Office of the Historian

149. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in India0

Washington, July 2, 1962, 8:49 p.m.

6. For Ambassador Galbraith. Re Calcutta’s 1 to Dept1 which being repeated Karachi and USUN. The President personally and the Department are energetically averse to your making a statement to the effect that the United States believes that plebiscite question dead and Kashmir settlement has to be found in other directions.

1.
It would be unwise to make the statement now even though we may believe that the UN exercise has been unproductive and that we should try to avoid a repetition of it. A statement along the lines you propose would have a strong adverse effect in Karachi and not have countervailing advantages in New Delhi. It would appear to be a retreat under Menon’s pressure.
2.
Nehru’s speech has caused intense irritation in Congressional and government circles here—an irritation which the President shares. The large aid commitments we have recently made to India in no way diminishes the feeling.
3.
Judgment here is that your best tactic is to say that the resolution was in fact a moderate one which it would have been difficult for us not [Page 297] to support. You can say privately that we made strong efforts to moderate it, and without these efforts it would have been much stronger.

Finally, it is up to you to show that we are the injured party in this situation, not the Indians.2

Rusk
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 690D.91/7-162. Secret; Niact; Limit Distribution. Drafted in NEA by Cameron and Ludlow, cleared by Cleveland and Kaysen, and approved by Talbot. Repeated to Calcutta.↩
  2. Document 148.↩
  3. McGeorge Bundy reinforced telegram 6 to New Delhi with a July 3 message sent to Galbraith by the special channel which reads: “State’s Niact 6 to you does reflect the President’s own sentiments. He practically dictated the telegram to Carl [Kaysen], along with some other comments that are too hot even for this channel.” (Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Countries Series, India, General, 7/1/62-7/10/62)↩