Source: The Pentagon Papers, Gravel Edition, Volume 2, p. 799
Senator John F. Kennedy's statement as quoted in the Washington Daily News, September 22, 1960:
"The recognition is not really the crux of our foreign policy. The real
question is what should be done about the harsh facts that China is a powerful
and aggressive nation. The dangerous situation now existing can be remedied
only by a strong and successful India, a strong and successful Japan, and some
kind of regional group over Southeast Asia which gives these smaller countries
the feeling that, in spite of their distaste for a military alliance, they will
not be left to be picked off one by one at the whim of the Peiping regime."