Arc Light is the debut novel by Eric L. Harry and is a techno-thriller about a limited nuclear war published in September 1994 and written in 1991 and 1992.
As China and Russia clash in Siberia, and war brews between the United States and North Korea, a series of accidents and misunderstandings lead to a Russian nuclear strike against the United States. The US retaliates against Russia, and World War III begins.
The novel becomes part military techno thriller, part political drama, as heated internal debates concerning the right course of action in the war unfold on both sides, and each government tries to deal with the colossal damage the nuclear strike has done to its country. Moderate voices try to prevent a second nuclear exchange by taming the hawks and working behind the scenes to arrange a ceasefire. Meanwhile, the on-the-ground consequences for both civilians and the military are explored in depth.
The novel focuses on three key groups: National Security Advisor Greg Lambert and his immediate political superiors: President Walter Livingston, his successor, as well as the National Security Council. Major David Chandler, US Army Reserve, as he is activated and sent to Europe, where his unit spearheads the allied advance towards Moscow. Chandler's wife, Melissa, as she struggles with the birth of their first child in the midst of a nuclear war.
The title refers to the term arclight, which was a code during the Vietnam War for a strike by a B-52.Hemphill, Robert. Platoon: Bravo Company. Macmillan, 2001, pg. 245. This term is used in the opening pages of the book., pg. 11.
Plot summary Prologue Set in the late 1990s against the backdrop of a stalemated Russo-Chinese war for control of Eastern Siberia, North Korea invades the Demilitarized Zone weeks before the planned reunification of Korea
Part I In an effort to end the war quickly, the commander of the Russian Siberian Military District, General Yuri Razov, calls the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Andrew Thomas, to warn the United States of Russia's decision to use tactical nuclear weapons against China. Thomas tries but fails to talk Razov out of the decision. In Moscow, a radical anti-Western Russian general, Zorin, kills the civilian government and STAVKA with a bomb, seizing control of the Kremlin in a swift coup d'etat and taking command of the nuclear communicators.
In Washington, DC, US National Security Advisor Greg Lambert has dinner with Russian military attaché Pavel Filipov, a close friend of his and his family's. As a reward for US logistical cooperation in the war against China, Filipov reveals that General Zorin was the one who convinced the North Koreans to invade the Demilitarized Zone to preserve Russia's supply lines across the Korean Peninsula.
As the Russian nuclear attack on China unfolds, the US preemptively goes to DEFCON 3 and recalls all its military forces. Lambert is ordered to board Nightwatch with the rest of the Cabinet and the Joint Chiefs, while Filipov is recalled to Moscow. As the White House is evacuated, US President Walter Livingston instructs the Secretary of State to warn the Chinese of the impending strike, lest the US becomes complicit in Russia's heinous actions. Lambert is wary of the ramifications of Livingston's decision, but the chaos of the evacuation prevents the President from hearing his advisor's objections.
In Los Angeles, US Army Reserve Major David Chandler is ordered to report to March Air Force Base to take command of his unit, leaving behind his wife Melissa, who is nine months pregnant. As the mobilization continues, Melissa goes into labor and decides to leave the city.
In the Kremlin bunker, Zorin watches the US evacuation and bomber takeoffs on cable news. Outside, loyalist government forces cut off the coup plotters' communications and take the complex by force, leaving Zorin unable to contact most of Russia's armed forces, including Razov's nuclear attack in the Russian Far East.
After being warned by the US of Russia's impending nuclear attack, China retaliates by launching its own nuclear weapons against Russia. However, the warheads aimed at Moscow are intercepted by the nuclear-tipped anti-ballistic missile system deployed around the capital. Zorin, sleep-deprived and under the influence of amphetamines, is convinced that the US has taken advantage of the confusion and launched a first strike against Russia. Still in control of the nuclear communicators, Zorin orders the ICBM forces in western Russia to launch at their pre-programmed targets. Russia's ballistic missile submarines are not used in the attack, as their missiles are far less accurate than the ICBMs and thus only useful for hitting large targets with large margins of error, such as population centers. The submarines are ordered to maintain their positions in a "bastion" around the Kara Sea, to be used if Russia orders a second strike.
Aboard Nightwatch, President Livingston and his staff are informed of the Chinese retaliation against Russia. At the same time, however, they receive a warning that Russian strategic nuclear weapons are attacking the United States. Based on its trajectory, the attack is classified as a "counterforce strike" aimed at American strategic military facilities (such as missile silos, major air and naval bases, and NORAD) rather than civilian infrastructure. The president takes the advice of the Joint Chiefs and orders its own ICBMs to retaliate in kind against Russia's Strategic Rocket Forces before they are destroyed in the incoming attack.
At March AFB, Chandler takes command of his assigned battalion and boards a commercial airliner for an unknown destination. Minutes later, the base is obliterated by dozens of Russian nuclear warheads. Other targets such as Cheyenne Mountain, Raven Rock, along with US nuclear silos and major bomber and radar bases, suffer a similar fate. Immediate casualties in the continental United States are estimated to be between 4.5 and 7 million dead, with hundreds of thousands more severely injured or exposed to high doses of radiation.
While President Livingston retires to his private cabin aboard Nightwatch to collect his thoughts, JCS Chairman Thomas wonders to the rest of the staff how the Chinese were able to retaliate so quickly since their missile forces are not as advanced as those of Russia or the US and require a long preparation time. Lambert informs Thomas and the rest of the staff of Livingston's order to warn China of Russia's attack. The revelation shakes the staff's confidence in the President's ability to lead the country.
Returning to Moscow from the Far East, Razov arrests Zorin and the rest of the coup plotters. Over the hotline, Razov assures Livingston that the nuclear attack on the US was a mistake and promises that there will be no more attacks from Russia. Livingston disgustedly disconnects from Moscow and tells Razov that he had better keep his word about no more attacks, as the US continues its nuclear retaliation against Russia. A reformed STAVKA learns that the submarines in the Kara Sea bastion have received orders from Zorin to launch their nuclear missiles simultaneously in case they are attacked, and to disregard any recall orders.
With ground communications lost, Chandler's plane is notified to land at Gander Airport in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
Part II Still aboard Nightwatch, President Livingston and his cabinet plan for the aftermath of the nuclear strike. Since the Russian attack did not directly target civilians, casualties are relatively low. To prevent the conflict from escalating further, Livingston orders the US military to stand down and only engage Russian forces if fired upon first, a decision that causes Lambert and the military staff to question the President's judgment. The stress takes its toll on the President, who must approve every emergency decision that reaches his desk, including farming in the midst of radioactive fallout, calling the draft lottery, housing, and disaster management.
Meanwhile, at the Congressional Bunker in Greenbrier, West Virginia, the surviving members of the US Congress meet in an emergency session to pass a declaration of war, instructing the President to prosecute the war until all of Russia's nuclear forces are disarmed or destroyed. From Mount Weather, Vice President Paul Constanzo makes a televised address calling for a massive military response against Russia in retaliation for its attack on the US. Constanzo's words are diametrically opposed to Livingston's strategy, who believes that a land invasion of Russian territory and/or an attempt at forced nuclear disarmament will lead to a second nuclear exchange, this time directed at each other's cities: a mutually assured destruction scenario leading to a nuclear winter. President Livingston lands in Philadelphia to set up his cabinet on land and resolve the issues with the Vice President and Congress.
On the way back to Los Angeles, Melissa Chandler goes into labor. She gives birth to a baby boy in an overcrowded hospital in Palm Springs. In the aftermath of the nuclear attack, drinking water and food have become scarce across the United States.
Congress orders an investigation into the causes of the war and calls a number of witnesses, including National Security Advisor Greg Lambert, to the Greenbrier facilities to testify before the select committee. On his way out of the bunker, Lambert asks the military for help in locating his wife and in-laws, as he has not heard from them since boarding Nightwatch. On the irradiated outskirts of Washington DC, Lambert hitches a ride on an Army helicopter and spots his wife's abandoned car on a highway. A few miles down the road, he finds his in-laws' minivan: inside are the bodies of Lambert's wife, his relatives, and Filipov's wife, long dead from exposure to radioactive fallout.
In the Kremlin, General Razov is overruled by the STAVKA staff and agrees to take a more proactive role in defending Russia, ordering an invasion of Iceland, a strategic deployment to western Ukraine to counter US forces on the border with Slovakia, and aborting the Russian incursion into northeastern China, so that Russia's best forces and materiel can be redeployed to the European theater.
Part III Lambert refuses to answer the congressional committee's questions, arguing that the information is classified for national security purposes.
Although Livingston desperately tries to prevent an all-out war between the US and Russia, skirmishes between the two countries continue in and around Russia. After the governments of Germany and France refuse to support the US as part of NATO, his cabinet begins negotiating a new "Treaty on Euro-American Military Security" (TEAMS) involving the US, the UK, Italy, Canada, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Iceland, Greece, and Turkey, with Finland as a secret partner. Despite the restraint toward Russia, Livingston orders the detonation of a high-altitude nuclear warhead over Pyongyang as a warning shot to force North Korea out of its ongoing invasion. The ploy works, with North Korea notifying the United Nations of their immediate military withdrawal from the South.
The US Supreme Court, now based in Mount Weather, rules that Secretary Lambert must answer all questions put to him by the congressional committee. Again before Congress, he reveals Livingston's order to warn China of Russia's impending nuclear attack. This, along with the President's refusal to follow through on Congress' declaration of war, triggers calls for his immediate impeachment. In Russia, STAVKA decides to make any further attacks on US or allied targets contingent on Livingston's continuity as president.