Anderson releases text of documents
From J. K. Banerji
NEW YORK, Jan. 6.-The full text of the secret minutes of three meetings held by President Nixon political adviser, Dr. Kissinger, with other high intelligence Defence and State Department officials on the India-Pakistan was early in December last year has now been released to the Press by Jack Anderson, the syndicated columnist whose column appears in 700 papers including 100 foreign journals.
Mr. Anderson, whose exposure of highlights of the background of Mr. Nixon’s angry pro-Pakistan partisanship during the two fateful war weeks had already generated helpless cold anger in the White House, gave the documents, spirited away by someone not yet caught by the FBI, to the Press because of Dr. Kissinger’s charge that Mr. Anderson had used excerpts from the minutes out of context. Mr. Anderson says he is deliberately seeking a confrontation with the Administration because of the mounting practice of officialdom to classify all manner of documents as secret for the simple purpose of covering up blunders, if not shady deals.
But quite apart from the great service that Mr. Anderson may be rendering to his own people by exposing certain dubious aspects of the working of the executive branch of the Government his expose is of inestimable value to all those foreign Governments, especially from the developing world, who, voluntarily or by force of circimnstances, become camp followers of this country.
What they will see is that in laying down a policy in regard to such an epoch making event as the birth of Bangladesh what turns up as decisive are the whims and idiosyncracies of the chief executive and not the mature assessment of trained and experienced Foreign Office specialists helping the chief executive to come to a decision.
Mr. Nixon is revealed as desiring an anti-India stance presumably for other reasons not directly connected with the war, as for instance Mr. Nixon’s Peking strategy.
What is extraordinary in that even Dr. Kissinger comes out as an aide not quite un aware of his master’s folly.
Trying to build up a cast showing India attacked first drafting a strong resolution against India to be pushed through on the very first day of the UN Secretary Council’s meeting knowing fully well that it would not pass on account of Soviet veto, fishing out an old secret protocol that supposedly authorized military aid to Pakistan outside the provisions of the SEATO treaty, cutting off economic aid to India while not cuting that to Pakistan-all for the make of being just anti-India-is a spectacle that should cool the ardour of many secking patronage from the “mighties! and the richest country in the world.”
Agencies add: Mr. Anderson said yesterday that he was being fed classified information by several high Nixon Administration sources “who believe that the Government does not have the right to lie.”
Defending his publication of some of the information on the ground that no military secret is involved. Mr. Anderson said in a CBS TV interview that he was in possession of “dozens” of documents proving that the Government “was doing one thing and telling the American people another thing during the recent Into-Pak, conflict.”
He said he had “rather a complete set of secret documents relating to the Bangladesh crisis.”
“I continue to get documents and I’ll continue to publish them because I believe that it’s in the public interest to do so, Mr. Anderson said.
“I don’t think the public should have to take either my word or Dr. Kissinger’s.” Mr. Anderson said in a statement. “I invite reporters to compare Dr. Kissinger’s statements at the secret strategy sessions with the transcript of Dr. Kissinger’s beckground briefing to reporters on December 7.”
Mr. Anderson referred to a briefing in which Dr. Kissinger had said: “First of all, let us get a number of things straight. There have been some comments that the Administration is anti-India. this is totally inaccurate.”
He had added, however, that the USA, “which in many aspects has had a love affair with India, can only with enormous pain accept the fact that military action was taken, in our view, without adequate cause”.
Mr. Anderson said the documents summarise meetings of the Special Action group on December 3, the day the war broke out, and on December 4 and 6. the group is made up of officials from the State and Defence departments, the White House, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National chiefs of Staff and the Agency International Development.
Mr. Anderson has taken elaborate security precautions in his efforts to prevent anyone from discovering how or from whom he got the secret White House Papers.
Mr. Anderson, in the television broadcast, offered to make copies of the papers available to any newsmen wanting them.
But, Mr. Anderson’s assistant, Mr. Leslie Whitton, said the copies being given to newsmen were not facsimilies of the originals.
Fearing that latent fingerprints, the paper, typewriter and copying machine used might all point to the person who gave him the papers, Mr. Anderson arranged for his secretary to retype them completely and make copies for newsmen from her typescripts.
Mr. Whitton did not say where Mr. Anderson was keeping his original copies of the papers.
The papers also said that the Assistant Secretary of State, Mr. Joseph Sisco, responsible for Near Eastern and South Asian affairs, stated that “from a political point of view, our efforts would have to be directed at keeping the Indians from extinguishing West Pakistan.”
This was because. Mr. Sisco said, “the Pakistanis increasingly feel the heat, we will be getting emergency requests from them.”
Mr. Anderson said that the documents revaled Dr. Kissinger had said the President may have honoured these requests.
“The matter has not been brought to presidential attention, but it is quite obvious that the President is not inclined to let the Pakistanis be defeated.” Mr. Anderson said. Meanwhile, a fresh clash over security-classifications was developing between the Administration and the Congress today following the publication.
Congressional sources said a House of Representatives subcommittee planned hearings to review the Government’s handling of documents, including excessive use of secrecy classifications to keep material from the public.
The hearings will be held in March by the House sub-committee on foreign operations and freedom of information.
Hindustan Standard 07.01.1972 Nixon taking a “hard look” at aid resumption
WASHINGTON, Jan. 6.-President Nixon is taking a hard look” at the issue of renewaing US economic aid to India, the Secretary of State, Mr. Rogers, said last night. reports AP.
In a television interview with two commentators of the American Broadcasting Company. Mr. Rogers said:
“If we are going to provide very substantial amounts of foreign aid and then nations are going to get involved in warfare so that it all goes down the drain, then it seems to us we have to ask ourselves, is that a wise investment of our money, and that is what we did.
“In this case we have stopped foreign aid for the moment and we are going to take a hay look before we renew it.”
At another point, Mr. Rogers noted that the USA had contibuted about $10,000 million to the economic support of India.
Mr. Rogers said that the US. had to take a “good hard look at whether that kind of contribution (of that magnitude) is wise or not or whether we should not spend a good deal of it here at home to help out own people.
He said he had been “please that the Prime Minister of India’s said now since well in the last couple of weeks, that they are going to do more in of self-sufficiency.
“They are going to try on themselves more, and think that is a very good development indeed.”
Mr. Rogers’ statement on to India came at a time hen secret papers of the National Security Council published in the Washington Post disclose that Mr. Nixon had ordered hold on issuance of irrevocable letters of credit to India involving $9 million and a hold or further action implementing $72 million credit for food supplies.
Responding to question from NBC correspondents Ted Koppe and Howard K. Smith. Mr. Rogers said the USA did not provide foreign aid to have an other nation “toe the mark” but because of humanitarian purposes.
Reference: Hindustan Standard 07.01.1972