Tom Clancy's Op-center Balance of Power - Tom Clancy [85]
"You mean, forming a new government within the present system?" Lanning asked. "Or are they talking about creating a new government with a different system?"
"I'm getting to that," the President said. "The prime minister has virtually no support-in the parliament or among the people. He's expected to resign within a day or two. Abril says that the king, who is at his residence in Barcelona, will be able to count on the support of the church and most of the population apart from the Castilians."
"Which is somewhat less than a majority," Burkow pointed out.
"About forty-five percent of the people," the President said. "Which puts the king in a very shaky position. We're told that his palace in Madrid is thick with soldiers, though no one's sure whether the troops are there to protect the place or to keep him from coming back."
"Or both," Lanning remarked. "Just like the Winter Palace when Czar Nicholas was forced to abdicate."
"Quite possibly," the President said. "But it gets worse. Paul-Bob Herbert and Mike Rodgers have sent over the latest data on the military. You want to address that?"
Hood folded his hands on the table. "There's a general who appears to be running this show-Rafael Amadori. According to our intelligence, he orchestrated the destruction of the yacht in the Bay of Biscay, which killed several leading businessmen who were also planning to bring down the government. He also appears to have been responsible for the death of Deputy Serrador. That's the man who my political chief Martha Mackall was on her way to see when she was killed this morning." Hood's voice dropped along with his eyes. "We have reason to believe that Serrador set her up with the help of the party on the yacht."
"Bob Herbert said he's working to confirm that," the President said. " The problem is, even if we found out that part of the government was involved in a conspiracy, the rest of the lawfully elected government may not be around to hear our complaint. Now the policy of the United States, and of this Administration, has always been not to interfere in the internal affairs of a nation. The exceptions, like Panama, like Grenada, involved issues of national security. The problem here, and what General VanZandt is especially concerned about, is that Spain is a NATO ally. The outcome of the current strife will probably cause a reshaping of the government-but we can't afford to have a tyrant running the nation. We left Franco alone because he didn't have designs on other nations."
"That's only because he saw from the sidelines what we did to Mussolini and Hitler," Burkow pointed out.
"Whatever the reasons, he stayed put," the President said. "That may not be the case here. General VanZandt?"
The tall, distinguished African-American officer opened a folder in front of him. "I have here a printout on the man's career. He signed up with the army thirty-two years ago and worked his way through the ranks. He was on the right side-or rather the left side-of the right-wing coup which attempted to overthrow the king in 1981. He was wounded in action and received a medal for bravery. After that he rose quickly. Interestingly, he never opposed NATO but he didn't participate in joint maneuvers. In letters to superior officers he advocated a strong national defense which didn't rely on outside help-"interference," he called it. He did, however, spend a lot of time entertaining and being entertained by Soviet troops during the 1980's. CIA intelligence puts him in Afghanistan in 1982 as an observer."
"No doubt he was observing how to oppress people," Carol Lanning suggested.
"It's very possible," VanZandt replied. "During this time Amadori was also heavily involved in Spanish military intelligence and appears to have used his trips abroad to establish contacts there.