50 years of 1971 war | 1971 India-Pak war: role of US, China and USSR

The year is 1971. The world is divided, like always. In the larger ambit of Cold War, the bipolar world has been witnessing a revolution to overthrow an oppressive regime in East Pakistan. The perpetrators were their religious compatriots in West Pakistan.

The nation carved out of a communal division of the Indian subcontinent, a nation aptly described by Salman Rushdie as a bird with two wings and no body.

The world at large was waking up to West Pakistani atrocities but the Richard Nixon administration in US decided to look the other way as it considered Pakistan a close Cold War ally. US was also using Pakistan as a channel to begin a conversation with China.

It planned to use the ties of convenience between Pakistan and China post the 1962 Sino-India war to its advantage.

US, a South Vietnam ally, needed China, a North Vietnam ally, to end the Vietnam War without having to admit defeat. Nixon was up for re-elections next year.

What made it more imperative for Nixon to seal ties with China is India deviating from its non-alignment policy in the Cold War and signing a friendship treaty in August 1971 with the Soviet Union – US’ rival.

In a bid to boost Pakistan’s morale and to get China to make a move against India, US despatched a 10-ship naval fleet to the Bay of Bengal. But India had the Soviets send a message to Nixon warning against interference.

Richard Nixon and his adviser Henry Kissinger were hoping for China’s intervention but Mao Zedong was wary after the dramatic military escalation by the Soviets during 1969 border crisis and knew that even limited coercive actions against India would invite immediate reprisals from Moscow.

Meanwhile, the US consul general in East Pakistan, Archer Kent Blood, regularly reported events to the White House but he received no reply.

Although his initial cables, popularly called ‘Blood Telegram’, failed to elicit a response from his government, they caused a stir within the American public when they were leaked, prompting Pakistan's foreign ministry to complain to the US government. Nixon then recalled Blood from Dhaka.