185. Telegram From the White House to the Embassy in India0
Eyes Only for Ambassador Galbraith From Kaysen.
Your message on the private channel,1 as well as your 1417 from Delhi2 received. We here agree with your assessment of the value of getting Menon out and the possible effect of the timing of our moves in bringing this about. Nonetheless, your argument in Delhi 1417 that political changes of great magnitude are in the wind suggests that Indians themselves will take care of Menon sooner rather than later. The President’s letter3 with its generalized offer of practical support, leaving next steps up to you to take with Nehru and others in Delhi, need not have the effect of supporting Menon by giving him the opportunity to show his willingness to ask for U.S. aid and ours to give it through him. We again urge the importance of avoiding the slightest appearance of U.S. initiative and responsibility in removing Menon. Our efforts with Ayub will be such as to prepare the way to take advantage of Menon’s disappearance without requiring it as a condition of forward motion. Therefore, we do not think you need go beyond instructions in our message of yesterday suggesting you move with discretion and without any public indication or explicit communication to the Prime Minister that Menon unacceptable to U.S. By timing of your moves after you deliver the President’s letter to Nehru, you can help to bring about results you desire.
Department will shortly be sending their response to your 1417. This will have been drafted by Talbot in close consultation with me. We are in close touch in this whole matter, and I am the Department’s channel to the President. Henceforth, it seems wise to avoid use of private channel unless absolutely critical because confusion of private and State [Page 358] Department dialogue might cause trouble. This the more true in that all officers senior to Talbot and me are preoccupied with other matters. The President, however, is interested and concerned and I am keeping him as fully up on the situation as his time permits.
- Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Countries Series, India, Ambassador Galbraith, Special File, Miscellaneous Messages, 10/62-12/62. Top Secret; Sensitive. No time of transmission appears on the source text, nor does it indicate the channel through which it was sent.↩
- A copy of this message, found ibid., bears a handwritten date of October 25. Another undated copy, found ibid., General, 9/27/62-10/5/62, is addressed to “President” and signed by “Galbraith,” in an unknown hand. In the message, Galbraith noted that the United States was certain to be asked to supply military assistance to India in considerable volume. He recommended that the United States make clear that “any help will require Indians, in their own interest, to be more considerate of our political and public opinion than in recent past.” Galbraith asked for guidance, however, on how vigorously to play his strong hand: “The immediate question concerns Menon. Does important American assistance require his effective elimination from the Defense-UN scene?”↩
- Dated October 27. (Department of State, Central Files, 691.93/10-2762)↩
- See Document 187.↩