Daniel “Pat” Moynihan, a prominent American diplomat and politician, a man who made commonplace the terms “Human Rights” and “Third World,” certainly knew too much. And he also wrote quite a lot – he published over 18 books and numerous articles. But “before doing this, I reached an agreement with the responsible persons in Washington as to what I would write,” he writes in the opening page of the book titled A Dangerous Place. Therefore, readers can safely assume that the author indeed knew too much, as evidenced by his postings and assignments.
The author served as U.S. Ambassador to India from 1973 to 1975 and as U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 1975 to 1976, before being elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served for 24 years. About his tenure in India, he made a startling claim that the US wanted to close down CIA operations in India in 1974. Still, he reversed its decision after the intervention of the prime minister’s (Indira Gandhi’s) office.
In his journal entry on September 5, 1974, after a meeting with the then prime minister’s secretary and director of Indian intelligence P.N. Dhar, Moynihan wrote: “I returned to the (US) embassy (in New Delhi) and wrote to (Lawrence) Eagle Burger (of the state department) that my proposal, that we pull CIA out of here, was ‘inoperative’. They want us. Possibly they even want more of us.”
The book alleges that India’s Congress party took money from the US during Indira’s days. Moynihan refers to the then-Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, meeting with the prime minister, saying: “What exactly went on I shall never know, but evidently it went well enough.”
The CIA played a role in supporting India’s Congress Party during its rule, including providing funds that helped Indira Gandhi secure electoral victories. It doesn’t matter that she frequently accused the agency of meddling in India’s internal affairs, claiming “foreign hand”.
From the Book
“I had first gone to Washington with John F. Kennedy and then stayed on with Lyndon Johnson. There I learned as an adult what I had known as a child, which is that the world is a dangerous place — and learned also that not everyone knows this.”
“You do not understand,” replied the Honorable Helmut Sonnenfeldt. Smiling. “Henry (Kissinger) does not lie because it is in his interest. He lies because it is in his nature.”
“Both times, the money was given to the Congress Party, which had asked for it. Once it was given to Mrs. Indira Gandhi herself, who was then a party official.”
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” He emphasizes the importance of objective truth in public discourse, stating that the capacity to govern public policy depends on a shared commitment to facts.
“It is said that if a Communist regime were to take over in the Sahara there would in time be a shortage of sand, and we shall doubtless in time have tested that hypothesis, but we can be fairly confident that to the very end there would be those in the West convinced that the sand had gone to build swimming pools for the rich — in the West.”
“More specifically, guilt is a weapon which our adversaries contrive to have us use against ourselves.”
