ABLE ARCHER 83 - Opening Sequence

 

A movie/TV series script for

ABLE ARCHER 83

By Kenneth James Prendergast

A B-52 strategic bomber is readied for a night flight (US Strategic Command).

START OPENING SEQUENCE

FADE IN:

1 EXT. 100 MILES ABOVE EARTH                                                                                               1

MUSIC “RUSSIANS” BY STING. OPENING CREDITS on a scene overlooking the sun reflecting off the Pacific Ocean. The following text is displayed:

“Never, perhaps, in the postwar decades has the situation in the world been as explosive and, hence, more difficult and unfavorable as in the first half of the 1980s.

-- Mikhail Gorbachev,

President of the Soviet Union

February 1986”

An east-looking, west-traveling camera moves from above a daytime Asia, at morning across Europe and the Atlantic Ocean to a nighttime North America, occasionally passing satellites AS CREDITS APPEAR THROUGHOUT. AS CREDITS END, the camera turns west to face the direction it is traveling to see it approaching the East Coast of the United States from high above. The Song “Russians” is ending. The camera now descends at a threatening rate of speed as if on an ICBM’s trajectory, zooming in on the nighttime city lights of the Washington DC area.

BRIGHT FLASH TRANSITION:

2 EXT. MCLEAN, VIRGINIA – NIGHT                                                                                      2

PANORAMIC VIEW OF WASHINGTON DC MONUMENTS IN THE DISTANCE FROM THE WEST, ACROSS THE POTOMAC, CAMERA TILTING DOWN at a neighborhood of comfortable homes in McLean, Virgina. The camera settles down through the trees to street level in front of a darkened, brick colonial house. Sounds of crickets are pierced by the noise of a distant passenger jet aircraft, its landing and strobing lights visible through the trees but a half-mile away, inbound to National Airport.

TILT UP AND ZOOM IN ON DARK SECOND FLOOR WINDOW as the wind blows through the trees. 

The text “Home of National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinksi, McLean, Virginia -- June 3, 1980” is briefly displayed.

STANDARD CUT:

3 INT. BEDROOM OF NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI AND WIFE                                          3

PULL BACK FROM THE VIEW OUT THE BEDROOM WINDOW to show a couple asleep in bed in their darkened room. Crickets and the jet plane are still barely heard outside. The phone rings. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, a man in his early 50s, reaches to the bedside table and fumbles the black phone’s handset before bringing it to his ear.

NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI

“Hello...” (CLEARS HIS THROAT)

When it rings again, Brzezinski realizes it’s the wrong phone and replaces the black handset, trading it for the red handset to the red phone next to it. He brings the red handset to his ear.

NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI

“Hello...” (SPOKEN A LITTLE MORE CLEARLY)

ASSISTANT NSA WILLIAM ODOM

“(HEARING HIS DISEMBODIED VOICE OVER THE PHONE) Zbig, it’s Bill Odom. I hate to call you at this ungodly hour but, um, it appears we’re under nuclear attack...”

NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI

“What!?!” He sits up. “What’s going on??” His wife stirs beside him but doesn’t wake.

ASSISTANT NSA WILLIAM ODOM

“I’m on a Pentagon conference call. They are currently tracking approximately 200 Soviet ballistic missiles that are inbound to the continental United States and (AS IF RESPONDING TO ANOTHER PERSON), yes, they were launched about 30 seconds ago. We don’t have specific targets yet but with that limited number of inbounds and the probability that they were sub-launched, there is concern it may be a decapitation strike on our command and control, principal military installations and the like. Do you want to wake the president to bring him on the call?”

NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI

“No, I need confirmation first.”

ASSISTANT NSA WILLIAM ODOM

“Zbig, we only have six minutes before coastal targets are hit. Given the hour and the nature of the attack, we were prepared to launch on warning by pre-delegation authority.”

NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI

“And then what? You’d call back to apologize that it was a mistake? Listen, this could be another false alarm like the one in November. You have two minutes to confirm.”

ASSISTANT NSA WILLIAM ODOM

“Yes sir. I’ll call you back.”

Brzezinski hangs up the phone and exhales hard. Outside, the peaceful sound of crickets and the wind rustling the leaves belies the sudden, intense tension. The rising noise of another jet plane approaches and becomes fearfully loud. Brzezinski places his hand on the shoulder of his sleeping wife. He looks at her lovingly. The phone ringing nearly mutes the deafening sound of the passing aircraft. Brzezinski answers the red phone and both sounds disappear.

NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI

“Bill?”

ASSISTANT NSA WILLIAM ODOM

“Yes sir. It’s not 200 missiles. It’s 2,000... We now have ICBM launches detected from the Soviet Union as well as the SLBMs off the East and West Coasts of the United States. And it’s not like November when NORAD accidentally ran that wargame test program. They’re telling me that screens at the Pentagon and SAC are also lit up with the same inbounds. The computer gave us the missile count.”

NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI

“This just doesn’t make any sense. It’s a bolt from the blue. Are there any signs of Politburo evacuations or troop movements in Eastern Europe? Or additional naval and air force deployments?”

ASSISTANT NSA WILLIAM ODOM

“No, but if the point of this is to catch us off guard, they certainly succeeded. Sir, we’re at plus-three minutes. We’re at the point where those of us with pre-delegation authority can direct a retaliatory strike.”

NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI

“Like hell you will. I want you to double-check this.”

ASSISTANT NSA WILLIAM ODOM

“(SIGH) Then I recommend we get SAC in the air and get our silos warmed up while we’re playing with our left-handed monkey wrenches.”

 NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI

“Bill, OK. Go ahead. You know damn well that I have no problem with taking those commie bastards with us if we’re certain that 50 million Americans are going to die in their sleep. You know what’s at stake. This is my family and your family. So check this again and call me back in two more minutes.”

ASSISTANT NSA WILLIAM ODOM

“Yes sir.”

EMILIE BRZEZINSKI

“Honey. Is everything OK?”

NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI

“I’m not sure. I may have to wake the president.”

EMILIE BRZEZINSKI

“Why? What time is it?”

NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI

“It’s just after 3.”

EMILIE BRZEZINSKI

“My God, what’s happening?”

NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI

“Go back to sleep, Emilie. I’m sure everything is OK.” He looks to the window and listens to the wind.

STANDARD CUT:

4 INT/EXT. SAC BOMBER BASE, GRAND FORKS, ND – NIGHT                                           4

Wind sound intensifies while showing the illuminated and guarded entrance to Strategic Air Command, 319th Bombardment Wing, Grand Forks, ND. 

DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS; EXAMPLE: Gary Numan - My name is Ruin (karaoke version)

Text on screen: “Strategic Air Command, 319th Bombardment Wing, Grand Forks, North Dakota”

FADE to camera traveling past a thick, hinged blast door and into a brightly lit, tube-like hallway with no windows but rooms with cots occupied by sleeping, dressed soldiers extending to the left and the right.

The klaxon horn blows, launching 70 uniformed airmen and grounds crew from a shallow sleep on their cots into a mission-oriented frenzy.

Airmen slip on their untied boots, grab their jackets and gear and dash through the molehole tunnels, through opened blast doors, to the alert pad where a dozen pickup trucks are being started up. Six airmen and several grounds crewmen jump in, tires squeal and head out onto the pad with 11 other trucks to their B-52 bombers and KC-135 tankers.

Cut to a distant, but zoomed-in view of multiple pickup trucks speeding down the alert pad called a “Christmas tree” toward the camera, kicking up dust. As they near the aircraft and turn between them, the trucks’ headlights increasingly reveal silhouettes of the massive B-52s and KC-135s.

THAT SCENE PLAYS OUT DURING THE FOLLOWING, DISEMBODIED DIALOGUE.

DCC JIMMY JEFFERSON

“G’morning Ranger Rick!”

COMMANDER RICHARD “RANGER RICK” HUTCHINSON

“Let’s get this over with, Crew Chief. I hate when they do this to us in the middle of the night. Get us down that Christmas tree and back again so you can tuck me in by oh-two-hundred, OK Jimmy?”

DCC JIMMY JEFFERSON

“I’ll do my best, commanda’. What’s yo best time?”

COMMANDER RICHARD “RANGER RICK” HUTCHINSON

“Nine minutes daytime but 11 pre-dawn. That’s mole hole to wheels up. And we weren’t even the senior crew then.”

 

DCC JIMMY JOE SMITH

Laughing “At least Mount Saint Helens ain’t blowing ash in our engines like last week!”

Smith’s truck pulls in behind the starboard wingtip of B-52 “Czar 52.” Smith and his ground crew jump out and pull up the wheel chocks. The air crew runs to the fuselage, hits the slap-switch to drop the ladder from the hatch and all six climb into the small opening with surprising speed.

SCENE MOVES TO CZAR 52’S COCKPIT WHERE THE START-UP SEQUENCE IS PROCESSED QUICKLY.

COMMANDER RICHARD “RANGER RICK” HUTCHINSON

“Gentlemen, start your engines. Standby to copy orders.”

PILOT JACK SCHWINN

“Begin engine start sequence.” He switches all eight engines to ‘start.’ “Standby for orders.” 

COMMANDER RICHARD “RANGER RICK” HUTCHINSON

“Fire cartridges for engines four and five.” 

PILOT JACK SCHWINN

“Firing cartridges for four and five.” He flips the switches to fire the cartridges. The engines pop and whine up to rotational speed.

COMMANDER RICHARD “RANGER RICK” HUTCHINSON

“Confirm the wing ducts are catching engines one through three and six through eight.”

 PILOT JACK SCHWINN

“Confirmed. Visuals and vibrations!” 

COMMANDER RICHARD “RANGER RICK” HUTCHINSON

“Oscar-Zero, Czar 52 is rolling. Where are my orders?”

COMMAND POST TOWER CONTROLLER

“Czar 52...” A deep breath is heard. “Be advised that all Alfa, Charlie and Foxtrot aircraft are directed to MITO -- repeat, Minimum Interval Take Off -- and get your BUFFs clear of the base immediately. You’ll get your EWO in the air. God be with you. God be with us all.”

COMMANDER RICHARD “RANGER RICK” HUTCHINSON

His eyes grow wide. “Holy shit! (HE PAUSES AND LOOKS SKYWARD) That means inbounds are enroute. I’ll bet we’re going straight to Red Dot 4, people. A full retaliatory strike!”

 PILOT JACK SCHWINN

HE SHAKES HIS HEAD AS IF TO WAKE UP, THEN PUSHES HARD FORWARD ON THE THRUST LEVERS TO A DEAFENING ROAR. QUIETLY HE SAYS “If we die, you die.”

Czar 52 is seen accelerating down the runway with its black smoke curling behind, as the next B-52 pulls in behind and throttles up 15 seconds after the first. The leader lifts off, with the second emerging from its smoke to lift off and another coming in behind.

STANDARD CUT:

5 EXT/INT. MINUTEMAN ICBM LCF HOLDEN, MO - NIGHT                                               5

Dramatic music continues but more subdued. Exterior view of a single-level ranch-style building with a shallow-gabled roof plus a microwave radio communications tower and helicopter pad next to it.

Text on screen: “Mike-01, 510th Strategic Missile Squadron launch control facility -- Holden, Missouri”

The camera flies into the building, quickly showing its bedrooms with three of them occupied by people sleeping. The camera passes the kitchen, recreation room with pool table and security room with a guard reading a Sports Illustrated magazine before the camera dives 60 feet down the 12x12-foot elevator shaft to the entrance to the Launch Control Center (LCC) for 10 Minuteman II inter-continental ballistic missile silos in the surrounding countryside. The entrance is protected by an 8-ton steel-and-concrete blast door with a mural painted on it looking like a Domino’s pizza box that reads “Worldwide delivery in 30 minutes or less – Or your next one is free.”

Inside a reinforced capsule suspended from overhead shock absorbers, two US Air Force missile officers are seated in large, red padded seats at consoles when an alarm sounds. It is followed by a scratchy, faint, digitized voice over a speaker:

SPEAKER VOICE

“Skyking. Skyking. Do not answer. Message Follows. Foxtrot. Standby. India. Standby. Mike. Standby. November. Standby. Oscar. Standby.”

LIEUTENANT DAVID RASKIN

“I can barely hear this one. Is this coming through on radio or satellite?”

CAPTAIN BOBBY McCAFFERTY

“With that echo? Sounds like both. If it’s satellite, it may be more than just busy traffic to keep the Ruskies guessing. But I don’t remember this automated voice...” His voice trailing off.

LIEUTENANT DAVID RASKIN

“Well, they’re getting all our LCCs in the five-ten ready. What’s next, an E-A-M?”

SPEAKER VOICE

“...Standby for Emergency Action Message from the National Command Authority....”

CAPTAIN BOBBY McCAFFERTY

“Remove missile keys and code books!” He waits for a few agonizing seconds. “They’re not going straight into a drill instruction! Standby...” He waits a few seconds more. “This may be something different. Get some more Oh-two tanks, MREs and water in here while I wake up everyone topside and get them into the backup capsules.” He picks up the phone. “And don’t forget the shovels and pickaxes.”

STANDARD CUT:

6 EXT. ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, MARYLAND - NIGHT                                                6

A klaxon horn is blaring outside the hangar for the National Emergency Airborne Command Post (NEACP), an E-4B which is a converted Boeing 747-200. It is surrounded by a team of five heavily armed soldiers as several grounds crewmen quickly load a pallet of supplies into baggage.

Text “National Emergency Airborne Command Post (NEACP) hangar, Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland” is briefly displayed.

DCC MARTIN KOWALSKI

“Pick it up guys! Knee-cap has to be rolling in two minutes. Is everyone on board?”

ACC JOSH CARLSON

“They always are.”

DCC MARTIN KOWALSKI

Impatiently, “Airman, I’m asking if anyone’s left behind.”

ACC JOSH CARLSON

“The count is 48. All are on board, sir.”

DCC MARTIN KOWALSKI

“Close that hatch, airman!” He speaks into his radio. “DCC Kowalksi to Nightwatch. You’re signed, sealed and delivered.”

NIGHTWATCH PILOT

On radio “Roger crew chief. Andrews Tower, clear us a path. Nightwatch is taxiing. This is not a drill!”

Exterior view of NEACP as its jet engines thrust the plane forward with a loud roar.

STANDARD CUT:

7 INT. BEDROOM OF NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI AND WIFE                                          7

In his pajamas, Brzezinski is looking at two of his sleeping children in their bedroom from its doorway. The red-digit LED clock on their bedside table reads “3:28.” The red phone rings again. He dashes across the hall into the master bedroom as his wife stirs once more. 

NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI

“Bill?”

ASSISTANT NSA WILLIAM ODOM

“Yes sir. You ready for this?”

NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI

“What, for God’s sakes?”

ASSISTANT NSA WILLIAM ODOM

“It was an integrated circuit. A God-damned 46-cent computer chip! NORAD ran diagnostics and found it was sending typographical errors in otherwise routine messages to SAC and the National Missile Command Center. So instead of displaying zero-zero-zero inbound missile status, it was adding a two in different places...”

NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI

“Jesus! So no nuclear attack?”

ASSISTANT NSA WILLIAM ODOM

“No sir.”

NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI

“Then can you do us all a favor and stand down SAC?”

ASSISTANT NSA WILLIAM ODOM

“We’re recalling the alert aircraft now, sir. We were about to give them a Red Dot 4 and send them straight to their targets without checking in at Failsafe.”

NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI

“Ah Christ. The bombers went airborne? That means the Soviets probably saw this.”

ASSISTANT NSA WILLIAM ODOM

“They saw the false alarm in November. So they probably saw this one, too.”

NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI

“Better hope this didn’t trigger a chain reaction. Keep an eye on the threat boards, Bill. But if nothing else shows up tonight, I’d like to TRY to get some more sleep...”

ASSISTANT NSA WILLIAM ODOM

“What did the president say?”

NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI

“I’ll tell him in the morning.”

ASSISTANT NSA WILLIAM ODOM

“You didn’t call him? He’s gonna eat your peanuts for breakfast, Zbig....”

NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI

“Good night, Bill.” He hangs up the phone, lays back into the bed with his eyes wide open and exhales hard.

END OPENING SEQUENCE

ABLE ARCHER 83 - Part 2 - Pentagon

A movie/TV series script for

ABLE ARCHER 83

By Kenneth James Prendergast

Pentagon in winter (AFP PHOTO / FREDERIC WALLOIS).

 

SLOW FADE TRANSITION:

8 EXT. PENTAGON – DAY                                      8

WIDE SHOT OF A MARINE CORPS HELICOPTER landing at the Pentagon Army Heliport on the northwest side of the Pentagon.

Text on screen: “The Pentagon, January 13, 1981”

Several men aged 40-60 years in wool coats and suits including a man in his late-60s emerge from the helicopter and are greeted with handshakes from an Air Force general and his attaché. Enlisted soldiers posted nearby salute and stand at attention. Buffeted by the winds from the helicopter’s rotors, the suits smile and yell imperceptibly but pleasantly at the officer who offers his congratulations at the oldest man in a suit and guides him toward a doorway into the Pentagon AS THE CAMERA ZOOMS IN.

PRESIDENT-ELECT RONALD REAGAN

“My God it’s cold out here! (To the Air Force general, walking alongside) CHAIRMAN JONES, why aren’t you wearing a coat?”

CHAIRMAN DAVID JONES

(yelling over the noise of the helicopter)

“I grew up in the Dakotas, Mister President! This is what we would call a Chinook, sir.”

NSA NOMINEE RICHARD ALLEN

“I thought Marine One is a Sikorsky?” (he says smiling)

CHAIRMAN JONES

“Yes, it is, MISTER ALLEN (forcing a smile). I was referring to the warm winds that come down off the Rockies onto the high plains.”

PRESIDENT-ELECT REAGAN

“And you’re very kind, General. But I’m not the President yet -- not until next week.”

CHAIRMAN JONES

“My apologies, sir.”

PRESIDENT-ELECT REAGAN

“Oh, that’s quite alright. I arrived from California only last week and I’m still trying to get used to it, not to mention this bitter cold.”

CHAIRMAN JONES

“It can get a lot colder around here, and it probably will before this winter is over. Follow me, sir...” (His attaché opens the Pentagon’s VIP entrance for Reagan and his transition team’s national security staff).

FADE:

9 INT. Pentagon E-ring, fourth-deck conference room         9

INSIDE THE PENTAGON, the camera moves like a drone through the halls, to an elevator, and emerges on the fourth deck of the E-ring, the text briefly displays “Pentagon E-Ring, Fourth Deck” then enters a conference room with U-shaped table and a projection screen at one end. REAGAN, GEORGE H. W. BUSH and his national security transition team greet other officers and aides totaling about a dozen people in the room. A bulky black leather case sits on the table.

CHAIRMAN JONES

“I trust everyone in this room has Yankee White clearance? (AN ATTACHE STANDING NEARBY NODS IN THE AFFIRMATIVE) Very well, Mister President-Elect, I present to you the Joint Chiefs.” (ALL SHAKE HANDS WITH REAGAN)

MARINE CORPS GENERAL ROBERT BARROW

“How was your flight in from Camp David, sir?”

PRESIDENT-ELECT REAGAN

“Fine, thanks to your Marines, GENERAL BARROW. And to the Carters for extending the courtesy. They were very gracious -- for Democrats.” (RESTRAINED LAUGHTER ALL AROUND)

“I think most of you know the members of my national security transition team who are with me today – DICK ALLEN, JIM NANCE, and of course the next VICE PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH...”

NAVY ADMIRAL TOM HAYWARD

(INTERRUPTING) “Good to see you back here again, BUD. How’s retirement at 40 treating you?”

DEPUTY NSA NOMINEE JIM “BUD” NANCE

“Not quite 40 yet (IN A SOUTHERN DRAWL), Admiral. But a few folks are trying to keep me from retiring. If it’s not General Haig, it’s Senator Helms. It took the next President of the United States to reel me back in.”

VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT GEORGE BUSH

“And how is President Haig these days?” (MORE LAUGHTER)

PRESIDENT-ELECT REAGAN

“All right, why don’t we take our seats, gentlemen. (ATTENDEES FIND THEIR SEATS AND SIT) CHAIRMAN JONES, my transition team appreciates your straightforward answers with regards to the Soviets. And One of the things I have learned since joining the Committee on the Present Danger last year was that, while the Soviets pretended to usher in a new era of peace and friendship, signing the SALT treaties and the Helsinki accords, the Kissinger era of détente unfortunately proved to be a distraction. The Soviets exploited that fragile peace by pursuing a massive military buildup of offensive weapons. Make no mistake that the arms race never ended, gentlemen, but at this time only one side is racing.”

CHAIRMAN JONES

“I am glad to hear you say that, Mister President. In short, I have no illusions about what lies ahead. The coming days may be some of the most difficult in our nation’s history. Of particular concern is the growth in the Soviet military capability beyond what we think is necessary for their national security needs. They are not only building civilian defenses to survive a nuclear war but the offensive forces to win it.”

PRESIDENT-ELECT REAGAN

“CHAIRMAN JONES, I will reiterate here what I said all last year during the campaign to underscore what will be our policy going forward, and not just campaign slogans. It is my firm belief that war comes not when the forces of freedom are strong, but when they are weak. It may get a little rough at times, so I will need your support of this young administration, even if some of its members are not so young.” (SOME LAUGHTER)

CHAIRMAN JONES

“Indeed you will. So this Pre-Inauguration Nuclear Briefing won’t take long, Mister President. And I will still call you that, if that’s alright.”

PRESIDENT-ELECT REAGAN

“I might as well start getting used to it.” (HE SMILES)

CHAIRMAN JONES

“Very well, even though it’s not official until twelve-hundred on the 20th of January. And at that time, an attaché from each of the armed forces will be assigned to you and the vice president on a rotating basis accompanied with this, the Presidential Emergency Satchel (he places his hand on the black leather suitcase). They will be with you everywhere you go and be...”

PRESIDENT-ELECT REAGAN

“Everywhere I go?” (LAUGHTER IN THE ROOM)

CHAIRMAN JONES

“Yes sir. Maybe not always in the same room but certainly a few steps away. Today you will be familiarized with the satchel, its contents and how to use them. That familiarity may leave you with a greater sense of what is the most terrible responsibility you will have as president ... and as vice president, MISTER BUSH.” 

PRESIDENT-ELECT REAGAN

“It is a responsibility I’d prefer to be rid of. Perhaps once we restore our strength, we can someday get rid of these awful weapons through negotiation.”

(That brings a hushed silence to the room and smiles of disbelief from the Joint Chiefs toward REAGAN’s naivete. JONES pushes the satchel aside and an aide carries it over to where REAGAN is sitting.)

CHAIRMAN JONES

“Mister President – gentlemen, this seems like an opening to understand why the West’s main adversary has 40,000 nuclear warheads pointed at us and our allies. So we’ve invited Harvard University’s top historian on the Soviet Union, and for the past four years, the leader of what has been called the B-team to check a détente-minded CIA when it comes to the Soviets, Mister RICHARD PIPES...”

RICHARD PIPES

PIPES WALKS TO THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE TABLE FROM REAGAN AND SPEAKS WITH A SMILE. “I’m a great admirer of yours, sir. And it’s an honor to finally meet you. I have advised presidents since Harry Truman and, ever since I started working with your transition team, I’ve come to believe you’re the West’s best hope of turning back the red tide while we still can.” REAGAN NODS TO HIM WITH A CLOSED-MOUTH SMILE.

“So Mister REAGAN, you’re aware of how long the Cold War has been going on?”

PRESIDENT-ELECT REAGAN

“Oh, yes. Back to my years in Hollywood. Even before then, when I was still narrating films for the American Office of War Information.”

RICHARD PIPES

“Ah, yes. My favorite was the film you narrated on the Tuskegee Airmen.”

PRESIDENT-ELECT REAGAN

“Well, thank you. That was one of my favorites, too.”

RICHARD PIPES

“Many people agree with you that the end of World War Two in 1945 marked the start of the Cold War. And for us, that’s true. Others suggest it was the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. But I will argue until my last breath that the Cold War began more than 400 years ago in 1547...”

DISSOLVE:

10 INT./EXT. Montage of scenes of Russia in the 1500s        10

WHILE PIPES IS TALKING, scenes of Ivan The Terrible’s ascendency to tsardom are shown, including the coronation of Ivan the Fourth at the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, ordering the murder of aristocratic boyars, next we seen Ivan as a weathered man in his 50s, directing from horseback a battle against the Mongols, kneeling before church leaders who blessed him, beating his 27-year-old son to death with a wooden club while his son tried to protect his pregnant wife who also was beaten, and again on horseback riding with his army, defeated by the Poles in the Baltics.

RICHARD PIPES

“...In the most westerly province of the great Mongol Empire that extended from the Volga to the Pacific. That westerly province was the Muscovite Principality where a paranoid 16-year-old prince would emerge to impose Russia’s oppressive domestic polices and to set its imperial foreign mission that continues to this day. That ruler in 1547 became the first czar of Russia, Ivan the Fourth – henceforth, Ivan the Terrible. His wars of conquest over the Mongols created a national consciousness which had hardly existed before in Muscovy. He envisioned a New Rome to lead and missionize Christendom from Moscow, rather than from the Vatican, and for the next 54 years of his brutal rule, set forth a vision for establishing a Greater Eurasia from sea to sea and dominated Eurasia from Moscow. It reached the Pacific in the East and soon turned west toward Europe. It achieved ruthless gains and, for our instruction here, endured stunning setbacks that would have splintered other nations. Instead...”

DISSOLVE:

11 INT. Pentagon E-ring, fourth-deck conference room         11

RICHARD PIPES

“...It regrouped, sometimes taking a century to recover enough to fight again for its vision of a Greater Eurasia under Muscovy’s domination, and each time adding more territory to its sphere of influence. Russia’s imperialism became a cultural convention under Ivan that has endured. After Ivan rose to power, Russia added an average of 14,000 square miles of territory each year over 150 years. It has proven to be very addictive and lasting.”

NSA ALLEN

“Why didn’t the Bolshevik Revolution and its crushing of religion end this desire for a Greater Eurasia?”

RICHARD PIPES

“Good question, Richard. Revolutions come and go in Russia. But none have changed the national identity of Russia or its statecraft which prevents an open and honest self-reflection to hold itself accountable. Instead, it cherishes the memories of national glories and erases those of past failures. Without shame or self-reflection, it perpetuates nationalism over patriotism and terrorism and oppression over justice and liberty. Religion remains in the Soviet Union but, officially, only Russian Orthodoxy and more so as a function of statecraft and national identity rather than as a source of spiritual strength. The transition of European monarchies into liberal democracies over the same 400 years became a direct threat to the national construct of Russia. America as a former European colony expanded that threat but it didn’t get in Russia’s way until we shed our isolationism by World War Two and rebuilt war-torn Western Europe under America’s protection. So we’re the latest and biggest bad guy in the path of Russia’s drive for a Greater Eurasia.”

PRESIDENT-ELECT REAGAN

“Very interesting. Let me ask you – do you want a job? (LAUGHS AROUND THE ROOM) I could use more men like you. And as you may have heard, I intend to put America back in the way of the Soviets. Maybe even use some of that Nixon Madman strategy. You may have read we’re going to pursue the largest peacetime military buildup in our nation’s history. I want to assure you and others here that that also wasn’t just a campaign slogan.”

(Reagan’s remarks are greeted with restrained smiles and nodding heads by the Joint Chiefs and their aides).

NSA ALLEN

“Given all of this history, it seems that the Russians’ culture is quite defined by their institutionalized imperialism.”

VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT BUSH

“It would seem so,” he says, as one of the generals lights a cigarette.

PRESIDENT-ELECT REAGAN

“Mister Pipes, since the Russians are playing the long game, perhaps you can tell me where there’s a happy ending in all of this?”

RICHARD PIPES

“I'm a history professor, not a prognosticator, Mister President. Sorry.”

PRESIDENT-ELECT REAGAN

“But by understanding their history, you know the Russians’ tendencies, including their weaknesses, correct?”

RICHARD PIPES

“Yes, the Russians back down when confronted with strength, but they don’t stay down. Like water, they persist in finding a new way through. They're also very paranoid, like Ivan. It's a trait found throughout Russian aristocracy. That makes them vulnerable to feints like the Madman approach but they’re also very dangerous and unpredictable. It’s a delicate balancing act. If you play to their paranoia correctly, you can back them down. But if you scare them too much to where they become convinced that you’re going to attack them, they may try to destroy you first.”

NSA ALLEN

“That brings me to another question, and it’s admittedly a leading question. So before we get to the nuclear football, can the Chiefs tell us how many different response scenarios to a nuclear attack exist in the Single Integrated Operational Plan?”

CHAIRMAN JONES

“There’s literally dozens of options within each of the limited and major attack options. And each of these are based on a response to what we believe is the Red SIOP being carried out against us by the enemy which can range from requiring a launch-on-warning in the event of a decapitation strike to...”

PRESIDENT-ELECT REAGAN

“Chairman, the decision to launch, regardless of the attack scenario, is mine to make. And you say there are dozens of these contingency responses to a nuclear attack? Everything would happen so fast that I wonder how much planning or reason could be applied in a crisis like this. As I understand, the Russians’ submarines off the East Coast could destroy Washington DC within six minutes. Six minutes to decide how to respond to a blip on a radar scope and whether to unleash Armageddon! How can anyone apply reason at a time like that?” 

CHAIRMAN JONES

“That’s why we need launch-on-warning as an option. And it’s why we have to train on the SIOP options, sir. And you will too Mister President and Mister Vice President. You’ll be a part of it starting with your first briefing on the SIOP in March.”

NSA ALLEN

“But RON’s concern is my concern -- but from the other side. Look at it from the Soviets’ perspective. Perhaps the Joint Chiefs have some reassurances, but think about what happened last summer when a malfunctioning computer chip made us think we were under attack. If that’s happening to us, it’s happening to them. I find it very unsettling that we are confronted by an incredibly paranoid opponent at a time when the military technology of the day has grown so powerful and so fast that it has reduced warning times to so little that our nation’s survival, indeed the survival of the world, is at the mercy of an enemy who must decide our fate in less time than it takes the general to finish his cigarette.”

One of the generals extinguishes his cigarette by stabbing it into an ashtray, with the smoke rising from the ashes. 

NSA ALLEN

“Given the increasingly short warning times of attack, we need to beef up our intelligence gathering. I don’t know about you, but I’m someone who prefers to have an umbrella ready before it rains.”

PRESIDENT-ELECT REAGAN

“Yes, agreed. Let’s make it happen. Now, I’m dying to see what’s inside that nuclear football. General?”

END PART 2

Introduction to The Cold Wars

In March 1983, the same month in which President Ronald Reagan
gave his "Evil Empire" and "Star Wars" speeches, journalist-to-be
Ken Prendergast began digging a bomb shelter in his family's
back yard in suburban Cleveland (James Prendergast). 

 

The first and current Cold Wars represent the latest phase of an ongoing, 500-plus-year saga in world history. It was joined in 1945 by a young giant on the other side of the globe, the United States of America, which was awakened to its unavoidable role in the world. Yet few Americans realize the duration and depth of the struggle to which all of the people of the world are party simply by sharing the same planet.

This struggle which threatens the safety of the world and the freedoms of its people began in the late 1400s. Ivan III, also "Ivan The Great," led the Mongol's westernmost principality, Muscovy. He consolidated the territorial gains of his father, Vasily II, achieved in a series of wars against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Beyond Lithuania lay more defiant militaries -- those of the kingdoms of Poland and Sweden that confronted the Grand Duchy of Moscow over two centuries. But Muscovy gained an imperialist thirst that it has yet to shed or satisfy.

Muscovy in the 1540s, led by the first Tsar, Ivan IV or "Ivan The Terrible," was still a vassal state of the Mongols, also called the Golden Horde. But the Tsardom of Muscovy would no longer pay tribute and homage to the Khans. Ivan The Terrible turned his prideful, thirsty military forces toward the East. A fragmented shell of its former self, the Khans were easily defeated, allowing Muscovy to march 4,000 miles (6,435 km) all the way to the Pacific Ocean by 1650. It set up trading posts and Russian Orthodox Churches along the way.

The Tsardom of Muscovy returned its focus to the West again in 1721 when Peter the Great founded the Russian Empire. He refocused Russia's military to expand the empire westward, enjoying only partial success against the Polish Kingdom. With its institutionalized imperialism a part of its national identity, Russia needed to expand somewhere like water crashing against the rocks. So it expanded south into Caucasus, taking lands from the Ottoman Turks.

But every so often in its history, Russia was reminded of why it desired to control Western Europe. These reminders came in the Swedish invasion of Russia (1708–1709), as part of the Great Northern War (1700–1721). A century later came the French invasion of Russia (1812) by Napoleon and his allies. And the most devastating of all -- Nazi Germany's invasion of 1940 and the five years of bloody war that left more than 20 million dead just in the Russian-controlled Soviet Union.

From that war, the Soviets vowed it would never allow itself to be so wounded again. Its military machine came of age and was used to expand Russian domination farther west than it had ever before. The West was now almost universally led by liberal democracies that blessed its people with civil liberties and freed its citizens from the controls of royal monarchies. In 1917, Russia also shed its sovereign, replacing it with another ruthless totalitarian government that sought equality by denying its people life, liberty and property through collectivism and unity of purpose. Soviet people were not allowed to express themselves publicly except as to the glory of the state. 

Not only did the Soviet Union fail to compete with the West, it considered the West's mantra of public expression of individualism a direct threat to the greatness of the state-proscribed Homo Sovieticus.  The long-paranoid Russia and now Soviet Union turned inward, blocking out the outside world by building walls of all kinds -- travel restrictions, interfering with broadcasts, banning the sale of Western goods and, of course, building actual walls like the Berlin Walls. But some of its people found ways to smuggle in Western goods, creating a black market and mafia-like protection rackets.

Democratic uprisings in the Soviet Union and its satellite states were put down, often violently. Ultimately  the Soviet Union sought to eliminate the West itself by building the most devastating war machine in the history of the Earth. At a time of a global arms race, the Soviets had more ships, tanks, planes and other weapons, including 40,000 nuclear warheads, than all of the Western democracies put together.

It could not afford to maintain this massive military machine. The Soviet Union collapsed under its own weight and corruption by 1991. Only after a brief dabbling with democracy and a significant dismantling of its costly military in the 1990s and into the early 2000s did Russia finally begin to improve its quality of life. But many of its people lamented the end of the Soviet Union, perceived slights to the greatness of Mother Russia, rising crime, its the fracturing of extreme conservatism and its shedding of lands to become free and independent nations again.

The rise of Vladimir Putin dismantled these early shoots of democracy, heralded the supremacy of Russian culture, and blamed external forces, principally the United States of America, for Russia's post-Soviet slide. Putin is far from the only one who subscribes to this vision of a new Russia, and indeed a new world, where they believe that personal liberties have gone too far, that God and country have been forsaken for individual desires and self actualization, and that they alone cherish the value of family, hard work and discipline, however false. 

While it is still a clash of values primarily between East and West, it is far more complicated now. Russia is finding allies at home and abroad for its brand of extreme conservatism and denial of individual liberties. And where Russia doesn't find allies, it seeks to destroy those who stand in its way, leading the world to a new Cold War that has turned hot in isolated cases (Georgia, Ukraine, Middle East, etc), so far.

END