbrg)—
Washington
(Feb 6)—Bloomberg—U.S. Defense Secretary
William Perry declined today to say the
U.S.
would definitely defend
Taiwan
if that country is attacked by
China
.

 
          
How
the
U.S.
would respond to such an attack “depends very much on the
circumstances” that prompted the incident, Perry said during a speech at the
Washington Institute here today. His speech was broadcast throughout the Pentagon.

 
          
Perry
said the Taiwan Relations Act continues to guide
U.S.
policy. That 1979
U.S.
law doesn’t require the
U.S.
to defend
Taiwan
if
Taiwan
is attacked. The act does say the
U.S.
would consider an attack on
Taiwan
“a threat to the peace and security of the
Western Pacific area and of grave concern to the
United States
.”

 
          
jane’s intelligence review,
“
China
’s View of Strategic Weapons,” March
1996—Since its first nuclear detonation in 1964,
China
has maintained a declaratory policy not to
use nuclear weapons first . . . But should the threat of defeat become real,
all bets are off. Presumably since nuclear strikes [against
Taiwan
] would be taking place “within
China
’s
borders,”
this is considered to be technically a non-violation of nuclear declaratory
policy.

 
          
defense
&
foreign affairs handbook
(London: International Media Corp. Ltd.,
1996)—It became clear, however, as the elections in the ROC [Republic of China]
approached, that the PRC [People’s Republic of China] was not, in reality,
ready for a conventional invasion of Taiwan . . . The only option open to the
PRC to achieve its objective would be a full missile bombardment of Taiwan,
using nuclear weapons. The PRC made it clear that this was not ruled out; and,
if the
U.S.
interfered in this “domestic” matter, then a nuclear strike by PRC
ICBMs on
U.S.
cities, such as
Los Angeles
, could not be discounted . . .

 
          
B-52
MISSION
SHOWS GLOBAL REACH, AIR FORCE SAYS, by
Bryan

 
          
Bender,
09/05/96, Phillips Business Information, Inc. (used with permission)—The
effective use of two Air Force B-52 bombers that fired 13 of the 27 cruise
missiles in the first attack on Iraqi air defenses Tuesday demonstrated the
viability of the service’s post-Cold War strategy of striking anywhere at any
time, according to the mission commander.

 
          
The
bombers from the 96th Bomb Squadron left Barksdale AFB,
La.
, Monday for Andersen AFB,
Guam
, where they then launched the Operation
Desert Strike mission.

 
          
The
34-hour, 13,600-mile mission—which included four midair refuelings—“proved the
concept” of global reach and global power, or being able to launch assets on
short notice—in this case from the United States—at targets across the world,
Lt. Col. Floyd Carpenter, also commander of the 96th Bomb Squadron, told
reporters late Tuesday after returning with his crew to Guam.

 
          
“We
can reach out and touch people if we need to,” he said in a telephone
interview. . . .

 
          
.
. . Carpenter added that he and his crew would be ready to launch another
mission—if directed—just 12 hours after completion of the first mission . . .