The daily briefings during this period were prepared as the South Asian crisis was winding down. Kissinger’s cover memo includes a fascinating item on Soviet satellite – photographic and electronic intelligence – coverage of South Asia and the dissemination of the photography to a Soviet embassy. U.S. intelligence easily collected telemetry data (electronic signals) from Soviet satellites which made it possible to determine what the target areas were. Thus, Washington learned that Soviet photographic satellites were targeting airfields in India and Pakistan as well as specific installations in Pakistan (ground force headquarters, naval facilities, and oil refineries and storage sites).
Kissinger’s item on the India-Pakistan war include information derived from a CIA report on an Indian cabinet meeting held a few days earlier. As noted above, the fact that the CIA had a source inside the Indian cabinet corroborates the finding of investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. According to Hersh’s sources – former Nixon administration officials – the CIA’s mole was Morarji Desai, who attended cabinet meetings even though he had resigned as Indira Gandhi’s deputy prime minister. Desai later responded to Hersh’s disclosure with a libel suit, losing the case in a Chicago court in 1989. In open court Kissinger denied that Desai had provided information to the CIA, although he had reportedly praised the Agency for having a high-level source in the Indian government. Whether it was Desai or not, the CIA clearly had a spy in the Indian cabinet.
The PDB for that day covers India-Pakistan developments and the establishment of a new military region in China.
The daily briefings during this period were prepared as the South Asian crisis was winding down. Kissinger’s cover memo includes a fascinating item on Soviet satellite – photographic and electronic intelligence – coverage of South Asia and the dissemination of the photography to a Soviet embassy. U.S. intelligence easily collected telemetry data (electronic signals) from Soviet satellites which made it possible to determine what the target areas were. Thus, Washington learned that Soviet photographic satellites were targeting airfields in India and Pakistan as well as specific installations in Pakistan (ground force headquarters, naval facilities, and oil refineries and storage sites).
Kissinger’s item on the India-Pakistan war include information derived from a CIA report on an Indian cabinet meeting held a few days earlier. As noted above, the fact that the CIA had a source inside the Indian cabinet corroborates the finding of investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. According to Hersh’s sources – former Nixon administration officials – the CIA’s mole was Morarji Desai, who attended cabinet meetings even though he had resigned as Indira Gandhi’s deputy prime minister. Desai later responded to Hersh’s disclosure with a libel suit, losing the case in a Chicago court in 1989. In open court Kissinger denied that Desai had provided information to the CIA, although he had reportedly praised the Agency for having a high-level source in the Indian government. Whether it was Desai or not, the CIA clearly had a spy in the Indian cabinet.
The PDB for that day covers India-Pakistan developments and the establishment of a new military region in China.