They had tried simply bombing the other countries, but it hadn't worked out too well: the other countries had bombed back.
This plan had been scrapped as too dangerous.
And then, just when all seemed lost, when it looked as though mankind was doomed to eternal peace ...
Along came General "Smiley" Webb.
"Land troops?" he'd said, confidently, "nothing easier. With the government's cooperation, I can have our troops in any country in the world, safely landed, within the space of one year!"
Congress had voted him the money unanimously, and off he'd gone to work at Project W. No one knew quite what it was about, but the general had seemed so self-assured that— Well, they'd almost forgotten about him until some ambitious clerk, trying to balance at least part of the budget, had discovered a monthly expenditure to an obscure base in the southwest totalling some millions of dollars. Perfunctory checking had brought out the fact that "Smiley" Webb had been drawing this money every month, and hadn't as much as mailed in a single progress report.
There'd been swift phone-calls from Denver to Project W, and, General Webb informed them, not only was all the money to be accounted for, but so was all the time and effort: the project was completed, and about to be tested. Would someone like to come down and watch?
Someone would.
And thus it was that James Whitlow, with mystery stories and ham sandwich, had taken the first plane from the Capitol ...