JFK was ready to use nuclear bomb on China, tapes reveal
The Independent
By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
Published: 27 August 2005
There are crackles on the tape but the message is clear. President John F Kennedy and his advisers considered using nuclear weapons against China if the Communist nation attacked India a second time.
The date was May 1963 and the year before China had attacked India along its 2,000-mile Himalayan border, overpowering and defeating the poorly trained and badly equipped Indian troops. At dispute were two areas under Indian control, Aksai Chin in Ladakh and another area on the north-east frontier.
When Mr Kennedy and his senior officials met in the White House, a ceasefire had been called between China and India, with each side having lost 500 troops. But the US president and his advisers discussed the possibility that China might attack again and how they should respond to requests for help from Indian Prime Minster Jawaharlal Nehru.
On the tape, made public this week, Robert McNamara, who was then Mr Kennedy's defence secretary, says: "Before any substantial commitment to defend India against China is given, we should recognise that to carry out that commitment against any substantial Chinese attack, we would have to use nuclear weapons. Any large Chinese Communist attack on any part of that area would require the use of nuclear weapons by the US and this is to be preferred over the introduction of large numbers of US soldiers."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article308341.ece
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