lves are undecided. History does not wait for the whims of
such men! One either takes the reins of Destiny, or they are taken
from him.

You say you did not ascend to the presidency alone---that many men with
many causes helped elect you. That is true, and your magnanimity is
admirable. But you are still the President, and the most powerful man
in the free world. I urge you now: use that power! Stand on your own
and be counted. Put your faith in me, and you shall never regret it.

Forgive me for speaking so plainly. These are convictions that run
very deep in me. I ask only this: that you listen to your heart. You
will see that I am right, and that God has chosen me to do His holy
work.

Your Servant,

Charles William Hayes
Secretary of State

P.S.- I have spoken with the Joints Chiefs of Staff. They stand
behind me.

*

And so the President, who was not fond of making difficult decisions
---Hayes had been quite right in this assertion---was faced with the
most difficult choice of his political career, if not his life. Though
far from a genius, he clearly saw (and this in itself was unusual) that
a true, life and death dilemma lay before him, and that his decision
would directly affect the lives of millions of people. Did he give in
to political blackmail, and condone self-righteous slaughter---a
genuine war? Or did he call Hayes' bluff, and find out just how
powerful the man had become? Either path presented equally grim
scenarios. And for the first time in his illustrious presidency, Edgar
J. Stone found himself in a position where advice was useless, and
compromise impossible.

His political forte' to this point had been to make no rash decisions
or statements to the press, and to defer to his advisers on the more
serious matters of state. And through a combination of conservative
dogma and hard-nosed pragmatism, he had heretofore been extraordinarily
successful, getting most of his programs through Congress, avoiding
embarrassment, and heading off political difficulty before it gained
impetus. No matter what the circumstance, he always managed to appear
calm and well informed, with just enough below-the-surface anger to let
everyone know, especially the Soviets, that the Commonwealth was not to
be made sport of or taken lightly (which of course appealed to the
current patriotic mood of his countrymen).

He was neither smarter, shrewder, nor more capable than his recent
predeces