by Gary J. Bass
11. The Indians had requested 110 T-55 battle tanks. The Soviets put up fifty-five, half of them coming only by the end of the year. (NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 276, Dhar-Sidorovich meeting, 22 March 1971. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 276, Dhar to Kaul, 25 March 1971.) The Soviet Union had already pledged fifty armored personnel carriers to be delivered to India by mid-September, as well as forty thousand artillery rounds; Dhar requested thirty-five more armored personnel carriers and fifty thousand more artillery rounds. (NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 229, Dhar-Grechko discussions, 5 June 1971. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 89, Kaul memorandum, 15 June 1971.) NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 227, Dhar to Haksar, 29 April 1971. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 165, Gandhi to Kosygin, 27 April 1971. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 165, Haksar to Gandhi, 27 April 1971. The Soviet Union, while pledging to sell India much of the requested weaponry, was still holding back on bombers, maritime reconnaissance aircraft, and aircraft that could do vertical takeoff and landing from INS Vikrant, India’s sole aircraft carrier—although the Soviet brass was not sure these marquee jets were of any particular military value. See NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 165, Haksar to Dhar, 28 April 1971; NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 227, Dhar to Kaul, 30 April 1971; Yefim Gordon, Yakoklev Yak-36, Yak-38 & Yak-41 (Hinckley, U.K.: Midland Publishing, 2008). NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 227, Dhar to Kaul, 29 April 1971. See NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 235, Manekshaw-Kulikov talks, 24–25 February 1972. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 229, Dhar to Haksar, 30 May 1971. Haksar showed this letter to Gandhi on June 1. See NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 227, Dhar to Kaul, 29 April 1971. On India’s ability to build a nuclear weapon, see NSC Files, Box 572, Indo-Pak War, Saunders to Kissinger, 9 December 1971. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 227, Dhar to Kaul, 29 April 1971. See NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 227, Dhar to Kaul, 28 April 1971. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 166, Haksar to Khadilkar, 17 May 1971. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 203, Kosygin-Singh conversation, 8 June 1971. See NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 166, Stoph to Gandhi, 21 May 1971; MEA, HI/1012/57/71, Dhar to Kaul, 15 June 1971.
12. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 165, Haksar to Kaul, 5 April 1971. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 165, Dhar to Kaul, 4 April 1971.
13. POL 23-9 PAK, Box 2530, Bush to Rogers, 9 April 1971, USUN 902. POL 23-9 PAK, Box 2530, Bush to Rogers, 1 April 1971, USUN 835. POL 23-9 PAK, Box 2531, Bush to Rogers, 20 April 1971, USUN 984. POL 23-9 PAK, Box 2531, Davies to Farland, 20 April 1971, State 67455. POL 23-9 PAK, Van Hollen to Farland, 24 April 1971, State 70700. POL 23-9 PAK, Box 2531, Farland to Rogers, 16 April 1971, Islamabad 3509. POL 23-9 PAK, Box 2530, Farland to Rogers, 3 April 1971, Islamabad 3112. POL 23-9 PAK, Box 2531, Bush to Rogers, 16 April 1971, USUN 970. NSC Files, Box H-058, SRG Meetings, Eliot to Kissinger, “Humanitarian Relief Measures in East Pakistan,” 5 August 1971. NSC Files, Box 627, Country Files—Middle East, Pakistan, vol. VIII, Nixon-Sadruddin memcon, 16 November 1971. POL 23-9 PAK, Box 2531, Davies to Farland, 20 April 1971, State 67455. POL 23-9 PAK, Box 2530, Bush to Rogers, 1 April 1971, USUN 837. Bush indelicately blamed this in part on Sadruddin being “associated with Ismaili sect” (POL 23-9 PAK, Box 2530, Bush to Rogers, 5 April 1971, USUN 864).
14. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 166, Haksar to Gandhi, 12 May 1971. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 166, Gandhi to world leaders, 14 May 1971. POL INDIA-US, Box 2369, Gandhi to Nixon, 13 May 1971.
15. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 166, Haksar to Prasad et al., 14 May 1971; NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 169, list of heads of state, 4 June 1971. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 166, Haksar to Jha, 15 May 1971. POL INDIA-US, Box 2369, Gandhi to Nixon, 13 May 1971. White House tapes, Oval Office 475-21, 8 April 1971, 1:12–2 p.m. POL INDIA-US, Box 2369, Gandhi to Nixon, 13 May 1971.
16. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 166, Haksar to Gandhi, briefing for opposition leaders, before 7 May 1971.
17. Indian envoys were sent to Bucharest, Warsaw, Cyprus, Oslo, The Hague, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Canberra, Manila, Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad, Kabul, Tehran, Helsinki, and Luxembourg. (NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 169, Gandhi to Maurer, 3 July 1971; Gandhi to Jaroszewiez, 3 July 1971; Gandhi to Gokhale, July 1971; Gandhi to Borten, 15 July 1971; NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 168, Gandhi to de Jong, 3 June 1971; Gandhi to Sato, 4 June 1971; Gandhi to McMahon, 4 June 1971; Gandhi to Marcos, 4 June 1971; Gandhi to Sadat, draft, n.d. June 1971; Gandhi to Assad, draft, n.d. June 1971; Gandhi to Bakr, draft, n.d. June 1971; Gandhi to Zahir, draft, 24 June 1971; Gandhi to Pahlavi, draft, 24 June 1971; NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 169, Gandhi draft, 15 July 1971.) By the eve of the war, India had sent missions to the United States, the Soviet Union, West Germany, Britain, France, Canada, Indonesia, Nepal, Ceylon, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, East Germany, Japan, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sweden, Hungary, Austria, Italy, Afghanistan, Iran, Poland, Romania, Sudan, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Switzerland, Denmark, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, both Yemens, Jordan, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Burundi, Somalia, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Congo, Senegal, Guinea, Nigeria, Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Mexico, Cuba, Guyana, Trinidad, Jamaica, and Panama. (MEA, HI/121/13/71, vol. I, Dixit to heads of mission, 29 October 1971.) See NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 166, Gandhi to Kreisky (draft), May 1971. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 168, Haksar to Singh, 29 June 1971. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 168, Haksar to Singh, 3 June 1971. See NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 168, Haksar to Singh, 3 June 1971; NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 168, Haksar to Mani, 1 June 1971; NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 168, Haksar to Singh, 29 June 1971; NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 168, Haksar to Mani, 1 June 1971.
18. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 227, Dhar to Haksar, 4 April 1971. MEA, HI/121/13/71, vol. I, Singh to heads of mission, 15 May 1971. NMML, Kaul Papers, Subject File 19, part II, Singh briefing in London, n.d. June 1971. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 229, Choudhury to Syed Nazrul Islam, July 1971. For more Indian publicity, see MEA, HI/121/13/71, vol. I, Ranganathan to heads of mission, 17 June 1971. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 169, “Report on the visit of Border Areas of Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura,” 7 July 1971. See NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 168, Action Committee for the People’s Republic of Bangla Desh appeal, 24 June 1971.
19. NMML, Kaul Papers, Subject File 19, part II, Singh briefing in London, n.d. June 1971.
20. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 203, Singh-Gromyko conversation, 7 June 1971. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 203, Gromyko-Singh conversation, 8 June 1971. See NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 229, Dhar-Grechko discussions, 5 June 1971; NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 89, Kaul memorandum, 15 June 1971. NMML, Kaul Papers, Subject File 19, part II, Singh briefing in London, n.d. June 1971. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 203, Kosygin-Singh conversation, 8 June 1971. See NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 89, Kaul memorandum, 15 June 1971. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 203, Dhar to Kaul, 8 June 1971. See MEA, HI/1012/57/71, Purushottam to Kaul, 9 July 1971. India had been worried that the Soviet Union was warming up to Pakistan (Richard Sisson and Leo E. Rose, War and Secession: Pakistan, India, and the Creation of Bangladesh [Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990], pp. 196–98), but this was now overtaken by events.
21. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 168, Haksar to Ministry of External Affairs, 25 June 1971. The education minister, Siddhartha Shankar Ray, became chief minister of West Bengal and later wound up as India’s ambassador in Washington. (“Ray, Bengal’s Last Aristocrat Politician, Departs,” Times of India, 7 November 2010.)
22. MEA, HI/121/13/71, vol. I, Dixit to heads of mission, 26 October 1971. Pant’s tour took him to Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Panama, Nicaragua, Cuba, and Mexico, from September 6 to 21.
23. NMML, Kaul Papers, Subject File 19, part II, Singh briefing in London, n.d. June 1971. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 168, Heath to Gandhi, 27 May 1971. NMML, Haksar Papers,
Subject File 171, Chatterjee to Narendra Singh, 6 July 1971.
24. MEA, HI/1012/30/71, Chib to Kaul, 10 November 1971. See MEA, HI/121/13/71, vol. I, Gandhi press conference, 19 October 1971; NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 172, Gandhi to Tito, Haksar draft, 4 September 1971. Despite this, Tito was clearly worried by India’s turn to the Soviet Union (White House tapes, Oval Office 605-9, 28 October 1971, 11:23 a.m.– 12:45 p.m.). P. N. Haksar, Premonitions (Bombay: Interpress, 1979), pp. 95–113. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 89, Dhar letter, 18 April 1971. MEA, HI/1012/30/71, Chib to Kaul, 9 July 1971. Sen notes, 27 October 1971, Jayaprakash Narayan, Selected Works, ed. Bimal Prasad (New Delhi: Manohar, 2008), vol. 9, pp. 862–69. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 164, Haksar to Gandhi, 31 March 1971.
25. POL 23-9 PAK, Box 2531, Thacher to Rogers, 27 April 1971, Jidda 1343. The U.S. ambassador was baffled, noting that the U.S. government “has in fact done nothing which could possibly be interpreted as interfering in Pak affairs, and in fact has resisted strongly pressures for public statements critical of Pak actions in East Bengal.” NMML, Kaul Papers, Subject File 19, part II, Singh briefing in London, n.d. June 1971.
26. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 220, Bahadur Singh to Arora, 19 January 1972. The Egyptian press ran some foreign news agencies’ accounts of the early days of the crackdown (MEA, HI/1012/5/71, Bahadur Singh to Kaul, 4 April 1971), but by April it was downplaying the atrocities (MEA, HI/1012/5/71, Bahadur Singh to Kaul, 6 May 1971; MEA, HI/1012/5/71, Bahadur Singh to Kaul, 14 June 1971; MEA, HI/1012/5/71, Bahadur Singh to Kaul, 12 July 1971; Narayan note, 29 June 1971, Narayan, Selected Works, p. 625). See NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 89, Dhar letter, 18 April 1971; MEA, HI/1012/5/71, Shunker to Siddharthacharry, 6 August 1971. MEA, HI/121/13/71, vol. II, Dixit to heads of mission, 3 December 1971. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 220, Bahadur Singh to Arora, 19 January 1972.
27. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 220, Bahadur Singh to Arora, 19 January 1972. One Indian diplomat argued, with casual antisemitism, that “[t]he state of Israel is small (though energetic) but the Israeli ‘nation’ spreads all over the world and is powerful out of all proportion to its numbers,” and would be invaluable for “propaganda” and “finance” (NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 171, Chatterjee to Singh, 6 July 1971). Ora Cohen, “Soltam Heirs Near End of Feud over Father’s $200–300m Fortune,” Ha’aretz, 10 December 2004. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 220, Prakash Kaul to Haksar, 3 August 1971; NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 220, Meir to Zabludowicz, 23 August 1971. The arms maker was Shlomo Zabludowicz. Israel also reportedly funneled aid to the Mukti Bahini through an Israeli government official in Bombay (Sen notes, 27 October 1971, Narayan, Selected Works, pp. 862–69).
28. MEA, HI/1012/14/71, Mishra to Kaul, 17 December 1971. MEA, HI/1012/14/71, Mishra to Kaul, 7 January 1972. MEA, HI/1012/14/71, Mishra to Kaul, 4 June 1971. MEA, HI/1012/14/71, Mishra to Kaul, 9 July 1971. MEA, HI/1012/14/71, Mishra to Kaul, 3 September 1971. MEA, HI/1012/14/71, Mishra to Kaul, 8 October 1971.
29. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 169, Haksar to Gandhi, 16 July 1971. See NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 227, Dhar to Haksar, 4 April 1971. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 169, Gandhi to Zhou, Haksar draft, 16 July 1971. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 170, Haksar to Gandhi, 8 August 1971.
30. See NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 169, Haksar to Kaul, 9 July 1971. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 171, “Political Prospective” and “A Note on How the [sic] Help the Mukti Fouj Win the Bangla Desh Liberation War?” 18 August 1971. Haksar evidently saw the report on August 18, but it was written earlier. There were hints of a possible arms supply from Yugoslavia (where the Non-Aligned Movement had been founded) and South Yemen. The shah of Iran secretly suggested a face-to-face meeting between Yahya and Gandhi, which Gandhi rejected as “quite an extraordinary suggestion divorced from any sense of reality” (NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 168, Haksar to Kaul, 25 June 1971). See NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 220, Sultan Khan to Dehlavi, 2 October 1971; POL INDIA-US, Box 2369, Sultan-Kissinger memcon, 8 July 1971. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 170, Haksar to Gandhi, 8 August 1971.
31. NMML, Kaul Papers, Subject File 19, part II, Singh briefing in London, n.d. June 1971. See Sham Lal, “The Realpolitik of Charity,” Times of India, 11 June 1971.
32. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 170, Haksar to Gandhi, 8 August 1971. See NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 89, Dhar to Haksar, n.d. 1971. MEA, WII/121/54/71, vol. II, refugee statistics, 3 July 1971. The White House estimated that India would need more than $400 million for a whole year (NSC Files, Box 596, Country Files—Middle East, India, vol. III, Saunders and Hoskinson to Kissinger, 14 June 1971). NSC Files, Box 596, Country Files—Middle East, India, vol. III, Saunders and Hoskinson to Kissinger, 14 June 1971. A few weeks later, India said it had gotten promises of help that totaled $149 million, including $93 million from the United States, $10 million from the Soviet Union, and over $4 million from United Nations agencies (MEA, WII/121/54/71, vol. II, refugee statistics, 3 July 1971). White House tapes, Oval Office 605-9, 28 October 1971, 11:23 a.m.–12:45 p.m. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 168, McMahon to Gandhi, 3 June 1971.
33. FRUS, Nixon-Haig telcon, 29 April 1971, p. 99.
34. NSC Files, Box 625, Country Files—Middle East, Pakistan, vol. IV, Kissinger to Nixon, n.d. April 1971. NSC Files, Box 625, Country Files—Middle East, Pakistan, vol. IV, Haig to Nixon, 29 April 1971. FRUS, WSAG meeting, 26 May 1971, 4:35–5 p.m., pp. 149–56. NSC Files, Box 625, Country Files—Middle East, Pakistan, vol. V, Van Hollen to Farland, 17 May 1971. NSC Files, Box 625, Country Files—Middle East, Pakistan, vol. V, Farland to Rogers, 22 May 1971, Karachi 1186.
35. NSC Files, Box 625, Country Files—Middle East, Pakistan, vol. V, Hoskinson to Kissinger, 22 May 1971. FRUS, Nixon-Kissinger telcon, 23 May 1971, 2:30 p.m., p. 140. POL 23-9 PAK, Box 2531, Sisco to Rogers, 18 May 1971 (forwarded in POL 23-9 PAK, Box 2531, Eliot to Kissinger, 20 May 1971). NSC Files, Box 625, Country Files—Middle East, Pakistan, vol. V, Van Hollen to Farland, 17 May 1971. NSC Files, Box 596, Country Files—Middle East, India, vol. III, Saunders and Hoskinson to Kissinger, 14 June 1971.
36. NSC Files, Box H-082, WSAG Meetings, Hoskinson and Kennedy to Kissinger, 25 May 1971. Spelling not corrected. NSC Files, Box 625, Country Files—Middle East, Pakistan, vol. V, Hoskinson to Kissinger, 22 May 1971. See Government of Pakistan, The Report of the Hamoodur Rehman Commission of Inquiry into the 1971 War (Lahore: Vanguard, 2001), pp. 135–36, 194–95. FRUS, WSAG meeting, 26 May 1971, 4:35–5 p.m., pp. 149–56.
37. NSC Files, Box 596, Country Files—Middle East, India, vol. III, Kissinger-Jha memcon, 21 May 1971. FRUS, Nixon-Kissinger telcon, 23 May 1971, 2:30 p.m., p. 140. Nixon, preparing wartime spin, would later say, “We are anti-aggression, as a means of solving an internal, a very difficult internal problem.” (FRUS, vol. E-7, White House tapes, Oval Office 631-4, 7 December 1971, 3:55–4:29 p.m.)
38. NSC Files, Box 596, Country Files—Middle East, India, vol. III, Saunders and Hoskinson to Kissinger, 14 June 1971.
39. NSC Files, Box 625, Country Files—Middle East, Pakistan, vol. V, Hoskinson to Kissinger, 20 May 1971. NSC Files, Box 625, Country Files—Middle East, Pakistan, vol. V, Hoskinson to Kissinger, 20 May 1971. FRUS, WSAG meeting, 26 May 1971, 4:35–5 p.m., pp. 149–56; FRUS, Kissinger to Nixon, 7 June 1971, pp. 170–72. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 168, Nixon to Gandhi, 28 May 1971; NSC Files, Box 755, Presidential Correspondence File, Nixon to Gandhi, 28 May 1971; POL INDIA-US, Box 2369, Nixon to Gandhi, 28 May 1971. NSC Files, Box H-058, SRG Meetings, Eliot to Kissinger, 21 July 1971. Sydney H. Schanberg, “Pakistani Airlift Plan Causing Concern,” New York Times, 12 June 1971. FRUS, pp. 116–17.
40. NSC Files, Box 596, Country Files—Middle East, India, vol. III, Saunders and Hoskinson to Kissinger, 14 June 1971. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 168, Nixon to Gandhi, 28 May 1971; NSC Files, Box 755, Presidential Correspondence File, Nixon to Gandhi, 28 May 1971; POL INDIA-US, Box 23
69, Nixon to Gandhi, 28 May 1971. NSC Files, Box 596, Country Files—Middle East, India, vol. III, Saunders and Hoskinson to Kissinger, 14 June 1971. The Soviet Union gave $12 million. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 168, Haksar to Gandhi, 1 June 1971. He noted that Nixon’s phrasing sounded suspiciously like Heath’s.
41. FRUS, vol. E-7, White House tapes, Oval Office 505-4, 26 May 1971, 10:38 a.m. India, because of its democratic governance and free press, had not had any mass famines since independence (Jean Drèze and Amartya Sen, Hunger and Public Action [Oxford: Clarendon, 1989], pp. 122, 126, 211–15, 221–25).
CHAPTER 10: THE CHINA CHANNEL
1. White House tapes, Oval Office 478-2, 13 April 1971, 9:30–11:13 a.m.
2. See Kissinger, White House Years, p. 849; NSC Files, Box 138, Kissinger Office Files, Country Files—Middle East, Kissinger to Yahya, 29 October 1971. See also Rick Perlstein, Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America (New York: Scribner, 2008), p. 570.
3. Kenneth N. Waltz, Theory of International Politics (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1979), pp. 116–28, 166. Hans J. Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace, 3d ed. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1964), p. 184. Kissinger, On China (New York: Penguin, 2011), p. 215. See Henry A. Kissinger, Diplomacy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994), p. 729.
4. NSC Files, Box H-058, SRG Meetings, Saunders to Kissinger, “Analytical Summary,” 10 August 1971.
5. NSC Files, Box 759, Presidential Correspondence File, Haig to Nixon, 7 May 1971. NSC Files, Box 759, Presidential Correspondence File, Nixon to Yahya, 7 May 1971.