Page:Kissinger's Trip (2) - November 25-29, 1974(Gerald Ford Library)(1553935).pdf/48



sentences in a treaty! However, I think it will be finished in the early part of next year.


 * As for the Soviet threat, as we have said many times, we don't pay much attention. We don't think those one million troops can be of much consequence. The Soviet military strength in the East is not just directed against China. It is also directed against Japan and your Seventh Fleet, your air and naval forces. And if they are going to attack China, as the Chairman has discussed [with you], it will be impossible to take over China with just one million troops. They will have to increase their troops by one million, and even that would not be sufficient because if they are going to make up their minds to fight with China, they will have to make up their minds to fight for 20 years. The Chinese have no great virtue, but they do have [the virtue of] patience.


 * They have a few other virtues.


 * They also have "millet plus rifles" -- and tunnels.


 * I have never seen the tunnels.


 * Hasn't Ambassador Bush done this for you? He is shirking his responsibilities.


 * Not yet. I am delighted to know that I can see them.


 * The next time you can write a report to the Doctor about the tunnels.


 * Don't encourage him. Between him and the Ambassador in India [Patrick Moynihan] I have nothing to do but read cables -- although the Ambassador in India publishes his in the news papers.


 * So that is the order of relations between the Soviet Union and China. As for the strategic emphasis of the Soviet Union, we see it as "a feint toward the East to attack in the West" -- to attack in Europe. It doesn't matter if we have different views, we can see what happens.


 * I think the strategic situation is the same. If they attack in the East it will be a threat to the West, and if they attack