A Matter of Honor

June 18, 1966

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

THE WHITE HOUSE

JUNE 18, 1966

“I DON’T WANT to be the first Goddamn President in the history of the United States to hand back an American state rather than found one.”

“I appreciate your position, sir,” said the Secretary of State. “But …”

“Where do we stand on this legally, Dean?”

“We don’t, Mr. President. Abraham Brunweld, who was my tutor at St. John’s, has confirmed that the terms of the ninety-nine-year lease are binding on both sides. The lease was signed on behalf of the Russians by their foreign minister, Alexsander Gorchakov, and for the Americans by the then Secretary of State, William Seward.”

“Can such an agreement still be valid today?” asked the President, turning to his chief legal officer, Nicholas Katzenbach.

“It certainly can, sir,” said the Attorney General. “But only if they can produce their original. Both the UN and the International Court at The Hague would be left with no choice but to support the Russian claim. Otherwise no international agreement signed by us in the past or in the future would carry any credibility.”

“What you’re asking me to do is lie down and wag my tail like a prize Labrador while the Russians shit all over us,” said the President.

“I understand how you feel, Mr. President,” said the Attorney General, “but it remains my responsibility to make you aware of the legal position.”

“God dammit, is there any precedent for such stupidity by a head of state?”

“The British,” chipped in Dean Rusk, “will be facing a similar problem with the Chinese in 1999 over the New Territories of Hong Kong. They have already accepted the reality of the situation and indeed have made it clear to the Chinese government that they are willing to come to an agreement with them.”

“That’s just one example,” said the President, “and we all know about the British and their ‘fair play’ diplomacy.”

“Also, in 1898,” continued Rusk, “the Russians obtained a ninety-nine-year lease on Port Arthur, in northern China. The port was vital to them because, unlike Vladivostok, it is ice-free all year round.”

“I had no idea the Russians had a port in China.”

“They don’t any longer, Mr. President. They returned it to Mao in 1955 as an act of goodwill between fellow Communists.”

“You can be damn sure the Russians won’t want to return this piece of land to us as an act of goodwill between fellow capitalists,” said the President. “Am I left with any alternative?”

“Short of military action to prevent the Soviets claiming what they will rightfully see as theirs, no, sir,” replied the Secretary of State.

“So one Johnson buys the land from the Russians in 1867 while another is forced to sell it back in 1966. Why did Seward and the President ever agree to such a damn cockamamy idea in the first place?”

“At the time,” said the Attorney General, removing his spectacles, “the purchase price of the land in question was seven-point-two million dollars, and inflation was then virtually unheard of. Andrew Johnson could never have envisaged the Russians wanting to purchase it back at ninety-nine times its original value, or in real terms, seven hundred and twelve-point-eight million dollars in gold bullion. In reality, years of inflation have made the asking price cheap. And the Russians have already lodged the full amount in a New York bank to prove it.”

“So we can’t even hope that they won’t pay up in time,” said the President.

“It would seem not, sir.”

“But why did Czar Alexander ever want to lease the damn land in the first place? That’s what beats me.”

“He was having trouble with some of his senior ministers at the time over the selling off of land belonging to Russia in eastern Asia. The Czar thought this transaction would be more palatable to his inner circle if he presented it as nothing more than a long lease, with a buy-back clause rather than an outright sale.”

“Then why didn’t Congress object to his little plan?”

“After Congress had ratified the main treaty,

the amendment was not strictly subject to approval by the House, as no further expenditure by the United States government was involved,” explained Rusk. “Ironically, Seward was proud of the fact he had demanded such a high premium in the repayment clause, which at the time he had every reason to believe would be impossible to repay.”

“Now it’s worth that in annual oil revenue alone,” said the President, looking out of the Oval Office window toward the Washington Monument. “Not to mention the military chaos it’s going to create in this country if they’ve got their hands on the original copy of the treaty. Don’t ever forget that I was the President who asked Congress to spend billions putting a tracking station right across that border so the American people could sleep easy in the knowledge that we possessed an early warning system second to none.”