Memorandum
From Director of Central Intelligence Helms to the
President's Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger)/1/
/1/
Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 597,
Country Files, Middle East, India, Vol. IV, 1 Jul-30 Nov 71. Secret;
No Foreign Dissem; Controlled Dissem;
No Dissem Abroad; Background Use Only. Sent to Kissinger on August 13 by Saunders under cover of a
memorandum in which Saunders states: "You may want to compare how this
message got through with whatever you told the Indians when you were in
SUBJECT
Indian Reaction to Statement Attributed to You about
Following
is an account [2 lines of source text not declassified] concerning a recent
talk you had with Indian Ambassador L.K. Jha in
1. [name
not declassified] said that in a recent conversation held in Washington, Dr.
Kissinger had made clear to Ambassador Jha that the
United States Government (USG) would consider any Chinese invasion of India in
response to any Indian action in the Bangla Desh context as entirely different from the Chinese
invasion in 1962, and that the USG would provide no support to India, either
military or political, in that event.
2. [name not declassified] remarked that while this was causing
considerable concern at the highest levels of the Government of India (GOI), it
was not being taken at those levels as a deliberate anti-Indian move on the
part of the USG. According to [name not declassified], the leadership levels of
the GOI believe that cautious steps toward normalization of U.S.-Chinese
relations is to the net advantage of
Dick