Office of the Historian

250. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in Pakistan0

Washington, February 6, 1963, 10:34 p.m.

1200. For Ambassador McConaughy. In addition to delivering President’s message1 you should make following points to Ayub regarding the supplementary message he sent to the President by Aziz Ahmed:2

1.
As stated explicitly in President Kennedy’s letter, we see no possibility of India being willing to give up all of the Vale. Thus we see no utility in idea of arranging transfer of Vale after duration one year or after any period for that matter.
2.
It is not at all certain that it will be clear within a year whether there is any likelihood at all of recrudescence of fighting between India and China on the Ladakh front. We see no prospect that the Chicoms intend, for example, to pull out of Tibet in the foreseeable future. The need for an active defense of Ladakh will be ongoing. [3 lines of source text not declassified]
3.
Chinese presence in force at southwestern edge Tibetan Plateau new fact of geopolitical life which must be taken into account by GOP and GOI.
4.
If Ayub brings up possibility following West New Guinea pattern in Kashmir, you should say that we believe India, unlike the Netherlands, [Page 490] is unwilling give up possession of what it now holds by such a procedure.

Rusk
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 32-1 INDIA-PAK. Secret; Niact; Limit Distribution, Drafted by Gatch; cleared by BNA, Ludlow, Grant, Harriman, McGhee, and Komer; and approved by Cameron. Repeated to New Delhi and London.↩
  2. See Document 252.↩
  3. See Document 249.↩