Subject: Appropriate responses to Chinese aggression
Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 13:06:26 -0500
From: "Vance P. Frickey"
Reply-To: vfrickey@technologist.com
To: president@whitehouse.gov

Vance P. Frickey
287 Division Street
Noblesville, IN 46060

The Honorable George W. Bush, President of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear President Bush:

You have my sincere sympathy for having to deal with the current situation in China. It is clear that these people are cynically exploiting a situation that we did not cause or want to happen, in order to humiliate our nation and unduly aggrandize their own. It is also clear from a reading of recent history that if the butchers who presently control China do not get what they want, they are fully capable of severely mistreating or even murdering our servicemen presently held captive by them.

The prospect of grovellng at the feet of the Chinese government appalls me, as I am sure it does you. I think, however, that while we do not owe those pirates an apology for anything, it would probably be worthwhile to apologize for the sake of recovering our crewmen.

After those men and women are home, however, I feel as though we should immediately take steps to improve our ability to deal with future threats from China or other rogue nations in the Pacific, including:

severance of all economic, academic, and cultural ties with the People's Republic of China;

revocation of China's "most favored nation" trading status;

establishment of a formal diplomatic and defense relationship with the Republic of China on Taiwan and the immediate sale of Aegis destroyers and any other weapons systems which Taiwan would need to defend herself from Communist attack;

revival of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization as a military defense treaty organization and development of a containment strategy to mitigate the threat of regional hegemony presently posed by China;

rearmament of US warships in the Western Pacific area of operations with tactical nuclear weapons in order to restore parity of forces with Chinese naval forces in the area;

accelerated development and deployment of the strategic missile defense "shield" for the continental US;

accelerated negotiations and work with Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and other friendly nations in that region aimed at allowing them to participate in the Theater High Altitude Air Defense system and other possible defenses against the threat of strategic bombardment from China and North Korea;

upgrading the capabilities of cooperative military programs between the US and the Commonwealths of Australia and New Zealand;

allocation of more resources for training of United States naval, air and land forces presently in the Pacific or which could foreseeably be assigned to the Pacific in order to improve military readiness to prosecute military operations in that area (as part of a general restoration of the level of training and readiness which allowed the U.S. Armed Forces while under your father's leadership to massively defeat Iraq in 1991 even though outnumbered and in unfamiliar terrain);

upgrading of the SOSUS acoustic tracking system in the Pacific in order to mitigate or remove any deficiencies in that system which could affect our ability to detect the movements of potential enemies' naval submarines and surface vessels;

resumption of EP-3 flights similar to the one involved in the accident two weeks ago, with sufficient US fighter escort and coverage by air defense systems on US naval vessels to upgrade the safety of these missions from attack or collision damage by enemy aircraft in the area;

discussions between your office and the Congress as to whether the recent acts of the People's Republic of China constitute acts of war, and the appropriate response to those acts by the government of the United States.

As extreme as these steps sound, it would be more risky to not take them in response to the actions and avowed intentions of the Chinese government. To refrain from strong action now will only encourage adventurism among the leaders of the People's Liberation Army and other elements of the Chinese Politburo who advocate the use of force to achieve Chinese political goals.

Please consider what I have said, and may God guide you in these perilous days.

Best regards,

Vance Frickey