US thought India will capture PoK after 1971 war: CIA files

The United States government had thought that the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi might order an attack on West Pakistan to capture Pakistan-occupied Kashmir after India’s operation to create Bangladesh got over, recently declassified Central Intelligence Agency documents say.

As per CIA reports and minutes of high-level meetings in Washington on Indo-Pak tensions, it was clear that the US government was readying a strategy should India smash military power of West Pakistan.

US President Richard Nixon’s National Security Adviser Henry A Kissinger discussed various possibilities due to deteriorating Indo-Pak ties in the wake of India’s military offensive in East Pakistan.

However, some top security officials in Washington felt the possibility of India launching a strike on West Pakistan was remote.

At one of the meetings of Washington’s Special Action Group, the then CIA director Richard Holmes said, ‘It is reported that prior to terminating the present hostilities, Mrs Gandhi intends to attempt to eliminate Pakistan’s armour and air force capabilities,’ as per papers which are part of nearly 12 million documents CIA declassified last week.

According to the documents, though Nixon had ‘warned India’ to cut off economic aid in case of war in East Pakistan, the US administration was clueless on how to implement it.

‘Both the President and the Secretary of State have warned the Indians that we will ‘cut off’ economic aid in case of war. But do we know what that means? No one has looked at the consequences or examined the means of implementing a cut off,’ Kissinger had told a meeting of top defence and CIA officials on August 17, 1971.

The then National Security Adviser Kissinger was also unhappy over the CIA not having enough intelligence inputs on what the Chinese, Indians and the Pakistanis were up to.

As per minutes of the meeting, the Kissinger was willing to take help of China and the Soviets to ease tension in the region.

IMAGE: Indian soldiers fire on Pakistani positions during the 1971 War. Photograph: Getty Images