A day after the war broke out between India and Pakistan in December 1971, U.S. President Richard Nixon and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger broke American arms ban on Pakistan and ensured Islamabad received air support from third countries like Jordan. The information was part of a bunch of documents that were declassified earlier but were circulated by the National Security Archive of the U.S.A. on Thursday to mark Prof. Kissinger’s demise at the age of 100. The documents have shed renewed light on the crucial 13 days in the first fortnight of December 1971 and has revealed that Nixon-Kissinger duo was worried about India launching an all-out war against Pakistan and wanted to prevent “crumbling” of the Pakistani state.
A cable of December 4, a day after the war started, shows that the U.S. administration had come to believe that the war was started with India attacking Pakistan and that President Yahya Khan had sent an urgent appeal for military help from Washington DC. In course of the conversation, Kissinger is quoted as saying: “We have had an urgent appeal from Yahya. Says his military supplies have been cut off — in very bad shape.” Kissinger then asked President Nixon: “Would we help through Iran?” Iran was at that time ruled by the Shah and was favourably disposed towards the U.S. But so were a few other countries like Jordan that had strong military ties with Pakistan at that time. In response to Kissinger’s proposal, President Nixon said, “I like the idea. The main thing is to keep India from crumbling them up.”
