A Thousand Days or More

The first heavy snow of winter fell along India's disputed Himalayan frontier with Red China last week--and with it came a rain of mortar and machine-gun fire. In a two-pronged attack, thousands of Chinese troops overwhelmed precarious Indian outposts both in Ladakh and 900 miles away in the North East Frontier Agency. Indian troops retreated to better defense positions, though at least one frontier station fought to the last round before it fell. Flying without fighter support, lumbering Indian transports ran into a hail of Chinese antiaircraft fire as they tried to resupply remote border outposts. An Indian helicopter loaded with Indian wounded was shot down.

In a rare news conference, India's Defense Minister Krishna Menon, who has often seemed to be more vigorous in defending Red China than India, accused the Chinese of "premeditated and concerted" attacks. Echoing the toughening talk of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Menon declared that India must throw the Communists out of its territory--"whether it takes one day, a hundred days, or a thousand days," Menon knew that it might take all that--and more.

At a five-hour briefing with senior army officers at the forward command headquarters of Tezpur, 100 miles from the frontier of Chinese-held Tibet, Menon learned that the Indian troops need new and better equipment to equalize Red China's terrain advantage. Operating from the Tibetan plateau, the Chinese have roads and airstrips only a short distance from their front lines. But the Indians must carry food and equipment on foot from forward supply depots up sheer mountain peaks too steep even for pack animals; a trip from a supply station to a frontier outpost often takes eight days. Airdrops are difficult because of the tricky mountain wind currents.

To ease the supply problem, India dispatched a shopping expedition to the U.S.. Britain and France to obtain helicopters and high-altitude transports capable of ferrying men and equipment to the precipitous frontier, where some stations are 18,000 ft. above sea level. But even with the new aircraft, the Indians will still be faced with Chinese air superiority. The Reds are now operating two squadrons of Russian-built MIG jet fighters from forward airstrips on the Tibetan plateau, while India has no combat fighters along the border. Confidently the Chinese announced that any Indian plane "violating Chinese airspace'' would be shot down. Said Peking: "The Indian troops will reap the evil fruit of their own sowing if they continue their attack."

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