BLUFF, BOMBAST-OR A DANSE MACABRE?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000200680002-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 1, 1999
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: September 27, 1965
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

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.works as they' chose-a major invasion antecs of assistance should the Security' lated the war over Kashmir half the
conflict raging on the, subcontinent. Mao staunchest backers-began to clamor for even Lyndon Johnson. While the C11i-
-tun 's Chinese could i nits the fire. unilateral American- land Soviet) guar. . nese Communist threat ominously esca-
T
e
area o nese n erv o
scored the' calamitous potential of the- threat, the Indians-once the U.N.'s It was a week to tax the mettle of
'
_-yond that, the measure of
can response depended on the degree,
nature and intensity and long-range in-
tent of a Chinese attack.
As the weekend drew to a close, few
in Washington expected a Chinese as-
sault massive enough to trigger a ma-
jor American 'response. The Washington
position was that a Chinese feint at
Sikkim would not itself amount to a
threat to the U.S. national interest-a
position curiously comparable to Peking's
in respect to U.S. intervention in South
Vietnam. But in the snowy Himalayas,:
Mao's Peking-not LBJ's Washington-
held the initiative.
protectorate of Sikkim. And the mere istration has focused its hopes for peace. Super Lyndon
'IV t f M; f t
ntf n under- ? on the U N But faced with the Chinese
bas'tiiiiiiiiiiiiior a Danse
qq ust as the undeclared war between ? ert MoN mara, McGeorge Bundy and
India and Pakistan over Kashmir the C.IA ?t11r William R,14%11 ,,, or a
seemed to be settling into a lull last two-hour review of ttie 'situation. That
week, a fresh wave of apprehension en- night, U.N. Ambassador Arthur Goldberg
veloped the globe. Suddenly, it seemed told a Washington meeting of the World
each tick of the clock might be edging Conference on World Peace Through
Washington and the world closer to the.' Law that the Kashmir crisis "is perhaps
nuclear age's latest danse macabre. And the most serious conflict between mem-
this time, the choreographers were the ber states"' the U.N. has ever faced..-
Communist Chinese, Next day, Goldberg presided at an.
Peking's contemptuous, 72-hour ulti- inconclusive special Saturday session of
matum to India to abandon its military the Security Council trying to end the
outposts along the Himalayan border fighting between India and Pakistan be-'
? (page 42) might be all bluff and bom- fore the Chinese deadline ran out.
bast. But the Indians reported that the From the beginning of the -war inChinese were moving troops up to the Kashmir between two American allies,*.
frontier between Tibet and the Indian ' the interventionist-prone Johnson Admin-
run raids, perhaps no military action at 'China Will Attack': The day after Arkansas's scholarly J. William Fulbright,
by the rival Chinese against India? What Indian Ambassador B.K. Nehru called- ' lations committee, denounces the Aa-
should the American response be? ' on Secretary of State Rusk, who earlier ? ministration's handling of the Dominican
As Peking's weekend deadline ap-
proached,' Lyndon Johnson grappled
with the multi-faceted problem. Beneath
the Capital's studiedly serene facade
plenty of crisis thinking was going on.
While Pentagon officials dusted off their
contingency plans for possible military
moves against China, American diplo-
mats around the world sampled the
opinions. of friendly governments on op-
tions open to, the U.S. Then 'the Presi-
dent sat down with his top foreign-policy ?
advisers-Dean?Rusk, , ;George Ball, Rob- to be honored.
September ASUlatized - Approved :. or`Release
in the week had warned Peking to mind crisis (page 27). And even closer to
its own business. "It is our impression home, Mr. Johnson accepted the res-
Communist China will attack," he told' ignations of two of his most prolific
newsmen later. "I believe that all the special assistants, New Frontiersman
nations of the world should come to the . Richard Goodwin and old Johnson hand
aid of a nation that is attacked if we are Horace Busby-opening a word gap in
to defend international order." In New the White House's ghost-writing corps.
Delhi, the Indian Army chief of staff'. ? 'With all that, the President still
appealed to the U.S. to revoke its sus- found time to-- play his two favor-
pension of military aid if China moved ite roles: The Great Peacemaker and
against India's border outposts-a request' The Great Educator. Facing 2,500 of the
American officials' indicated was likely, globes top lawyers and jurists at the
week-long World Conference on World
F }Pi~S- ?'1'4 R40.?0 680002-T.. 25