Executive orders - Tom Clancy [409]
This time Clark got some sleep, but Chavez did not. There was truth in what Adler had remarked to him. His thesis had savagely attacked turn-of-the-century statesmen for their inability to see beyond immediate problems. Now Ding did know a little better. It was hard to tell the difference between an immediate tactical problem and a truly strategic one when you were dodging the bullets on a minute-to-minute basis, and history books couldn't fully convey the temper, the feel of the times on which they supposedly reported. Not all of it. They also gave the wrong impression of people. Secretary Adler, now snoring in his leather reclining seat, was a career diplomat, Chavez reminded himself, and he'd earned the trust and respect of the President-a man he himself deeply respected. He wasn't stupid. He wasn't venal. But he was merely a man, and men made mistakes and great men made big ones. Someday some historian would write about this trip they'd just taken, but would that historian really know what it had been like-and, not knowing, how could he really comment on what had taken place?
What's going on? Ding asked himself. Iran gets real frisky and knocks over Iraq and starts a new country, and just as America is trying to deal with that, something else happens. An event minor in the great scheme of things, perhaps-but you never knew that until it was all over, did you? How could you tell? That was always the problem. Statesmen over the centuries had made mistakes because when you were stuck in the middle of things, you couldn't step outside and take a more detached look. That's what they were paid to do, but it was pretty hard, wasn't it? He had just finished his master's thesis, and he'd get hooded later this year, and officially proclaimed an expert in international relations. But that was a lie, Ding thought, settling back into his own seat. A flippant observation he'd once made on another long flight came back to him. All too often international relations was simply one country fucking another. Domingo Chavez, soon-to-be master in international relations, smiled at the thought, but it wasn't very funny, really. Not when people got killed. Especially not when he and Mr. C. were front-line worker-bees. Something happening in the Middle East. Something else happening with China four thousand miles away, wasn't it? Could those two things be related? What if they were? But how could you tell? Historians assumed that people could tell if only they'd been smart enough. But historians didn't have to do the work
NOT HIS BEST performance, Plumber said, sipping his iced tea.
Twelve hours, not even that much, to get a handle on something halfway 'round the world, John, Holtzman suggested.
It was a typical Washington restaurant, pseudo-French with cute little tassels on a menu listing overpriced dishes of mediocre quality-but, then, both men were on expense accounts.
He's supposed to handle himself better, Plumber observed.
You're complaining that he can't lie effectively?
That's one of the things a President is supposed to do-
And when we catch him at it Holtzman didn't have to go on.
Who ever said it was supposed to be an easy job, Bob?
Sometimes I wonder if we're really supposed to make the job harder. But Plumber didn't bite.
Where do you suppose Adler is? the NBC correspondent wondered aloud.
That was a good question this morning, the Post reporter granted, lifting his glass. I have somebody looking into that.
So do we. All Ryan had to do was say he was preparing to meet with the PRC ambassador. That would have covered things nicely.
But it would have been a lie.
It would have been the right lie. Bob, that's the game. The government tries to do things in secret, and we try to find out. Ryan likes this secrecy stuff a little too much.
But when we burn him for it, whose agenda are we following?
What do you mean?
Come on, John. Ed Kealty leaked all that stuff to you. I don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that one out. Everybody knows it. Bob picked at his salad.
It's all true, isn't it?
Yes, it is,