Bush's Big Test: Saving Face

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By Monday morning, some 36 hours had passed without progress. Bush met with Powell, Rice, Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney and agreed that it was time for him to make a statement and turn up the pressure on Jiang. But there were domestic political pressures at play as well. The White House was keen to show that Bush was in charge, setting the tone, weighing the options. Cheney would spend the week conspicuously busy on Capitol Hill, worrying about the budget. As for Rumsfeld and Powell, now playing tug-of-war with their second generation of Bush Presidents, it was the more moderate Powell who had the lead. "It's our air crew--they are military people," Pentagon spokesman Craig Quigley said. "But if you think of a military solution to this, that's not the way ahead. The way ahead is a diplomatic one." Rumsfeld, known to favor a hard line, was ever the good soldier. "Right now he agrees with everything that's being done," a close Rumsfeld aide said. "He's been involved with this thing from the beginning, but he has no desire to stand out." And so it was Bush himself who went before the cameras on Monday to read a statement designed to sound firm but not threatening. The White House had decided not to attack the Chinese pilot for hotdogging near the U.S. plane, and instead called the collision an "accident." "Our priorities are the prompt and safe return of the crew," Bush said, "and the return of the aircraft without further damaging or tampering."

That put Bush front and center, but it was a risk. When those comments failed to win the crew's release, the next move seemed to be anyone's guess. "They put him out," said a foreign policy veteran of the first Bush White House. "But when nothing happened, then it was like, 'O.K., what do we do now?'"

By Tuesday, some in the Administration felt they were being stonewalled. Jiang continued to insist that the fault lay with the U.S. The Chinese President also called for an end to U.S. surveillance flights. At 2 p.m., Bush walked into the Oval Office and immediately asked Rice to get Brigadier General Neal Sealock on the phone. Sealock, the U.S. military attache in Beijing, had finally been allowed in to see the crew, but for just 40 minutes under strict conditions: no recording devices, no individual conversations, the Chinese always present. The crew had been able to convey word that they had wiped out much of the sensitive information before the Chinese had boarded the plane.

So at 4 p.m., after the markets closed, Bush walked into the Rose Garden and reminded China of the consequences of delay. "We have allowed the Chinese government time to do the right thing," he said. "But now it is time for our servicemen and -women to return home." The whole relationship was on the line. "This accident has the potential of undermining our hopes for a fruitful and productive relationship between our two countries."

Bush did open one tiny window. Once again he mentioned getting the plane back, but by now this was a bargaining chip. The Chinese were not likely to relinquish such a prize, yet by demanding it Bush might allow them to save some face by releasing the crew but keeping the plane. By the time Rumsfeld issued his first statement the next day, there was no mention of the plane. "The plane doesn't matter anymore," said a Bush adviser. "It's destroyed anyway."