Randolph C. Buckner

## Chairmanship

With Kannal barred by term-limits from remaining as Chairman, she turned the leadership of the Council over to Luna’s Randolph C. Buckner following the Unionist victory in the Y165 elections. An experienced figure in the politics of Luna, United Earth, and the Federation, Buckner had served in two previous Unionist cabinets, was a general in the United Earth Defense Organization, and was considered the ideal and obvious candidate to follow up Kannal. Nowadays, the image of Buckner among the general public is very negative, but a closer look at the historical record reveals a more complex, if still negative, assessment of his tenure.

On the positive side, he solidified friendly relations with the Kzintis and Gorns, following up Kannal’s policy of “holding the flanks” of the Federation against burgeoning Klingon and Romulan power.

His military policy was more controversial. Star Fleet wanted to build new classes of ships (carriers, a new class of light cruisers, light dreadnoughts, fast cruisers, and more) while Buckner wanted to restrict the military budget (to spend more on social programs) and focus more of the military budget on National Guard forces (popular with Unionist politicians who increasingly used this as another social program). As a compromise, Buckner supported the modernization of existing Star Fleet ships, adding drone racks and more phasers, and accepted the design and production of a very limited number of new ships, with an equal number of old light cruisers placed into mothballs. (Opposed to spending so much money on new ships, Buckner allowed that program to become law without his signature by refusing to sign or veto it within the Charter mandated period of 30 days.) The disastrous at Adanerg in Y167(SL118) showed that Star Fleet was not ready to fight a war, but Buckner (who simply didn’t understand that Star Fleet had not conducted training for anything but patrol encounters in a decade) refused requests for funds to hold such training.

Buckner put little political muscle behind the modernization program, bending to domestic economic concerns and limiting the pace of refits and new construction. This program, while helpful, was far less than what Star Fleet wanted or needed, and left the Federation unprepared for the war to come.

Buckner and the Unionists were reelected (narrowly) in the spring of Y171 on a platform of keeping the Federation out of the Second Four Powers War while supporting the Kzintis with massive sales of weapons and supplies on credit. Tensions with the Klingons were very high, but a diplomatic initiative to resolve the crisis collapsed when the Organians, who had served as neutral brokers for 15 years, disappeared. At that point everything fell apart. What was previously a war between the Klingon/Lyran and Hydran/Kzinti power blocks became the General War when the Klingons, sensing Federation weakness, launched a massive invasion.

Buckner had several personality flaws that made him a poor war leader. He was a micromanager, and found it very difficult to delegate responsibility to those who knew more than he did. Outwardly confident, inside he was plagued with self-doubt and guilt. When the invasion began, Buckner panicked and began interfering with military deployments in an attempt to stop the onslaught. His political opponents accused him of using the fleet to shield the worlds of his political allies. Some historians agree with this, while others believe that Buckner was simply incompetent and out of his depth. He ordered a fleet sent to break through to the Hydrans (Operation Hydra) (citing this as “politically important”) despite the fact that the Hydrans had already been defeated and were beyond reach of this expedition. This fiasco cost Star Fleet a dozen ships it could not afford to throw away. Even Buckner’s respected domestic political skills failed when the Orion government declared neutrality and pulled out of the Federation late in Y171.

The front stiffened in Y172 when the Klingon offensive ran out of its initial stockpile of ships and supplies. However, the “Day of the Eagle” (January 4, Y173) saw the Romulans join with the Klingons and attack the Federation from the rear, opening a new front in the war and driving the Federation to the brink of defeat. Romulan and Klingon ships even raided Federation member planets. By the middle of the year, the situation seemed almost beyond hope.

In July Y173, the GIA presented the despairing Buckner and the Council with an official War Assessment, which estimated that the Federation had only a 22% chance of pushing the invading Coalition forces back to the original border, that the war would take at least 10 years to conclude, and that up to 4 billion civilians and military personnel (on top of the millions already dead) would die in such a conflict. Star Fleet Intelligence disagreed with the GIA assessment, estimating the chance of final victory at about 54% and calling for an expanded effort to win the war, but concurred with the GIA that casualties would be heavy.

Faced with this bleak future, the majority of the Council voted to end the war and accept the Coalition’s recently offered peace terms, which amounted to a partial surrender, the loss of huge tracts of Federation territory, an end to support for the Kzintis, and the payment of trillions of credits in tribute to the Klingon and Romulan empires. Vice Chairman Baranov and several others disagreed with this decision and wanted to fight on (or at least hold out for better terms), but were outvoted. Star Fleet was outraged and the Federalist Party called for a vote of no confidence, which was stalled by parliamentary maneuvering. Buckner and several Council and cabinet members were killed when the negotiations at Olsen’s Reach(SL111) collapsed into a melee of starship combat.