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Report Sheds Light on U.S. Policy During 1971 South Asia Crisis

01 July 2005

Conference reviews U.S.-South Asia relations leading up to 1971 war

By Mercedes L. Suarez
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Important foreign policy discussions held between former President Richard Nixon and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger regarding the 1971 war between India and Pakistan have been made public for the first time.

The transcripts of these meetings have been published in the 11th volume of Foreign Relations of the United States, and were discussed at a conference, “South Asia in Crisis: U.S. Policy 1961-1972” at the State Department on June 28 and 29. The conference took place under the auspices of the department’s Office of the Historian.

“You can really hear the personalities come through,” said Nicholas Cullather of the University of Indiana.

In 1971, India and Pakistan went to war in a conflict that would lead to the birth of Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan.  India and Pakistan have had difficult relations since the partition of the subcontinent in 1947.  The 1971 war stemmed from tensions between the two parts of Pakistan, which were separated by India.  The conflict was prompting an exodus of refugees from East Pakistan into India.

The scholarly papers presented at the conference examined the wider impact of the events in South Asia, particularly in the context of the Cold War. At the beginning of Nixon’s term in office, Kissinger explained, “our policy objective on the subcontinent was, quite simply, to avoid adding another complication to our agenda.” However, that became increasingly difficult as events in the region escalated.

Nixon and Kissinger’s concerns about tensions between Pakistan and India revolved around the potential involvement of the Soviet Union or China, the transcripts show. At that time, India had close ties to the Soviet Union, while the United States was using Pakistan as a communication point with China, which was seen as a counterbalance to the Soviet Union during the Cold War. U.S. communications with China through Pakistan were so secret that even the U.S. embassy in Pakistan had no knowledge of them. Now, those communications can be read for the first time.

The transcripts show that Kissinger was certain India was determined to go to war, no matter what outside actions were taken, and that, when the 1971 South Asian crisis ended, Nixon and Kissinger felt the United States had come through “amazingly well.”  The transcripts indicate that the reasons for their satisfaction were that West Pakistan emerged intact and that the Soviet Union and China had not joined the conflict. Even though India emerged the dominant power in the subcontinent, Nixon and Kissinger felt that the United States had succeeded in fending off Soviet involvement, according to the transcripts.

Panelists at the conference said the newly released documents shed new light on U.S. involvement in South Asia. Moderator Robert Hathaway of the Woodrow Wilson Center said the new volume of Foreign Relations of the United States is “an essential collection,” and that along with the papers presented at the conference, it would be an important resource for scholars.

The full text of Volume XI, Foreign Relations, 1969-1976, South Asia Crisis, 1971, is available on the State Department’s Web site.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)