Ford Broadcasts, 1965-1966: 12237637

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

try and exploit any issue. And the shortage of food is an issue which is exploitable at any time.

MR. BRITTER: In other words, there is no large fifth column of communist Peking-

MRS. GANDHI: I wouldn't call it a fifth column. There are pockets where we have Communists. There is a district in Bengal; there is Kerala. They are not large areas, but there are areas where they have influence and where they can arrange these big demonstrations.

MR. HARRISON: Prime Minister Gandhi, when you arrived at the White House, you said in your prepared statement that you felt that India and the United States should not take each other for granted and let their relations drift. What did you mean by that? In what way have our relations been drifting and what are some of the misunderstandings that you must have had in your mind when you said that?

MRS. GANDHI: I was thinking more of the future than of the past, Mr. Harrison.

MR. HARRISON: Looking back to the past, did the war produce very deep problems between India and the United States in terms of our involvement with Pakistan?

MRS. GANDHI: In the public mind there was a certain amount of disturbance because of American arms, but I don't think that friendship with America suffered.

MR. POTTER: Madam Gandhi, you said in your National Press Club speech the other day that you would like to see a modest increase in aid-India consortium aid to India, including that from our own country. Would you be willing to have the World Bank, which sort of sponsors this program, make a ceiling on arms expenditures by India and Pakistan a condition for further extension of aid to both countries?

MRS. GANDHI: I am not happy about any conditions.

MR. POTTER: You used to be noted for nonviolence, and yet you have had numerous recent riots in which there has been a good deal of violence. Have you exported all of your nonviolence to our civil rights workers, here?

MRS. GANDHI: I hope not. We have—a certain amount of violence that is always present in all countries, and whatever high ideals or principles we might have, unfortunately, man cannot always live up to them.

MR. SPIVAK: Prime Minister Gandhi, India is for the admission of Communist China to the United Nations. What is your position on what to do about Taiwan, if Communist China is admitted?

MRS. GANDHI: Our position has been that there should be only one China.

MR. SPIVAK: That means that you would put Taiwan out of the United Nations?

MRS. GANDHI: This will have to be worked out.

MISS FREDERICK: Mrs. Gandhi, what do you believe are the chances of Communist China coming into the war in Viet Nam? Under what conditions would this come about?

MRS. GANDHI: I don't think that China will come in, unless something very drastic happens. She may, of course, want to involve perhaps the Soviet Union more deeply into the fighting.

MR. SPIVAK: We have about a minute. Mr. Britter.

MR. BRITTER: Mrs. Gandhi, do you feel that the signing of this Tashkent Declaration is a turning point too because Russia is now directly concerned with preserving peace between India and Pakistan and is taking a positive role in the affairs of your subcontinent?

MRS. GANDHI: The Tashkent agreement is like the opening of a door, an opening of new opportunities for India and Pakistan to get together, and perhaps having the Soviet Union also involved may help, but this depends very much on the attitudes of the two countries. India on her part will do everything possible to implement the declaration.

MR. POTTER: Mrs. Gandhi, the spirit of Tashkent seems to be evaporating, if you can judge by the statements coming out of Pakistan and India. Do you have any plans to revive it by perhaps visiting with President Ayub?

MRS. GANDHI: I would certainly like to meet President Ayub. I don't think it is evaporating as far as we are concerned. We have not made any such statements, but it is true that statements have been made in Pakistan. This may be due to the visit of the Chinese leaders, there.

MR. SPIVAK: I am sorry to interrupt, but our time is up. Thank you Prime Minister Gandhi, for being with us today on MEET THE PRESS.