125. Memorandum From Robert W. Komer of the National Security Council Staff to the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy)0
Washington, May 25,
1962.
McGB:
MIG-21s for India
State is working hard for delay en route on MIG deal. Ball will urge Ormsby-Gore today to offer Lightnings pronto, even as a stall. Our [Page 255] people in Delhi will collar a number of key Indian figures to urge the risks in MIG deal, not least to US aid.
I’ve been urging State to explore:
- (1)
- Slim possibility of some kind of indirect tie-in which would permit UK to shave Lightning price if we helped UK on some NATO project.
- (2)
- Stronger effort to persuade Delhi to stall at least till after aid bill passes Congress (and border war heats up).1
- (3)
- Reminding Delhi that big MIG deal will generate irresistible PAK pressure for more 104s and thus start new arms spiral. I’d even consider telling Nehru that if he’d forego MIGs we’d not give Paks any more 104s, and that so far as Chicom threat is concerned, if this became a real problem we’d consider 104s to India
Bob K.
- Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Meetings and Memoranda Series, Staff Memoranda, Robert Komer, 5/62. Secret.↩
- A border dispute between India and China in the Ladakh district of Kashmir flared in the spring of 1962 with repeated hostile exchanges between Indian and Chinese military patrols.↩