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Show National Security Council, leaning more heavily on military intelligence, believe the prospects for war are at least In case the two titans of communism should collide, U.S. experts agree that Russia has the nuclear power to devastate China. But the Chinese have dug elaborate shelters for both their people and their factories. Neatly every major city in China has an underground laby rinth of tunnels. Chinese leaders, in their talks with visiting Americans, have expressed confidence in their ability to absorb and survive a Soviet attack. The Chinese have also deployed their missiles against Soviet cities, which thereby become hostages against a Soviet attack. At first, the Chinese kept their missiles in the Sinkiang desert where they are tested. But last year, the Chinese suddenly began scattering their nuclear rockets in strategic sites around the country. The first four were targeted against the Soviet port of Vladivostok. Then other great cities were addedro the target list. It won't be long before missiles can reach the new, 3400-mil- e Moscow and Leningrad. 50-5- A Soviet photo of Chinese soldiers during border clash. The heavy military buildup, including nuclear missiles, A WASHINGTON-PEKIN- continues on both sides, and some U.S. experts rate the risk of year as 50-3a war that could become global. 0 G HOT LINE COULD HELP for destroying China's nuclear bases." The President got the message: would the U.S. hold still for a Soviet preventive attack upon China? He sent back word by the same unofficial channels: the U.S. would not condone military action against China. This may have deterred the Kremlin from attacking China, but it didn't stop the buildup on the border. The eastward movement of soldiers and supplies reached such a surge in 1970-7- 1 n that civilian traffic on the rail oad was disrupted for weeks at a time. President Nixon felt constrained to caution Soviet party boss Leonid Brezhnev again when they sat down together in the Kremlin a year ago. The President warned firmly that the U.S. would consider a Soviet attack upon China to be against our national interests. This is diplomatic language for saying that the U.S. might be compelled to intervene. Trans-Siberia- by Jack Anderson world's most dangerous frontier the The bristling, 5000-mil- e border, which separates rival Red armies, both backed by nuclear-tippe- d missiles. The risk of open warfare is rated by some U.S. experts who have studied the military buildup on satellite photos, as 50-5On the Soviet side, 41 crack divisions have been deployed along the Chinese frontier, including armored columns trained for swift assault. Not far to their rear are dozens of huge, mobile "Scale-board- " nuclear missiles. Still larger missiles point at China from across the steppes of Siberia. On the Chinese side, close to 50 missiles are already targeted against Russia. missiles are also beLarger, 3400-mil- e ing installed in silos hacked out of solid rock in the remote ravines of the Central Asian mountains. China also has the world's largest army, with more than 3 million men organized into cohesive, divisions trained to operate behind enemy lines. Into the middle has stepped President Nixon, maneuvering adroitly to keep the feuding Communist powers apart. He is fearful that a Chinese-Rus-sia- n conflict could erupt into global warfare. A nuclear exchange in Asia, 0. moreover, would endanger the U.S., since the prevailing winds would carry the radioactive fallout across the Pacific. The Russians began fortifying their after the Asian frontier aggressively Chinese exploded their first atom bomb in 1964. By early 1969, the Russians began dropping hints a whispered word at a diplomatic reception, a hypothetical question to an American attache about a preventive attack on Chinas nuclear works. I was the first to report on une 12, 1969, that hardliners in the Kremlin were contemplating a surgical strike to eliminate Chinese nuclear installations. The idea was to set back China's nuclear development a decade. My story was confirmed in August, 1969. by no less than Richard Helms, then the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Soviet feelers The Soviet feelers, meanwhile, began to reach a higher level. "Would it not g be better for the world," a high-rankin- Soviet diplomat would remark guarda edly, "if China were not to become nuclear power?" Or a Soviet marshal would suggest to his American counterIs a realist. part: "President Nixon the need understand Surely, he would Message to Moscow With equal bluntness, Brezhnev demanded who had made the U.S. the arbiter of disputes between Communist countries. Nixon replied firmly that a war between Russia and China would endanger world peace. Then Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko made a joke about "throwing in Cuba for good measure," and the discussion ended in good spirits. But Moscow got the message. The President has told subordinates that he believes Russia will hold back from a military confrontation with China. His top advisers, however, are The Central divided. Intelligence Russia whether has questioned Agency has massed the military might that it would take to launch an offensive into China. The Soviet commanders would want greater superiority, suggests the CIA, than they now have on the Chinese front. But experts inside the Chinese strategy The Chinese would also be able to throw hordes of soldiers against a Soviet invasion force. The Chinese strategy, experts believe, would be to draw the Soviets into China, then to harass their extended lines. The Chinese units, trained as they are at guerrilla tactics, would probably turn the conflict into mammoth guerrilla warfare. It would be fought not only in China but in Siberia, where the Chinese could be expected to raid the railway. This is the Soviet lifeline, which the Russians would have trouble keeping open. The possibility of such a war deeply troubles Richard Nixon, who is using skillful diplomacy to prevent it from happening. He has a hot line, whicfr inpermits him to reach the Kremlin He in an emergency. stantaneously should have equally fast communication with Peking. The time has come to adopt Parade Editor Jess Gorkin's proposal of Sept. 29, 1968, to open another hot line, this one between Washington and Peking. Trans-Siberi- - J0 EXCERPT FROM PARADE PROPOSAL Since 196 3. the Washingfon-Mos-cohot line which PARADE proposed in 1960 has served the nation well on at least 15 occasions, includWar in the Middle ing the East and the Tonkin Gulf incident. hot line is a A Washington-Pekinsimilar necessity. Six-Da- y g & 19 |