them till too late, bombed Aberdeen and Norwich, Rouen and Nancy, Bremen and Augsburg. You might not know exactly where in Britain and France and Germany those towns had lain, but you knew where Britain and France and Germany were. They weren’t in the back of beyond, the way Manchuria was.
Then Stalin went on Radio Moscow and made what Marian thought was an uncommonly smarmy speech even by the standards of the twentieth century, which had seen more than its share of smarmy political speeches. “The United States has seen fit to use atomic bombs against a fraternal socialist state assisting in a war of national liberation, and to do so without justification or provocation,” the Soviet boss said. “This cannot go unpunished. It cannot, and it has not.”
In the English version Marian listened to, Stalin continued, “President Truman stressed that the United States did not attack the territory of the peace-loving peasants and workers of the USSR. I take equal pains to stress that the Soviet Union has not attacked the territory of the USA. Nor will we, unless our own territory is attacked. But the United States must understand that our allies are as important to us as its allies are to it. He has struck at our allies’ provincial cities; we have done the same against as many of his allies’ towns. We have not increased his terror, but we have unflinchingly met it.”
As soon as the speech was over, an American newscaster said, “The North Atlantic Treaty obliges America to consider an attack on its European allies to be an attack on itself. An attack of this scale, coupled with the Russian mobilization in the eastern zone of Germany and in Czechoslovakia, has caused great concern in the White House. President Truman will address the nation tomorrow to discuss the threat of our safety.”
“The President will
address
the nation?” Linda asked.
“That’s right, honey. It means he’ll talk to the country,” Marian told her daughter.
“I know our address,” Linda said. “You taught it to me in case I ever got lost, but I never did. Can I go on the radio and tell people what it is?”
“It’s not quite the same thing,” Marian said.
“How come?” Linda wasn’t going to let go of it till she got an answer that made sense to her. But how were you supposed to explain war so it made sense to a four-year-old?
For that matter, how were you supposed to explain war so it made sense to anybody?
I’ll keep hurting you till you do what I say.
That was what it boiled down to. If she tried to do that to the family across the street to make them quit throwing loud, drunken parties, the police would cart her off to jail. Her angry dreams of burning down their house stayed firmly in her imagination, where they belonged.
But no policeman could stop one country from going after another. For a moment, it had looked as though the United Nations would become that kind of cop. But the only reason the UN backed America’s move against the North Koreans was that Russia was boycotting the proceedings.
If the international organization had taken control of all the A-bombs after World War II ended, and if no country had been able to make them on its own after that…Had that happened, policemen might be able to keep unruly countries in line. But it hadn’t. The USA had the bomb. So did the Russians, now. That made them both like the Mafia in Chicago in the Twenties, only more so. They could do what they aimed to do, not what anybody else told them to do.
And so…war.
“When’s Daddy coming home?” Linda asked, maybe out of the blue, maybe not.
“I don’t know exactly,” Marian answered. “When he can. When they let him. When the war’s over.” Those were all possibly true. Another possibly true response was
Never.
Marian refused to dwell on that one now. It was for when a branch scraping on the roof woke her at three in the morning and she couldn’t go back to sleep.
“I wish he would,” Linda said.
“Me,
Then Stalin went on Radio Moscow and made what Marian thought was an uncommonly smarmy speech even by the standards of the twentieth century, which had seen more than its share of smarmy political speeches. “The United States has seen fit to use atomic bombs against a fraternal socialist state assisting in a war of national liberation, and to do so without justification or provocation,” the Soviet boss said. “This cannot go unpunished. It cannot, and it has not.”
In the English version Marian listened to, Stalin continued, “President Truman stressed that the United States did not attack the territory of the peace-loving peasants and workers of the USSR. I take equal pains to stress that the Soviet Union has not attacked the territory of the USA. Nor will we, unless our own territory is attacked. But the United States must understand that our allies are as important to us as its allies are to it. He has struck at our allies’ provincial cities; we have done the same against as many of his allies’ towns. We have not increased his terror, but we have unflinchingly met it.”
As soon as the speech was over, an American newscaster said, “The North Atlantic Treaty obliges America to consider an attack on its European allies to be an attack on itself. An attack of this scale, coupled with the Russian mobilization in the eastern zone of Germany and in Czechoslovakia, has caused great concern in the White House. President Truman will address the nation tomorrow to discuss the threat of our safety.”
“The President will
address
the nation?” Linda asked.
“That’s right, honey. It means he’ll talk to the country,” Marian told her daughter.
“I know our address,” Linda said. “You taught it to me in case I ever got lost, but I never did. Can I go on the radio and tell people what it is?”
“It’s not quite the same thing,” Marian said.
“How come?” Linda wasn’t going to let go of it till she got an answer that made sense to her. But how were you supposed to explain war so it made sense to a four-year-old?
For that matter, how were you supposed to explain war so it made sense to anybody?
I’ll keep hurting you till you do what I say.
That was what it boiled down to. If she tried to do that to the family across the street to make them quit throwing loud, drunken parties, the police would cart her off to jail. Her angry dreams of burning down their house stayed firmly in her imagination, where they belonged.
But no policeman could stop one country from going after another. For a moment, it had looked as though the United Nations would become that kind of cop. But the only reason the UN backed America’s move against the North Koreans was that Russia was boycotting the proceedings.
If the international organization had taken control of all the A-bombs after World War II ended, and if no country had been able to make them on its own after that…Had that happened, policemen might be able to keep unruly countries in line. But it hadn’t. The USA had the bomb. So did the Russians, now. That made them both like the Mafia in Chicago in the Twenties, only more so. They could do what they aimed to do, not what anybody else told them to do.
And so…war.
“When’s Daddy coming home?” Linda asked, maybe out of the blue, maybe not.
“I don’t know exactly,” Marian answered. “When he can. When they let him. When the war’s over.” Those were all possibly true. Another possibly true response was
Never.
Marian refused to dwell on that one now. It was for when a branch scraping on the roof woke her at three in the morning and she couldn’t go back to sleep.
“I wish he would,” Linda said.
“Me,
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