Nixon plotted war against India in 1971

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Nixon plotted war against India in 1971

 

Press Trust of India

Posted online: Saturday, May 07, 2005 at 1653 hours IST

Updated: Saturday, May 07, 2005 at 1715 hours IST

 

Washington, May 7: Fearing that Soviets might get involved in the

1971 Indo-Pak war, then US President Richard Nixon had wanted China

to make coordinated military moves in support of Pakistan, according

to documents released by the State Department.

 

The Nixon administration was not prepared to involve itself in a war

on the Indian sub-continent. Nor did it pay much attention to Indian

concerns about "the carnage in East Pakistan" and the problems of

refugees in West Bengal, said a State Department press release giving

the gist of the papers on the Bangladesh War of Liberation, released

yesterday.

 

But, the signing of the India-Soviet Union Treaty of Peace,

Friendship and Cooperation in August 1971, while not a mutual

security treaty, was viewed in Washington as a blank check to India

in its confrontation with Pakistan, it said.

 

The US policy included support of Pakistan in UN and pressure on

Soviets to discourage India, with hints that US-Soviet detente would

be in jeopardy if Moscow did not comply.

 

At Nixon's instruction, his assistance for National Security Affairs

Henry Kissinger met China's ambassador to the UN Huang Hua to suggest

that Beijing make coordinated military moves in support of Pakistan.

The implication conveyed by Kissinger was that if the soviets

responded militarily, the US would support China in any confrontation

with Soviet Union.

 

When the Chinese asked to meet Kissinger in New York two days later,

the White House assumed the worst and concluded that China had

already decided to take military action against India, the release

said.

 

There was serious contemplation in the White House that the crisis

might lead to nuclear war, but the general conclusion was that a

regional conventional war in South Asia pitting India and the Soviet

Union against China, the US and Pakistan was more likely.

 

When the meeting took place, the Nixon White House learned that

China's message had nothing to do with military moves in support of

Pakistan. For his part, President Nixon realised that "Russia and

China aren't going to war."

 

In mid-December, Pakistani military forces surrendered in East

Pakistan.

 

With US encouragement, Pakistan accepted an Indian cease-fire offer

that would dramatically alter the Indian subcontinent, the release

noted.

 

Tracing the history of the war, the volume released by the State

Department described political crisis triggered by the electoral

success of Bengali nationalists in East Pakistan, led by Sheik

Mujibur Rahman and his Awami League and the announcement by Pakistan

President Yahya Khan on March 1,

 

1971, that the scheduled meetings of the newly elected National

Assembly would be postponed indefinitely.

 

The announcement was met initially by popular demonstrations by the

Awami League and the dispatch of additional troops to Dhaka by

Pakistan's martial-law government. On March 15, Rahman announced that

he was taking over the administration of East Pakistan and 10 days

later the Army arrested him and moved to suppress what it viewed as

a "secessionist" movement, the release said.

 

The United States was loath to intervene in Pakistan's internal

affairs, especially since Islamabad was Nixon's secret conduit for a

diplomatic opening to China, according to the release.

 

The Pakistani Army's campaign against Bengali dissidents eventually

led the US consulate in Dhaka to send a "dissent channel" message to

Washington, which called for the United States to condemn

the "indiscriminate killings."

 

When Indian officials such as Foreign Minister Swaran Singh and Prime

Minister Indira Gandhi came to Washington, the Nixon administration

counselled non-intervention, but assumed that India planned to go to

war, the release said.

 

President Nixon had also warned Soviet officials not to encourage

India and informed New Delhi that if it started a war with Pakistan,

the United States would cut off aid, it said.

 

On November 22, when the war began, the Nixon administration cut off

economic aid to India, and Nixon himself decided to "tilt" toward

Pakistan.

 

When Nixon learned that Indian war plans were designed to

liberate "Bangladesh" and to destroy Pakistan's military armoured and

air strength, he ordered the US carrier enterprise and its escorts

into the Bay of Bengal, the release said.

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