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Following the debacle of the Sino-Indian War of 1962, Nehru turned for help to America, which responded swiftly. A number of joint operations was initiated, some involving Tibetan refugees. The Indians were apprised of the Mustang guerrilla force, which, until then, was being run secretly out of the Darjeeling office. It was now brought under the control of a Combined Operations Centre in New Delhi, and run jointly by an American, Indian and Tibetan representative. The CIA continued to finance the guerrillas and provide them with arms and equipment and training at Camp Hale (they no longer had to take the circuitous route via East Pakistan; US transport planes flew them directly out of an Air Force base in north India), but the Indians now had a strong say in the nature and direction of operations.

The CIA made its final arms drop in May 1965, but by now the guerrillas were being instructed to cease making armed incursions inside Tibet and to limit their operations to intelligence gathering. The guerrillas ignored their orders and continued making raids until the late sixties. By then, however, there was internal trouble brewing within the organization itself. For a number of years there had been some discontent, particularly among the Camp Hale trainees who held key positions in the force, about Yeshe's style of leadership, which was more in the traditional mould of a tribal chieftain than a modern-day guerrilla commander. In 1968, misgivings about the way Yeshe was handling the finances led to a tense confrontation between him and his deputies. The CIA had never been happy about the selection of Yeshe as commander of the Mustang force but, as Gompo Tashi's nominee, they had little choice. Now, with Gompo Tashi dead - he had passed away in 1964 - it applied renewed pressure to get rid of Yeshe. He was finally replaced by Gyato Wangdu, the same man who had been trained on Saipan and parachuted into eastern Tibet in 1957.

In late 1968, Gyalo Thondup was unexpectedly informed by the CIA that it was pulling out of its Tibetan operations. The agency would provide funding for another three years, which would give the Mustang organization time to retrench and resettle the guerrillas. No explanations were given but it was becoming obvious in Washington that the Tibetans had long outlived their usefulness. Besides, secret rapprochement talks were already underway between America and China and the last thing the Americans needed was an aging guerrilla army under their patronage in the Himalayas. Gyalo Thondup saw the pullout as a complete betrayal. "The Americans had given me verbal assurances," he says, "stating that if the Dalai Lama came to India, they would support Tibet's struggle for independence until Tibet regained independence." Lhamo Tsering and Wangdu were in Mustang when the news was delivered to them. They were devastated, coming as it did, at the height of the crisis over Bapa Yeshe. Fearing that the news would demoralize the men they decided to keep it a secret.

Under Wangdu’s leadership, the Mustang force continued for a few more years, supported to a much lesser extent by India, although most guerrilla activities were now suspended and plans were put into motion to rehabilitate the force. Then, in the summer of 1974, the Nepalese government – acting under pressure from China, which, by now, had become a close ally – decided to crack down on the organization. It sent in its troops and demanded the surrender of the guerrillas. Lhamo Tsering, who was in Pokhara at the time, was arrested and used as a bargaining chip but the guerrillas were in no mood to comply. They decided to hold out against the Nepalese and prepared for battle. The stage was set for a major confrontation but before matters escalated further, an emissary of the Dalai Lama arrived, carrying a tape recorded message. The message was played at each of the guerrilla camps. The men couldn’t believe their ears. The voice of their sacred leader floated down from the makeshift loudspeakers appealing to them to lay down their weapons and prevent unnecessary bloodshed. Ugyen Tashi, one of the foot soldiers at Mustang, remembers that moment, "The tape contained the Dalai Lama’s real voice. So when we heard his message, I swear, some of the men even cried. Everyone heard the message with their own ears so we had no choice but to give up. Then we turned in our weapons…all day and all night." One of their leaders, Pachen, cut his own throat rather than face the humiliation of surrender. A number of men threw themselves into a river and were drowned.