John Foster Dulles to
Georges Bidault
A history in
two acts by
Michael Donovan, a boy of 10 in 1954.
Mary Rita Donovan, 35ish, the boy’s mother.
Jeremiah Donovan, 40ish, boy’s father.
Synopsis: It is 1954 in the family’s
home in Pound Ridge, a very rural setting but still in commuting distance from
Manhattan. The French are unexpectedly
beginning to lose their war in Indochina.
The wife of Time Magazine’s map maker pressures him to gather more
information at Time and help her alert the Soviet Union of American plans to
help the French with ‘two last atomic bombs’.
Viewed through the eyes of their ten-year-old son, this espionage in the
middle of the McCarthy era strains the marriage.
39 Megunticook Street, Camden
ME 04843
Phone (207) 236 6508
Stage right. A 1950s modern living room light turns on to show Jeremiah
and Mary Rita reading newspapers. There
is a fireplace with raised hearth to the right. He points out an interior headline to her. She just nods and continues her
reading. They are sipping cocktails.
Stage left, in the dark, is a kitchen table. Living room light dims down. There is an unlit kitchen stage left. A
stove separates the kitchen and living room.
One side of the stove, toward the back of the stage, is a raised oven,
toward the audience are the burners. It
is all encased in shining plywood with plywood back to the burner area to more
separate the rooms. A dim spotlight shines stage left where Michael walks
toward the audience and with hands shielding his eyes tries to see through the
light. Michael walks back and forth
squinting and tries to shield his eyes to see the audience. The spot on Michael
snaps to a very strong, almost ‘too strong’ blue spot. The blue spot is simultaneously timed with a
deep mechanical droning sound. The droning
sound lasts a full 3 seconds. With the
blue spot Michael can suddenly see the audience. The blue spot slowly fades to a more normal spot after Michael is
well into his dialogue.
Michael Oh! Now I see you. My
name is Michael. I am almost eleven. Those are my parents, Mary Rita and
Jeremiah. Don’t worry, they can’t see
you. They are completely inside the
news.
(Pause while squinting to see the audience) I know why you are looking at
me. It is not 1954 where you are, is
it? It is 1954 here. (Walks
over in front of Mary Rita and Jeremiah turns to them and then turns back to
the audience) You need to be
told. I was. (Walks closer to
audience) Yes. I mean from time to time you must be
confused. Why would anyone ever…, under
any circumstances…, put a nuclear reactor in a warship? Wouldn’t that be the stupidest dumbest place
ever? Back here in 1954 it is closer to
decisions, secret decisions, that were made about the atomic bomb. That’s why you are here. There are two ghosts here too. I mean they are so present I often wondered
why they don’t have a place set at the table.
They are two shadows here that Mom and Dad get caught between. (Michael
looks from side to side, then stage left.) One is my dad’s boss, who built
Time Magazine, Henry Luce. It has been
ten years since the atomic bomb was last used.
Now if or not we use another atomic bomb –again- to help the
French in Indochina seems to be almost cooking in the oven. (Arms
crossed and head up acting ‘smart’)
I know what the bomb can do.
I’ve read Hersey’s Hiroshima pieces Mom saved from the New
Yorker. And the other shadow over
there…, (Looks stage right) that’s
Uncle Joe. We call him Uncle Joe. Yep,
(nods to stage right and does a mock pretend ‘shiver afraid’), there is
Uncle Joe. But this isn’t Russia. This is upper Westchester County, Pound
Ridge, in a modern house for the fifties, way in the woods up on a hill
overlooking the Pound Ridge Reservation.
Yep, (nods back to parents),
they call it ‘rusticity in the smooth’, just forty miles from Rockefeller
Center in Manhattan where Dad commutes to Time. (With a shrug) It’s the
fifties.
(Light fades on
Michael. Lamp lights living room
showing Jeremiah and Mary Rita.. The recorded singing voices of Jeremiah and
Mary Rita are heard singing just parts of a 50’s beer commercial. Jeremiah voice sings, “It’s not bitter… not
sweet. It’s an extra dry treat… Think of Rheingold…” Long pause then Mary Rita’s
recorded voice, “Think of Rheingold whenever…” Then very long pause as they
continue reading the newspapers..}
Mary Rita: (reading
paper.) Stupid time to die.
Jeremiah: (After a pause and still
also reading paper.) Stupid time to die.
Mary Rita: (glancing up and to stage right and right back to the paper. A pause before she speaks.) It’s snowing.
Jeremiah: (glancing up and to stage
right and right back to the paper.
Pause, turns page, pause)
It’s snowing.
(Living
room lights fade and blue spotlight returns to Michael still facing the
audience. This time the blue quickly
fades to a regular spot.)
Michael: (Looks
in mock horror stage right. Then shrugs.)
Uncle Joe is still there. Even
though Uncle Joe is dead. He has
been dead now forever and ever. This is
basketball. Joseph Stalin died way back
when…? Jeeeeesh…, that was way back at
the end of last years basketball.
Months and months ago. Oh…,
Joseph Stalin is not my real uncle, (Looks again stage right), we just
call him Uncle Joe. I don’t know
why. But I don’t know how we lost China
either. I mean I don’t know how you
could lose China like you could lose car keys or something. But I just know we did. (Shrug) Like the starting lineup of the
Brooklyn Dodgers it is just part and parcel of the way things are here in
1954. I mean I don’t know everything, I
mean I’m still just a kid. But…, you
know? (Trying
to look closer at the audience through the light) Where are you? (Here the light turns
strongly blue again with just a hint of the drowning sound, all real quick) Gee, you
are way far. You are past
1984. Way past. Wow, I see you in the fire. (Pause) You are really in the
fire. (Pause) In the fire. (Pause) Is 1984 way in the past to
you? That’s weird. Did you know you came close to atomic war in
1984? I bet you don’t even know. Wow. You won’t even call it atomic
war then. What do you know then? If you are old enough where you are then you
probably know 1984 was called , big quote (Michael uses his fingers for quote marks) …, the
“Year Of The Spy”. Yes, The Yeeeeear
Of the Spyyyyyyyyyyy. Suddenly there
are all these spies getting caught.
Pollard who spied for Israel.
‘I Pledge Allegiance’ Johnny Walker and his son Michael taking code
cards off of carriers in Norfolk, Virginia.
And Felix Block. Why they even
put on trial the grandson of America’s great naval historian, Samuel Eliot
Morrison. Did you ever ask why all
these spies at once? Well, did
you ever know why they call a group of spies a ‘ring’? Do you know why talk can’t just go back and
forth then, that it MUST go around in a ring. (Makes a big circle with his finger) ? Tonight you will learn why. And why that ring lights up like a golden
donut in real world danger. . So with
all that light more than a few got caught. Atomic war
is dangerous. 1984 was… well. The great spy ring lit with energy real
bright then. And that gold spy ring
will soon light real bright now here, way back thirty years before that in 19fifty4,
so you can watch (Michael is moving off stage left and the
spot snaps to regular light and slowly fades as he finishes.) This is my first one. This is my first atomic war.
(Lights
are back on parents and off of Michael)
Jeremiah: (Still studying paper. Loud)
Michael !
Mary Rita: (Soft) What do
you have?
Jeremiah: (Soft) Possible
billboard. (Loud) Michael!
(Soft) Where is he?
Mary Rita: Watching My Little Margie. I don’t know if we should continue this,
Jere (Pronounced
Jerry)? I understand
training him. I don’t want him
stupid. But with this now, he is just
knowing too much.
(Lights dim on Jeremiah and Mary Rita, spot comes back on Michael stage
left now holding a large atlas.)
Michael: (to audience) I already
know. If I’m quick I can do it in the
commercial. You can’t read a newspaper
without an atlas. But they
usually don’t. They just make me. (Holds up Atlas. Walks into living room)
Jeremiah: (Noticing atlas) Good. (He carefully folds paper and hands it to
Michael) What is this?
Michael: (Places paper on coffee
table and stands back a bit looking at it.) The picture? I don’t get it.
Jeremiah: Michael, I
don’t get it either. Perhaps it is a
billboard, perhaps not. I don’t always
know. But I try to get into the
editor’s heads. Yes, this picture could
be a message. But what is the ‘big
picture’? (He
motions wide with his arms) What would it fit into?
Michael: Agaaaaain ?
Jeremiah: Again.
Michael: The bomb.
Jeremiah: Okay.
Why?
Michael: (Eyes up as if bored,
nodding head in monotone) Because logically one country who has the bomb can’t
stop another country from using the bomb, surpriiiiiiise or
otherwiiiiiiiise. You don’t even need a
bomber. You can just drive it into a
city on a yacht, set a timer and get on a train. So we make secret agreeeeeeeeements. Made the deal in Tehran, its part of the plaaaaan.
Jeremiah: And…?
Michael: Aaaaaaand. And…, so we make a secret deal with all
countries who have or will soon have the bomb.
We made this first with Uncle Joe. (Glances stage right, then stage left) It is Luce’s deal. He made it. Then he
brought the Chinese into the deal in Tehran.
Just after that, about one day later, China crosses the Yalu river and
enters the Korean Conflict…and….
Jeremiah: …And why then?
Michael: Because now they know they won’t
be A-bombed. That is why we were
careful to call it a ‘Conflict’. My
Little Margie. Gotta go. (Michael moves to stage left)
Mary Rita:
Jere, we are moving too fast.
Jeremiah: We are all moving too fast. (Lights dim on parents, spot shines again on Michael
stage left.)
Michael: (to audience) I begin to
understand. I think. Dad is being taught to read secret messages
in the news. Sometimes these messages
are hidden right in full page ads. I
know. Hard to believe. He makes the maps for Time magazine and does
history maps freelance on the side.
Somehow, I’m not sure how, Hedley Donovan, who works right under Henry
Luce, Time’s founder, took an interest in my Dad. Hedley was the best in naval intelligence in WW II and instead of
making him the head of the new CIA Luce makes him president of Time. Years later Hedley will become the model for
Doonesbury’s Hedley Roland, the CIA type posing as a newsman.
(Light
comes off Michael and back on Mary Rita and Jeremiah.)
Mary
Rita: Did you
see Hedley today?
Jeremiah: (annoyed) You know I would have said
something. No he did not come down to
the maproom. And if he did come down to
the maproom, yes, I would have been veeeeery direct. I would have asked, in an ooooooff hand way, are we going to help
the French with the bomb. And, yes, I
would be looking closely for his reaction.
Mary Rita: Sorry, dear.
(Light
is off Mary Rita and Jeremiah and back on Michael)
Michael: See? They are worried. We
start to live the bomb. It is always in
the oven. It is at every meal. They like Hedley. But they are afraid he will do something dumb. They even think a song, ‘Happy Talk’, was
put into South Pacific as tribute to Hedley who was naval intelligence in
Hawaii when we needed to quickly know where the Japs were. Hedley had a brainstorm and said to just do oooone
thing. Have all the spies at every
island go down to the local bar and report back only oooone thing, if
the talk was serious or happy that is all. With just that, just serious talk or
happy talk, he plotted them at Leyte Gulf.
He is master of the ‘biiiiig picture’ (makes big with arms and
hands) and trains my Father.
(Michael
starts to turn, the light dims, but comes back on and Michael turns back to the
audience) Maybe you don’t
think a maproom important. Earlier in
the Pacific John Hersey was a Time reporter in Hawaii and wanted to get a
message to Time past the censors. He
simply cabled to Time (Michael makes quotes with fingers) “…The maproom will
know.” The maproom immediately drew up
the Solomans and sure enough we hit Guadalcanal. Geography doesn’t change.
“First determinate of history,” my Father says….
(Spot
fades on Michael who moves all the way off stage and moves back to Mary Rita
and Jeremiah)
Mary Rita: (Glances to where Michael
exited) He’s gone. Jere, I am sorry. I know you understand, but at times wonder if you fully
understand.
(Michael
walks in, in the dark, and listens)
Jeremiah: (Incredulously)
Understand….?
Mary Rita: It
is like you see every factor but the people.
You see maps not people. You
never get it. It is the power,
Jere. Do you know what kind of energy
they are trying to handle? Can you see
what it is doing to them, particularly Luce.
(Standing
with her gin and tonic tapping the atlas left on the table with her New York
Times.) God, you just see the
maps. See the people….
Jeremiah: Where?
Mary Rita: Jere? Where?
Picture it. I don’t know.
Jeremiah: Rita….
Mary
Rita: Anywhere. The people.
Go back three years to the deal.
Be with a guy like Henry – Haaaaaaank – Luce just after he makes
the biggest deal ever on this planet with the Chinese, secret deals not to use
this bomb. {Playfully dramatic) Be on the closely monitored
flight back from Iran. Last leg. Here is the DC-3 closely monitored. I see it.
(She
starts to dance) Here comes
Sergeant Major flight attendant in civvies.
La – di – da. He trots down the
isle from the cockpit with a scrawled news item from the pilot, ‘China has
entered the war’. What happens? (Now more softly she continues the….) La-di-da…,
la-di-da…, la-di-da.
Jeremiah: (Over Mary Rita’s la-di-da’s) Well, he
has to think….
Mary
Rita: Oh, think
– schmink, Jere. How does he feeeeeel ?
Jeremiah: Well, he would know….
Mary Rita: Jere, I almost give
up. We know what he knows. How does he…. Nevermind. I will tell
you. Fine. Luce glances at the news item, crinkles it up, and tosses it in
the isle….
Jeremiah: Rita, we don’t know
that. What are….
Mary Rita: Damn it, Jere. Does it make any difference? Feel. Feel. In his mind he sees the strange, quilted Chinese uniforms crossing the Yalu
River. Those little men. Those disproportionately long rifles. In his mind he sees them ‘fording’ or
whatever the river. But see him. See Luce.
See him go ‘ugh – ugh – ugh’.
His cackling little sneer. See
that. “Hu – hu – hu, of course the
Chinese must now enter ‘our’ ‘Conflict’. I let them. Hu –hu.
Now they don’t fear the bomb.
That’s the deal, hu hu.” (Pause) And Luce knows he is earth king. But what he feels is the garbage of
the earth. (Slightly feigned
exasperation) My point. The…, bomb…, has…, changed…, him.
Jeremiah: (Annoyed) Yes, yes,
yes. He has old contacts from the
Chinese Han family from ‘yooouur’ island. Old old old money as you have condescendingly explained. Luce grew up in central China, missionary
‘spy’ family. Full knowledge of the tea
and opium connections, the inner connections from that secret Age of Sail post
office on ‘yooouur’ Martha’s Vineyard.
See, Rita, such the insider yourself, right? I’m such a damned child.
Mary Rita: Your childish sarcasm. Jere.
Jere, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean
that. (Softer) I’m trying… (Very soft) Because I can feel him. (Now louder as she stands. Playfully dramatic.) Here is Luce with his cadre of …
What? ‘Unofficial’ naval
intelligence? Remember he is
dealing with the likes of Joseph Stalin and the Han Clan. Whom he puts in their place. He should waste a whiff of cordiality on the
like of theeeeeese…, these what? Oh,
but the king wants a little entertainment. He curls his little finger at the flight attendant. “Gaaaame of
acey ducey…?” It is not a
question. It is an order. Little sergeant major sits dutifully and
catches cards on his tray. And, of
course, he smiles when his is spoken to.
And of course Miiiiiister Luce
just insists that he call him ‘Hank’.
A little show of disdain for his ‘cadre’. Who wouldn’t dare. It’s Mr.
Luce for them. “Yeah, call me
Haaaaaank. Think this acey deucy game
needs a little gin, Sarge…?” Actually I
do. (Mary
Rita stands and motions toward the kitchen) Jere…?
Jeremiah: (Looks at his scotch and water) I’m fine.
Mary Rita:
(Moves off to the kitchen where there is
clinking of ice.) Oh. Sometime
sometime sometime, Jere, you will. (Softly) Damn it, Jere, its like what…? Shades of color in your art. All that stuff…, that…, what? Range between at least some honor and pure
dangerous crap. (Mary Rita enters living room, stops for a
moment looking off into space, totters a bit, first signs of being a tad sloshed.) Who else would be on that plane? (She smiles and then giggles.) A Von Weed. One of the
Von Weeds? (She laughs) God, yes…! (She laughs louder.) Yes…!
Jeremiah: Sorry I can’t follow your
aristocratic….
Mary Rita: Stop it, Jere. I love you, dear. Please know that. (She laughs again.) But, really… yes… this is it. A Von Weed. (Now feigning drama) Let me tell you, dear. Yes, a Von Weed is in the plane too. Can’t you see it? See Henry looking at him.
He might have some respect, but respect only. Don’t you see it, Jere?
Possibly… only a little respect… only… yes. (She laughs)
But only…. (Now she is serious) See it. Come on, Jere. See
some slimy Von Weed. Dress him like
some, I don’t know, some unkempt slob.
Because he is. See him clutching
that horrid little briefcase. It’s
grotesque. That’s
grotesque! And if that is, what’s
worse? Henry Luce! See that twerp, Von Weed. Good God.
A Babylon family. Well,
well, well. He may have his slimy
little book and records…. But
Henry…? Henry has the booooooooomb
! Crap! Not just crap. Dangerous
crap. Not just dangerous…,
ultimately. Ultimately. My point.
See these people, what it does.
The people. How do I…
Jeremiah: (Hand to head, serious) Oh. (Then laughs) Here we
go.
Mary Rita: (Paces and swings with her
drink) How would this Von
Weed be listed? Errrrr…, as a ‘Dutch
Banker’. (quick
quotes with her fingers.) How would
Luce…? Okay, okay. Here….
Remember Provencetown? Remember
the Pilgrim Monument, Jere? Okay. Let me tell you about that. Von Weeds again. They were there…, Jere.
1907. Cape Cod. They were all there. Crap schemes. The world’s dark elite.
Jere, when they put up that monument, laid the cornerstones. Big ceremony. What in the course of only a few years had just happened? Just three years before…, 1904, Admiral
Togo, right? Togo sinks the Russian
Navy. But who really? You know there were ‘room 40’ (Mary Rita uses her fingers
to make quotes) naval officers aboard with Togo. But also new optical equipment from where? Harvard, Cambridge, wherever. But from here. ‘Us’, Jere, ‘us.’ (Mary Rita again with the
quote signs but only on the second ‘us’.)
And what just before that, just some years? Yes, we demolish the Spaniards.
Manila Bay, Havana harbor.
Same. Same. Who is (finger quotes) ‘naval person’ then? Teddy Roosevelt. 1907 saaaaaaame people.
The Greeeeeeeeat Whiiiiiiiiiiite
Fleeeeeeet is in the Provencetown harbor.
Same people. Laying the
cornerstone for the, Christ, Jesus Christ… Pilgrim Monument. Pilgrim ?! Damn them ! (Pause, then softer) How?
With high Masonic bell book and candle.
Jere, that’s right. Not only
that… they were first even going to use the robes in public before they thought
better about the press.
Jeremiah: (crosses his arms and looks
away) Well I won’t….’
Mary Rita: I know, dear, I know. I agree.
(Pause,
she sits) It was
planned from Provincetown, Jere. All of
it. (Gives him a glance) World mapmaker. Jesus,
Jere. Remember the statue of that World
War One, what, I guess Doughboy? In
Provincetown. It’s there.
Jeremiah: Up by…?
Mary Rita: No, on the main street. It’s there.
Standing with his gun. A ‘Dutch
Banker’ ? (Quotes
here, just a slight movement of fingers)
Really?! So they start it, as
usual, in the Balkans. Jere, Jere,
Jere, the game is so old. People, Jere. People.
They are people. And they become
something else. As…, is…, Luce. Errrrr.
Who starts it always there? In
the Balkans? The Hapsburgs ? The Romanofs ? The Osmanlis? Or their
legatees. What? Slaughter.
That statue of the Doughboy isn’t irony. It’s sick. It would be a
better statue with the Doughboy hanging.
How many wars started there?
Four, five between the Crimean and that one? Crimean! That’s
when the press stepped into it.
Jeremiah: Rita….
Mary Rita: I know, but
listen….Tennyson is published in the Looondoooon Times. You won’t charge our brigades back at
us! That will never happen again. ‘They’ (slight pinky quotes) buy up all the
presses.
Jeremiah: Oh, Rita….
Mary Rita: But this ‘they’ (Much larger hand quotes) have no
honor. (Jeremiah looks and points to his empty
scotch glass. He gets up but Mary Rita now blocks his way.) The presses now must feign being anti war. They must.…
(Now
louder) Jere, Jere, don’t
you see? How can you be sure what’s in
Luce’s head?
Jeremiah: Now….
Mary Rita: God, God. (Mary Rita starts a swaying dance) Oh so what is Henry thinking? Oh.
Let’s see…. La-di-da. Henry Luce is thinking of Henry Luce, of
course. Jere, Luce is a God damned
Teddy Roosevelt with an atomic bomb! (Mary Rita looks at Jeremiah
in a very slight pause) Here he is,
here he is. La-di-da. How he is teaing with the opium Delano
family in Fairhaven. Yes, yes. And he picks Hedley Donovan, beeeeeest in
naval intelligence. He now makes
Heeeeeeeeedley the new editor-and-chief, whatever. If that’s the case why isn’t Hedley Donovan the head of the
CIA? Why? You know why. Instead
it’s Wiiiiiiiiiiiild Bill Donovan.
Hell, all he knows how to do is slit throats.
Jeremiah: (Rolls eyes)
Not true….
Mary Rita: (Turns in her little dance. Arms out to
sides, palms out as if weighing one then the other) God, Jere. It is a
com – par –i –son. You know what I
mean. (Now there is a rhythmic stomping of feet
with the dance.) Jere, look at
Luce. Look at Von Weed on the
plane. Look. He cuts his hand on a gin bottle playing aceeeeeeeeeeeey
deuuuuuuuuuuucy. (Serious) He did do
that, right? (Back to dramatic) So now, ooooooooo, oooooooo, see him. Seeeeee him! Luce is looking back over his bloody hand, looking at (finger quotes)
‘Duuuuuuutch Banker’, Von Weed. Jere,
Jere, Jere, Luce is now looking back over his bloody hand to Babylon! (Pause. They
exchange glances. Now softer into dance)
Oooooooo. Ooooooo. La-di-da. La-di-da.
Jeremiah: Rita….
Mary Rita: Jere. Oh, Jere.
Don’t you see? Of course Henry
will use the damned bomb. Henry Luce is
now the bomb itself! He must. Now use your reason. It has been used. Fact. Hiroshima AND
Nagasaki to show it was easy, not some fluke.
Luce says to Seeeeeeeeecretary Stimson, Henry to Henry to Henry to Henry
to Bolingbrook Henry the Fourth! You
were the bad boy, Henry the Stimson.
You used it. Naughty, naughty. You can’t be trusted. I didn’t.
I’ll make the deals. Give it to
me. Ha, ha. Jere, Jere. Soooooo, why did
Stimson use it? We absolutely know it wasn’t Japan. That’s sophomoric. To pop a papa, pop a
papa…, papa ‘Uncle Joe’. Right? Okay.
Listen. What is a big stick
unless you can prove it is a big stick.
It is not a big stick if is just academic or even a Nevada test. They needed fried, massive, melting
victims. He will, Henry will, we
will. Jere, don’t you see we must? Good God, Jere. We’re not A-bombing Moscow.
We are ooooonly going to drop one itsy atomic bomb on Dien Bien
Phu. And face it. Who cares?
Russia won’t after the fact. It
is you, mapnmaker, mapmaker of Time, you Jere, you know full well China might
scream to high heaven in public but won’t really give a crap. It is because he can get away with it. Dulles doesn’t need to scream ‘window of
opportunity’ to Luce. He just has to,
as he does, again and again, repeat that Uncle Joe is dead. Like the deal was with Joe, not Russia. Henry will do it. Henry will do it. Henry
will do it because it will be his one more ‘last time’ where he can get
away with it. (Sings) Strike
while the u-ranium is still glow-ing. (Back serious) The short
of it is this, he only gets to keep the bomb if he uses it ‘one more time’. (She make quotes again.) He can get away with it, AND he can keep it
too. (Now Mary Rita is softer. Almost a far away look and more to herself.) This sick little ring gets smaller and
smaller. Who knows what is the real
navy and what is not. I don’t. You don’t.
It could probably be done without one shoulder braid loosing rank. (Focusing back on Jeremiah) Don’t you
see? We don’t know, Jere. He will use it for the same reasons that
Stimson did. But the ring smaller. In the same way. But the ring smaller. And
again it will be ‘just one more time’.
As a fixer.
Jeremiah: Rita….
Mary Rita: Jere. Jere. Jere, listen. In or out of uniform, you don’t know what is the real navy and
what is not. That can be covered. Henry would test first. We’ve got to do this, Jere. It is the only way. Only way.
Only way. Soon. Now.
Jeremiah: (Turns abruptly away) Only way.
Mary Rita: (Bangs her head in shock) Oh, God. I love you. You are my
husband. I swear that’s over. It is over.
Jesus, Jere, it is over.
I’ve got to see him….. You must
see him too. It must come from
you. Not a ‘crazy’ person. Jesus…, Christ.., it…, is….over. Jere.
Jere….
(Mary
Rita and Jeremiah turn from each other, both in ‘thinking poses’ as the lights
fade on them)
Michael: (Michael quickly mimics both Jeremiah’s and
Mary Rita’s poses) Confused?
It is now Ike, but if giant secret deals were made about the bomb when
they said…, wouldn’t they be between Stalin and Truman not Stalin and
Luce? Committees don’t run the
world. There are leaders. Sometimes the real leader is the official
leader as well. Sometimes not. When Churchill stopped calling himself (Michael uses quote signs) ‘naval
person’ then Bill Stevenson, the Man Called Intrepid who worked for Wild Bill
Donovan, started to call himself ‘naval person’. It was whoever was assuming leadership. (With a little laugh) Mostly the best route to the presidency is to signal clearly that
you won’t interfere with the real leadership. I mean who would Joe
Kennedy go to five years from now and beg his son be allowed the
presidency? Luce. Here. (Michael runs to stage right, crosses his arms and
stands up tall and serious) I’m big bad
Uncle Joe. I know that the
Hiroshima-Nagasaki message is aimed right at me. I know John Foster Dulles is feeling me about and taking his very
sweet time. Will the world gather to
condemn America or is something else afoot?
(Michael
runs across to stage left. He prances
back and forth, head high, holding his hands behind his back.) I’m Henry Luce. I have the most incredible private
intelligence network. I make my
move for (Michael’s
hands flash to the front for quick quotes) ‘naval person’. How?
The Dulles brothers now have former War Secretary Stimson’s radioactive
big stick. (Michael stops the Luce act
and moves center stage toward the audience with his arms like a shrug.) Even a kid like me can reason that nothing
can stop the bomb, drive it in on a yacht. Why didn’t you reason that? Just the
thought of missile shields would make me laugh. You take it serious enough to pay for them.
(Light
grows brighter in the kitchen where Mary Rita is working at the counter. The spot goes off of Michael and he enters
the kitchen lights.)
Mary Rita: Hungry? You
missed dinner again, Michael. Don’t
stay so long down at the Starke’s.
Okay? Look what I got?
Michael: Noooooooooo. No !
Chief-Boy-R-D.
Mary Rita: You can’t live on ravioli…
Michael: Moooooom! (Softer)
Mom…, why don’t they just make it illegal?
Mary Rita: They should. It’s junk.
Michael: Not that. The bomb?
Mary Rita: (Gives Michael a long look then smiles) Of course.
Sit down. (She ruffles his hair and
they both sit) It seems
so simple right? Just make the atomic
bomb against the law. Why not? There are illegal weapons. Do you know what mustard gas is?
Michael: Poison gas.
Mary Rita: Yes, and it was really
awful. It was used in WW I. And so awful that they outlawed it. And it worked. We went through an entire Second World War without using it. We didn’t.
The Germans and the Japanese didn’t.
The law worked. So why don’t we
just outlaw the atomic bomb? Seems
simple, right?
Michael: Why not?
Mary Rita: Why not? In a word…power. It is not so simple.
Perhaps one day atomic bombs will be outlawed. But not until a lot, an awful lot more people understand. And that would be hard to bring about. Back to mustard gas. Did you know that there was an entire
theater of war in WW I where mustard gas was never used?
Michael: Nope.
Mary
Rita: Yes, there was. Galipoli.
Turkey. You know where the
Dardenells are?
Michael: Of course. To the Black Sea.
Mary Rita: While England and France were
fighting Germany they were also fighting Mustafa Kamel in Turkey. It was horrible fighting from trenches. (She gets down behind the table as if holding a
gun.)
Michael: (Michael laughs) Great,
Mom.
Mary Rita: (Mary Rita is now laughing too, but stays
down behind the table as if shooting a gun.)
Yes, yes. (Then more serious.) But it was awful. The trenches were close to each other and
the opposite sides even got to know each other. It was a theater - an area of war is called a theater - where no
gas was used. Think of that! No gas.
But gas was used in the other awful theaters, the Western Front
and the Eastern Front with the Russians.
Why was no gas used at Galipoli, Pudding?
Michael: (Annoyed) Don’t call me Pudding. Why?
Mary Rita: Sorry, little man. Because they were afraid to. Because it got around, in no uncertain
terms, that if mustard gas was used the men, on both sides now, would start
killing officers.