A Letter From the Publisher

By Richard B. Thomas

Ever since the West Berlin discotheque bombing in early April, TIME's national security experts, along with the rest of the U.S., had watched for signs of whether the U.S. would respond and how. Two weeks ago, as officials uncovered harder and harder evidence of Libyan involvement, Washington Correspondents Bruce van Voorst and Michael Duffy became increasingly convinced of U.S. willingness to strike back. Their colleague David Halevy confirmed from intelligence sources that the White House was concerned about signs of Libyan plans for further provocation. Says Duffy: "We scrambled to confirm the exact time and nature of the attack, which several of us concluded was imminent." Guided by this reporting, TIME's editors decided that the near certainty of an attack required cover-length treatment.

That set of stories went to press early Sunday, detailing likely targets, fleet movements, the probable planes to be used, as well as the goals and possible consequences. Then came the long, tension-filled wait. Contingency plans were made to update the story if the attack came later on Sunday. Duffy had judged that the raid would not come over the weekend but nonetheless stayed in touch with his contacts by phone.

A 1980 Oberlin graduate (in English), Duffy brought especially well-honed instincts and expertise when he came to TIME last September, joining Van Voorst on the Pentagon beat. He had just completed two years of reporting for Defense Week, a Washington newsletter on military policies. "Under the Reagan Administration, the military began to receive a remarkable amount of money and influence, and it seemed important to learn more about it," he says. "My father's generation nearly all had firsthand experience with the military, but mine hasn't."

On Monday of last week, Van Voorst, who had also spent his third weekend in a month on alert, found the Pentagon "like a cemetery. People normally easy to see were simply said to be unavailable; telephone calls went unanswered. There was an eerie silence." When Halevy's contacts disappeared at the same time that afternoon, one source told him, "They're all at the White House Situation Room." From then on, says Halevy, "it was clear that the only thing to do was to wait and hope for a safe, successful outcome." Even before that was confirmed, Van Voorst, Duffy and Halevy were at work marshaling their sources to report their second cover story in a row.