Blasting Off

Five British and Australian correspondents arrived at Singapore's television studios last week expecting to hear Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew talk about the prospects for Britain's Singapore bases, now that the tiny city-nation is independent of Malaysia.

But Harry Lee had a far bigger and a far more engrossing story for them. It was a searing attack on the United States that made cheeks burn all the way to Washington before the week was out.

Lee began calmly enough by making it plain that he wanted Britain's 50,000 troops to stay in Singapore. What he was worried about, he said, was that London itself might some day lose interest, adding: "If the British withdraw, I am prepared to go on with the Australians and the New Zealanders. But I am not prepared to go on with the Americans." When someone curiously asked why, Lee was ready and willing to answer.

The U.S. "lack of depth and judgment or wisdom," proclaimed the leader of the month-old nation, is the result of having only "400 years of history," of having "become a nation just recently." "I have had only three experiences with the Americans," said Lee Kuan Yew.

Insults & Bribes. By far the most dramatic was the bizarre account of a bungled American CIA exploit in Singapore. Late in 1960, according to Lee, a U.S. agent had flown into Singapore and tried to bribe his way into the city's Special Branch intelligence net. He was taped and filmed in the act, tossed quietly into jail. Lee then offered to free the agent in return for $33 million in U.S. economic aid for his nation. The U.S. refused, said Lee with superb aplomb, and instead "insulted" him with a counteroffer of $3,300,000 for Lee personally and his People's Action Party.

With the Kennedy Administration about to take over, Lee decided to abide the insult long enough to test the new President's response. It was straightforward and unequivocal: no under-the-table money at all, economic assistance only on its merits--and only if it was clearly not a quid pro quo for the spy's release. Secretary of State Rusk sent Lee an apology, and Lee let the agent go without fanfare.

Impudence & Impertinence. Lee was also still angry about a 1962 trip to the U.N. Lee's plane was held up in Hawaii, and he began casting about for a means to advise his waiting colleagues in New York of the delay. A U.S. official in the VIP lounge, according to Lee, said: "No, no, no, don't worry. We will look after it. We have a special network." "Special network," snorted Lee last week. "When we arrived, there was not a soul, not a soul."

Then, said Lee, there was the recent matter of the U.S. doctor. "Somebody very dear to me was ailing," Lee said, and a British doctor in Singapore recommended an American specialist in New York as the best man to perform surgery. He asked the U.S. Ambassador to see whether the specialist could fly out to Singapore, was told that the doctor was going to Geneva for a convention and would be glad to treat Lee's patient there. This enraged Lee, and last week he was still ranting about "the impudence and impertinence of it." Lee failed to add that the State Department eventually persuaded the doctor, a gynecologist, to fly to Singapore. By that time Lee was so indignant that he turned that offer down also.

The time: last month. The patient: Lee's wife, Geok Choo, 38, a practicing lawyer. Her serious illness, added to Lee's other strains since the breakaway from Malaysia last month, undoubtedly sharpened Lee's savage attack on the U.S.

"Fools, Fools." The U.S. response to Lee's main charge of espionage was prompt, predictable--and unfortunate. A U.S. official intoned that there was "absolutely no truth" in Lee's whole tale of intrigue gone awry. Next day an angry Lee, muttering "fools, the fools," under his breath, herded surprised newsmen into his office and pulled out a copy of Rusk's letter of apology in April 1961. "The Americans stupidly deny the undeniable," he stormed. With that, Washington took a deep breath and about-faced, issuing a minimal statement admitting that "this incident" had indeed taken place.

Lee's blast at the U.S. neatly served a variety of pressing purposes. In his new independence, Lee is far more concerned with his image in the Afro-Asian world than with U.S. regard. The Afro-Asians have been, to Lee's mind, disturbingly slow to recognize his new nation. The millstone around his neck in achieving neutralist status is the presence of those 50,000 British troops based in Singapore.

But the British are a neocolonialist target Lee cannot yet afford to shoot at. He needs the tommies for protection against Sukarno, and he needs the money they pump into Singapore's Lilliputian economy--roughly a third of the tiny nation's G.N.P. Forced out of Malaysia and still dependent on the British, he is a neutralist in search of a role to prove his nonaligned credentials. The U.S. is a time-honored target for just that. It also satisfies domestic opposition, largely overseas Chinese anxious to trade with Indonesia, Red China and Russia. Moreover, Lee no doubt is also shrewd enough to suspect that however much he tweaks Uncle Sam's nose today, Washington will probably let bygones be bygones when he comes running for help tomorrow.

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