Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volume XIX, South Asia

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

Washington, December 22, 1962, 11:35 p.m.

2692. Ambassador requested deliver following letter from the President to Prime Minister Nehru.

Verbatim Text.

Dear Mr. Prime Minister:

I have thought a great deal about the problems of the defense of the subcontinent since I received your letters of December 8 and 10, 1962.¹ Ambassador Galbraith has been here and we have had several good talks. I discussed these problems with Prime Minister Macmillan at some length in Nassau.

Prime Minister Macmillan and I reviewed the urgent problems caused by the Chinese Communist threat to the subcontinent and what best we could do to strengthen India’s defenses. On the particular problem of air defense, we propose to send at an early date a joint UK-US team for full explorations with you and your people.

We also discussed what the subcontinent can do to direct its energies more fully toward its defense. We were both greatly encouraged by the historic decision of India and Pakistan to take up in direct talks the great problems which separate you. Protracted and time consuming as these talks may have to be, we were confident that you and President Ayub will be able to work out solutions. Nothing could contribute more to the security and progress of the subcontinent.

I have asked Ambassador Galbraith to go over these matters with you in some detail.²

Sincerely,

John F. Kennedy

End Verbatim Text.

In accordance usual custom this letter is not to be published.

Rusk

0. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 691.93/12-2262. Secret; Niact. Drafted by Grant and Schneider; cleared with FE, EUR, U. Alexis Johnson, and Komer; and approved by Talbot. Repeated to Karachi and London.
1. See Document 222.
2. Galbraith delivered Kennedy’s letter to Nehru on December 27. He noted the plan to send a U.S.-U.K. military team to explore India’s air defense requirements, and he outlined the U.S.-U.K. agreement to fund the conversion of six Indian Army divisions to mountain warfare divisions. He added that the question of longer term defense support would have to be made in light of a further assessment of Chinese intentions and the larger problem of the defense of the subcontinent. (Telegram 2522 from New Delhi, December 27; Department of State, Central Files, 791.56/12-2762)