Speech #920161495

In all this. the President is swimming against a tide of public opinion. There is little American tide of opinion of any kind about the subcontinent. and its surface flow Is considerably influenced by what any President does and says. Moreover. many of our best editorial writers and columnists have such an absolute abhorrence of warespecially when escalated by otherswhatever the provocation and whatever the closure of other options. that they cannot. just now. see much beyond the proximate causes of the Bengal border crossings. I would like to emphasize one point that tends to be skirted. because no one wants to be caught these days suggesting that any goodeven relative good. weighed against the alternativecan come of a war. The point. and it is pivotal. is that the only possible basis for a stable. peaceful East Bengal to which a large portion of the ten million refugees can return and help rebuild their nation is an Independent East Bengal. Such is the effect of the program of terror since March 25. the scenario cannot be wound backwards. Hence (1) the premise of undivided Pakistans sovereign integrity upon which American policy has rested. for at least five months. has been a nonstarter. and (2) Indias support of the insurgency by the previously elected Bangla Desh regime has not been merely human and understandable. lacking alternatives. it has been the only constructive policy available. I myself wish the Indians had escalated less. accepted a longer time frame. and kept their support less overt. But if there is any group which. have contributed most to the frustration of restraint. has least cause to fault her ensuing Impatience. it is the Nixon Administration. It remains now for India to demonstrate that herd objectives are those. and only those. she held out. namely. establishment of a genuinely independent East Bengal to which the refugees can return. There is a heavy obligation on Indian leaders to make sure that war fervor does not spill over into more selfserving ventures. either to the east or to the west. Meanwhile. as this demonstration is being rendered. there is an obligation on Washington to keep quiet. [From the New York Times.