A movie/TV series script for
ABLE ARCHER 83
By Kenneth James Prendergast
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| 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?”
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