Word: galbraithe
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...first of the Harvard-bred Kennedy appointees to return to his academic home, John Kenneth Galbraith, Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics, speaks easily about his two-year tenure as the head of the U.S. embassy in India. Leaving no doubt that he was in charge both in deed and in fact, Galbraith maintained that any ambassador "can have as large a role as he wants" in policy decisions. In his own case, he added, he had an even greates voice in such decisions since he "went out there as President Kennedy's man in India...
...India found himself with enough decisions to satisfy anyone in October, 1962. Galbraith, in London, received word on October 20 that the Red Chinese had launched a massive drive across the northern Indian border. But while the Ambassador's attention turned back to India, President Kennedy's was directed elsewhere. Galbrith remembered, "President Kennedy wired me to return to New Delhi immediately. I thought it was because of the Chinese attack, but, of course, it developed that he had the Cuban crisis in mind...
With Washington's attention focused on Khrushchev's moves in the Caribbean, Galbraith was left to handle the border war on his own. "I was thoroughly swamped with decisions and there probably wouldn't have been time to consult Washington on many problems anyway...
After the outbreak of fighting, developments were rapid. The United States agreed to provide, on credit, whatever materials India requested: "Washington may be slow on broad policy decisions," Galbraith observed, "but the Pentagon, if necessary, can react very rapidly." He pointed out that India asked for aid on a Monday, and by the following Saturday, plane-loads of supplies had begun to arrive on a regular schedule...
Since much of his responsibility lay in assigning priorities to India's needs, Galbraith met regularly with the Indian army generals "in order to sense the urgency of their requests...