Brezhnev ‘hinted at attack on China’

Press, 9 March 1982, Page 8

Brezhnev ‘hinted at attack on China’

NZPA New York The former American Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, says in his memoirs that the Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhnev, hinted in May, 1973, that a Soviet pre-emptive strike against China would be possible. The conversation is described by the former Secretary of State in the second volume of his memoirs, “Years of Upheavel,” the last part of which is being excerpted this week in “Time” magazine. Dr Kissinger writes that Mr Brezhnev complained about China as the two men were sitting in a hunting stand half way up a tree in a preserve 140 km north-east of Moscow. ■ .. Mr Brezhnev spoke emotionally about China’s “cannibalistic” tendencies and development of a nuclear arsenal, Dr Kissinger recalls. Mr Brezhnev said . “the Soviet Union could not acccept this passively,” according to Dr Kissinger, “something would have to be done.”

Dr Kissinger concluded that “Brezhnev was. clearly fishing for some hint of American acquiescence (to a pre-emptive attack).. I gave no encouragement My bland response was that the growth of China was one of those problems that underlined the importance of settling disputes peacefully.” When Mr Brezhnev continued along the same lines, saying that. United States military assistance to China could lead to war, Dr Kissinger /‘warned that history proved America} would riot be indifferent to an attack on China.”: