George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - Get a Free Blog

In the evening, Nixon suggested to Kissinger that the scheduled Moscow summit might
be cancelled. Kissinger raved that India wanted to detach not just Bengal, but Kashmir
also, leading to the further secession of Baluchistan and the total dismemberment og
Pakistan. "Fundamentally," wrote Kissinger of this moment, "our only card left was to
raise the risks for the Soviets to a level where Moscow would see larger interests
jeopardized" by its support of India, which had been lukewarm so far.
December 9-- The State Department and other agencies were showing signs of being
almost human, seeking to undermine the Nixon-Kissinger- Bush policy through
damaging leaks and bureaucratic obstructionism. Nixon, "beside himself" over the
damaging leaks, called in the principal officers of the Washington Special Action Group
and told them that while he did not insist on their being loyal to the President, they ought
at least to be loyal to the United States. Among those Nixon insulted was Undersecretary
of State U. Alexis Johnson. But the leaks only increased.
December 10--Kissinger ordered the US navy to create Task Force 74, consisting of the
nuclear aircraft carrier Enterprise with escort and supply ships, and to have these ships
proceed from their post at Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin off Vietnam to
Singapore. [fn 17]
In Dacca, East Pakistan, Major General Rao Farman Ali Khan, the commander of
Pakistani forces in Bengal asked the United Nations representative to help arrange a
cease-fire, followed by the transfer in of power in East Pakistan to the elected
representatives of the Awami League and the "repatriation with honor" of his forces back
to West Pakistan. At first it appeared that this de facto surrender had been approved by
Yahya Khan. But when Yahya Khan heard that the US fleet had been ordered into the
Indian Ocean, he was so encouraged that he junked the idea of a surrender and ordered
Gen. Ali Khan to resume fighting, which he did.
Colonel Melvin Holst, the US military attache in Katmandu, Nepal, a small country
sandwiched between India and China in the Himalayas, received a call from the Indian
military attache, who asked whether the American had any knowledge of a Chinese
military buildup in Tibet. "The Indian high command had some sort of information that
military action was increasing in Tibet," said Holst in his cable to Washington. The same
evening from the Soviet military attache, Loginov, who also asked about Chinese military
activity. Loginov said that he had spoken over the last day or two with the Chinese
military attache, Chao Kuang-chih "advising Chao that the PRC should not get too
serious about intervention because USSR would react, had many missles, etc." [fn 18] At
the moment the Himalaya mountain passes, the corridor for any Chinese troop
movement, were all open and free from snow. The CIA had noted "war preparations" in
Tibet over the months since the Bengal crisis had begun. Nikolai Pegov, the Soviet
Ambassador to New Dehli, had assured the Indian government that in the eventuality of a
Chinese attack on India, the Soviets would mount a "diversionary action in Sinkiang."
December 11- Kissinger had been in town the previous day, meeting the Chinese UN
delegate. Today Kissinger would meet with the Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister, Ali