The General's President (24 page)

"If you're referring to my using the Emergency Powers Act, I'll keep using it until the economic emergency is over or until Congress repeals those powers. Right now they're needed. I assume this will be discussed when I meet with the Joint Congressional Committee on the Emergency. I presume that meeting will be televised.

"And regarding martial law: It's still in force because of the 2,300 internees being held for their part in the insurrection.

"Next? The tall man in the light green shirt and bolo tie."

"Ray Zelenski, the
Tulsa World
. Entirely apart from the new Kremlin situation, the country's been told very little about your foreign policy. When are you going to discuss that for us?"

"Ray, I appreciate that you people have been left in the dark on that. And frankly, I'd expected to get to it before now." The president paused, seemingly considering how to proceed with the subject. "Like most of you people, I've always had opinions on foreign policy. But I didn't have to function in the area, and my opinion was just an opinion. Suddenly I found myself in the position of 'put up or shut up,' and I decided to shut up until I got better informed. I've been leaving day-to-day operations almost entirely to the discretion of the State Department; and leaving policy to the National Security Council, of which I've been the mostly quiet chairman. Not that that's unusual in a new president.

"So far I've been giving most of my attention to domestic problems and the machinery of government, which had to have priority. But now, after receiving numerous reports and briefings, and reading a month's worth of daily intelligence summaries, I'm beginning to feel some confidence in foreign affairs. And I can tell you that I'm working on an agenda for a foreign trip, during which I'll talk with the heads of government of several countries. So far we've drawn up only a tentative list of those, so I'm not willing to name them."

Again he scanned the room. "Ill take one more question. Mr. Carnes."

"Greg Carnes,
New York Times
Mr. President, I have it from someone who should know, that you plan to remove all restrictions on the construction of nuclear power plants. Will you comment on this for us?"

The president looked long at him, then smiled ruefully. "Mr. Carnes," he said, "if someone really told you that, someone who's supposed to know, I'm embarrassed for him. Anyone who should know, should know better than that. Or maybe they said something else and it's been misinterpreted that way. Or maybe you made it up, to see how I'd respond. Whatever. I assure you, I have no intention of making any changes at all in the legal requirements for building nuclear power plants or putting them in operation. Now or later.

"I can appreciate that you might ask, particularly with the painful price of fuel oil. But I'll tell you what: I'll be very surprised if such a statement would be taken seriously a month from now."

He paused; hands waved eagerly for attention, but he ignored them. "And now for my prepared statement. First about NASA. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration became almost moribund under the Donnelly Administration because of severe federal budget problems. At the same time, more than a quarter century has passed since the first moon landing, and we still haven't allowed more than a token development of private enterprise in space. Private French and Japanese companies have successful and expanding commercial space activities, and the Chinese government has gotten active in the business recently. But here? Here we still have legal restrictions to protect NASA's virtual monopoly.

"So I'm taking NASA completely out of the
business
of space and giving them a specific non-military project. NASA long ago proved its ability to carry out such projects, and I am directing it to build an orbiting space station for launching manned and unmanned probes to other planets. It won't have much of a budget at first, but it now has a goal.

"When their first-order plans have been fully developed, we'll sell the copyright to a commercial publisher for broad public sale. We can expect the advance on royalties to help cover the cost of planning, and the technical information will help the development of commercial space ventures.

"The business of space will go to business. NASA
could
do it, with appropriate reorganization and direction, but we will all benefit from competition between space corporations, here and abroad. We can expect to see different approaches to hardware and to management, and a lot of cross-pollination of ideas. Which will lead to more rapid technical advancement.

"Meanwhile the Department of Defense will get two of the existing NASA shuttles."

Haugen paused to look over the media people, some holding up directional recorders toward him, some taking notes. The TV camera people were intent on their instruments.

"Now for more domestic matters," he went on. "A president gets a lot of mail. All kinds of mail. And an awful lot of it asks me to do this or that. Prohibit this; require that; stop the other thing. All to solve problems, or what are thought of as problems.

"Tonight I'm going to give you, and the American people, my positions on a few of these things. These positions have just been written into law. They will become effective as of next Monday, or more exactly, as of midnight Sunday.

"First, abortion. I will not legislate barriers to abortion, but the states may prohibit it within their boundaries if they want to.
However, if a state prohibits abortion, that state must ensure adequate care for the child and for the pregnant mother, including a medically adequate delivery.
And if they have much sense, I don't think they'll want to get into a program like that one.

"Next, the increase in venereal disease, especially the very large number of AIDS cases that have surfaced, has caused considerable pressure recently for laws prohibiting extramarital sex. There used to be such laws, years ago. Some of them may still be on the books. We know how ineffective they were and are. A government that tries to actually enforce sexual morality intrudes heavily into the private lives of individuals, and deserves all the trouble and expense it gets.

"However, to legislate against harming others is another matter. Therefore, as of next Sunday midnight it will be a felony for a person to infect someone with a venereal disease, after symptoms of their own infection can be presumed to have been evident.

"It will be a felony, not just a misdemeanor. And anyone found guilty of this felony will be held accountable for one-half of the reasonable costs of the disease in the person they infected, whether those costs initially are born by a private individual or by some public or private agency.

"Again, you will note that this is not legislation of morals. It is a correct allocation of accountability for harm to others.

"Another sex-related matter is the number of rapes in America. Courts often seem to have difficulty in deciding what constitutes rape and how to deal with rape charges. So I'm helping them out. As of Sunday midnight, rape includes any forced sexual intercourse, intercourse with any person against their expressed unwillingness. And that unwillingness can be expressed by verbal objection; it does not need to be by physical resistance, which can be dangerous. Rape includes forced intercourse with anyone—a prostitute, a man, anyone including one's own wife. Rape is always a felony. And rape charges may be accompanied by other, related charges such as assault with a deadly weapon, and battery.

"Of course, the case has to be proven in court. But this clarifies and simplifies deciding what the charge should be."

While the president talked, Lester Okada watched from his position ten feet to the president's right. And it seemed to Okada that this press audience was more intent than any he'd seen before. It should be, he told himself. They were witnessing a basically un-American phenomenon: law by presidential edict.

"Now for another matter," Haugen was saying. "In recent years, some progress has been made on getting child support payments actually paid by a parent in another state. We're taking it the rest of the way. Per a new law, failure to make such payments is a felony. If you are supposed to be making child support payments across a state line, you'd better make them, or you will be subject to arrest, if you receive federal money, part of it can be withheld and sent to help support your child. If you are employed, you have the choice of making payments willingly, or having your wages garnisheed. And if your income now seems too low to make the payments set in the past by a court, you can seek arbitration for a payment level you feel you
can
afford. But understand that the arbitrator may not even leave you beer money, because the child comes ahead of most other things.

"Finally, if all else fails, you can be put in jail for your felony, and your prison wage sent to help support your child. I'm not talking about imprisonment for debt. Realistic and feasible payments can always be arranged short of prison. I'm talking about imprisonment for the felony of refusing to help support your child.

"And let me add that if the child becomes a ward of the state, the state can sue either or both parents for child support."

The president looked intently into the cameras and rapped the lectern with a thick forefinger. "This is not a matter of punishment. There may be a few people who can't see that, but it is
not
a matter of punishment. I'm not much into punishment. This is simply a matter of requiring that people take responsibility for their actions. To father a child, or to bear one, even unintentionally, is not a trivial matter.

"And that's all I have to say about that, except to point out that these laws were not etched into stone on top of Mt. Sinai. Nor did they come from the Congress. But they are certainly susceptible to being changed by Congress.

"On the other hand, it may be that the American people will like them well enough to insist that they be continued. For now, they are law. Full written versions have been drafted and reviewed by competent legal experts, and will be available to you when you leave. They will also be mailed to legal jurisdictions tomorrow. I trust that they'll be in your newspapers tomorrow, also."

He looked his press audience over. "And ladies and gentlemen, that's it for this evening. Have a good night."

***

As he rode the underground walkway to the White House, the president wondered what Judge Liederman would say about these laws when he met with him the next evening. And Senator Lawes and Professor MacLieth next week. Perhaps he should have held off till the legal reform package was ready. But this would serve to prepare people, and give him some feel for public acceptance.

TWENTY-ONE

A plane carrying a President of the United States is ordinarily recognizable. In this instance however, it was a very ordinary-looking Air Force C-17B cargo transport, with temporary facilities that allowed its several passengers to work and sleep. And to clean up properly for a secret meeting, for there would be no layovers enroute.

The transport flew seemingly unaccompanied, but half a hundred miles to both north and south, sea-rescue aircraft flew parallel courses while tracking her by radar. Arne Haugen wasn't aware of them. There was no particular reason that he should be; the risk was slight.

It had been early afternoon when they'd taken off from Andrews Air Force Base, flying toward westward-creeping night. Their destination was six time zones east, and the prospect of jet lag suggested going early to bed, but meanwhile this was an opportunity to read something the president had been putting off as of relatively low priority. He opened the report that Cromwell had given him more than a week earlier, on the executive boards, past and present, of the Holist Council. It was in a post-binder, thick, with a detailed table of contents, an index, and protruding tabs to help access it.

He forgot about bed until he'd finished it; his fellow passengers were already asleep. He had a drink then and stripped to his shorts, while an Air Force corporal prepared his bunk. Afterward he lay awake for a time, thinking about what he'd just read. Although it was a listing of open activities lacking any direct information on motives or conspiracy, it had given him a different perspective on the problems of his country, and by extension the world.

It would take awhile to digest it properly, to integrate it sufficiently within his subconscious database that he would compute with it automatically, subliminally. But the world, and especially America, would never look quite the same to Arne Haugen again.

At the same time, it did not alarm him. There was nothing urgent about it; it required no immediate action. He would put it out of his attention and free his mind for more immediate things, matters to which the new information was operationally irrelevant.

***

The unmarked Bell Mescalero SOC helicopter lifted from the joint German-U.S. air base at Leipheim and headed south over the black forests of the Schwäbische Alb in bright early sunshine. Here and there, snow powdered the firtops on higher ridges, and before long the little aircraft had crossed the dark green water of Lake Constance into Switzerland. The Swiss air defense network monitored its passage, but it had clearance; the symbol crawling across their CRTs was watched for routine air safety rather than military security. High rugged snowscapes loomed ahead on the splendid Glarner Alpen, then passed below, making the entire world seem white beneath blue. The chopper, with a performance ceiling of 6,500 meters, lifted lightly over knife-edged arretes and toothed tors, where snow plumes curled coldly in a northwest wind.

The high ridges and peaks became the Alpi Lepontine, and crossing the last major crest, the pilots and their passengers looked south down a long valley, blue with lake, dark with forest and drab with autumn meadow, separating two snowy ridges of the Italian forealps.

On a broadly rounded side ridge, newly snow-covered, stood the villa of an Italian industrialist who found pleasure in privately hosting the eminent; a man who kept secrets well. The Mescalero swung low. Its pilot noted the groups of armed and uniformed men below, all watching, ready, and there were sure to be others he couldn't see. Their weapons included what had to be SA rocket launchers. He'd been told there'd be heavy security—heavy and
very
touchy.