WHY I BLEW THE WHISTLE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01601R000300100003-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 13, 2000
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: February 13, 1972
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

STATINTL LL~I SS
Approved For Release 2001/65
l &DJW-01601ROOO
by Jack Anderson
EDITOR'S NOTE: Newspaper columnist
Jack Anderson, who exposed the U.S.
role in the recent Indian-Pakistan con-
flict, has been with PARADE nearly 20
years and is today its Washington
Bureau Chief. Readers will recall such
articles in these pages as "Congress-
men Who Cheat," "The Great Iligh-
way Robbery," and "Let's Retire Coe:
gressmen at 65."
Like all investigative reporters, An-
derson is provocative and controver-
sial. Many government officials and
politicians of -both parties object to
his ferreting out secrets they would
rather keep hidden.
In this article, lack Anderson tells
why he believes the people have a
right to know. ? .
PARADE welcomes the opinions of
its readers. Tell us what you think of
Anderson's views and in a future issue
we will present a cross-section of the
comments.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
o you feel as an American citizen
(hat you have the right to know
about an impending war?
This question is pointed up by
the secret documents I got out of the
White House. They tell a chilling story.
While Americans sang of peace on earth
last December, grim men sat in guarded
rooms in Washington, Moscow and
Peking making life-and-death decisions.
The world might have awakened on
Christmas morning, not to jingle bells,
but to the roar of nuclear warfare.
When I became aware of the de-
veloping confrontation, I was deter-
mined to inform the American people.
The only way this. could be accom-
plished was to rip the secrecy labels off
the details. For the dangerous drift to-
ward Armageddon, during the second
week of December 1971, was classi-
fied top secret.
Two third-class powers, India and
Pakistan, were fighting over the fate of
.East Pakistan. Just offstage, the world's.
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A tireless muckraker, lack Anderson
is responsilzle for important exposes.
On Dec. 7-30 years to the day after
the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor-a
.message was received in the situation
room in the basement of the White
House. It was stamped "Top Secret Um-
bra." Umbra means the darkest part of
a shadow. In U.S. intelligence circles, it
is the symbol for the darkest of secrets.
This cable warned that three Soviet
ships-a destroyer armed with missiles,
a seagoing minesweeper and a tanker-
'STATINTL
Soviet Union, turning half of "Pakistan
into an impotent state and the other
half into a vassal." He warned the as-
sembled policymakers that they must
consider the long-range consequences.
They began planning at once to coun-
teract the Soviet ploy. On Dec. 10, a de-
cision was made to send an American
flotilla, led by the carrier. Enterprise, into
the Bay of Bengal. The ships, called Task
Force 74, were to make "a show of
force." It was suggested the flotilla
would divert Indian ships and -planes
from the war with Pakistan and, there-
by, relieve the pressure on President
Yahya Khan's beleaguered forces.
Forces alerted
The risks were apparent. On Dec. 10,
the commander of'the Seventh Fleet
flashed the secret word that the "prim-
ary air threat would be from IAF (Indian
Air Forces) aircraft ..." The next day,
Washington warned Task Force 74 that
it "must be alert to the possibility of
provocative and irrational acts by hos-
tile forces."
Adm. John McCain, the Pacific com-
mander, asked for and received per-
mission to maintain aerial surveillance
of the Russian squadron.
Not long' afterward, a new Soviet
squadron, including two guided-missile
destroyers and a pair of submarines, set
sail from Vladivostok for the troubled
had passed eastward through the Strait waters.
of Malacca to join other Soviet warships The scene was set for another Gulf of
in the Bay of Bengal._ Tonkin incident, In the secret docu-
ments, the parallels are frequent and
China rumblings frightening.
three great powers-China, Russia and
.the United States-began making
Intelligence reports brought into the Meanwhile,' other moves were taking
White House other evidence that the place on the ground. The White House
Soviets were supporting the Indian situation room learned the Chinese
thrust into East Pakistan. There were were gathering weather reports along
simultaneous rumblings out of China the China-India border, an unusual
that the Chinese might intervene on the move indicative of military interest. -
side of Pakistan. The Chinese were a worry to the Rus-
It was a situation that the U.S. was -sians. In remote Kathmandu, Nepal, in
better equipped to observe than to the Himalayas, the Soviet military at-
alter. _ tache warned the Chinese attache that
On Dec. 8, Henry Kissinger, the Presi- Chinese intervention to aid Pakistan
dent's foreign policy czar, told a strat- would be met with massive Russian
eg meeting grimly: "We may be wit- force.
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