193. Editorial Note
In a telephone conversation on September 8, 1965, President Johnson and Secretary of Defense McNamara discussed what they saw as dangerous possibilities developing as a result of the conflict between India and Pakistan. McNamara noted that he was concerned about a number of contingencies that might develop which the United States was not fully prepared to deal with, the most serious of which was the possibility that China might initiate military operations against India. McNamara observed that the Chinese threat to India posed a very serious problem. The danger that China might move against India had become immediate in light of the note China had sent to India earlier in the day.
Referring to the Chinese note, Johnson said: “And looked like she was threatening to today, didn’t she?”
McNamara responded: “She’ll threaten and we ought to know what we’d do if she did move. We’d be in a terrible jam if she did and we didn’t have plans. So we’ll be working on that.”
Johnson asked what McNamara thought the Soviet Union would do in the event that China entered the conflict, and when McNamara indicated that he didn’t know, Johnson answered his own question: “I think they’d move too.”
McNamara expressed his concern about what the British would do in the event the conflict mushroomed to include China and possibly the Soviet Union.
[Page 372]Johnson commented: “They’re going to run out, as they usually do.”
McNamara agreed: “I think so. And I think we’ve got to have some plans for that. So these are some of the projects we’ll be working on.” (Johnson Library, Recordings and Transcripts, Recording of Telephone Conversation Between President Johnson and Secretary of Defense McNamara, September 8, 1965, 6 p.m., Tape F65.02, Side A, PNO 1)