But I still had to translate half a page of Caesar's goddamned Gallic Wars, and I saw the President on TV, and I figured things were okay, because he was the President of the United Goddamned States, and he-had to know what was really going on. I remember wondering if the world was going to blow up. Robby, back when I was in high school, I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis. It doesn't agree with what your own people think-assuming they really think at all, the Vice President observed. That's the problem with good intelligence information. Nothing new from SORGE today? van Damm asked. Things will quiet down if the other side has half a brain, Adler said hopefully.

It's quite a disappointment to learn what things are really like.Īnd they think it's decent speculation, but not something to bet the ranch on.

You know, out in the fleet we used to think-well, we used to hope-that decisions made in this room here were based on solid data. I just can't forget the motto of the whole intelligence community: 'We bet your life.' It's lonely out there with a fighter plane strapped to your back, risking your life on the basis of a piece of paper with somebody's opinion typed on it, when you never know the guy it's from or the data it's based on. And there's no way I was going to offer them MFN anyway, unless they decide to break down and start acting like civilized people.Īnd they're the ones who control the guns, van Damm noted.Īround the coffee table, there were the usual half-humorous snorts that accompany an observation that is neither especially funny nor readily escapable.

Well intended love