After Dhaka changed into liberated, Kissinger advised Nixon he had saved 'West Pakistan'

A day after Dhaka was liberated on December sixteen, 1971, the then President of the U.S., Richard Nixon turned into advised via his strategic guide Henry Kissinger that he had "saved West Pakistan," in line with private papers on account that declassified via the USA branch of state.

The journey to this ironic praise in the course of a defeat for US diplomacy came eight and half months after leaders of the area's most powerful nation pointed out in a secret meeting that they believed their protege popular Yahya Khan could be in a position to subdue the rebel in East Pakistan with naked defense force could.

"Congratulations Mr President. You saved West Pakistan," pointed out Kissinger over the cell to his boss Nixon, about sixteen hours after Gen AAK Niazi signed the quit of East Pakistan and about the time Indian prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared the unilateral ceasefire on the Western front on December 17 Indian normal Time.

Explaining the extraordinary conversation, Ambassador Pinak R Chakravarty, former high Commissioner to Bangladesh, who's at present writing a book on the 1971 liberation of Bangladesh, mentioned Kissinger was enjoying a "dubious position".

"Their (US administration's) main aim become to befriend China the usage of the Pakistanis as middlemen during the conflict months. His comments should be study as each an try to take credit score with the Pakistanis within the face of a hopeless situation and a bid to thrill a difficult boss," Chakravarty told PTI on Thursday.

despite the fact, the truth remains that this became one warfare of liberation which the americans doubtless misread from the very beginning.

About eight-and-a-half months before, on March 29, 1971, Kissinger was telling Nixon in an identical phone conversation that Pakistan would be able to include the insurrection in its japanese wing and his President cited the illustration of British invasion of India to justify that belief.

the us countrywide safety advisor informed Nixon in a mobilephone name quickly after the Pakistan armed forces regime cracked down in East Pakistan on March 26, 1971: "apparently Yahya has obtained control of East Pakistan... all of the experts were announcing that 30,000 individuals (Pakistan military at the moment within the East) can't get manage of seventy five million (Bangladesh's population)... as of this moment it looks to be quiet."

President Nixon responded that this capability of a small force to handle big populations became ordinary and cited: "look what the Spanish did once they got here in and took the Incas. look what the British did once they took India."

"The americans misread the condition absolutely. They didn't have in mind people's are looking to be free and the speedy tempo with which the direction of heritage changed," stated Ambassador Tariq Karim, former high Commissioner of Bangladesh to New Delhi and one of the most first East Pakistani diplomats to declare loyalty to the Bangladesh govt in exile.

On December eight, as Pakistani defences in East Pakistan have been falling before the onslaught of the joint command of the Indian army and Bangladeshi Mukti Bahini (liberation warriors), Nixon and Kissinger were busy plotting the way to change the experience of the conflict or to arrest it.

Kissinger in a gathering with Nixon and lawyer general Newton Mitchell, now declassified, stated he had "received a message to you from the Shah (of Iran), during which he says he can ship ammunition (to a beleaguered Pakistan) - he's doing it now."

The spectacular diplomat additionally revealed that Iran will ship fighter planes to protect Jordan from Israel, while Jordan will send jets to Pakistan for the battle effort towards India.

the united states NSA also expressed fear that India would attack West Pakistan in a big approach after winning the battle within the east. "The Indian plan is now clear. they're going to stream their forces from East Pakistan to the west. they will then smash the Pakistan land forces and air forces, annex the part of Kashmir it truly is in Pakistan and then call it off," warned Kissinger.

"When this has came about, the centrifugal forces in West Pakistan could be liberated. Baluchistan and the Northwest Frontier will celebrate. West Pakistan would become a sort of tricky Afghanistan," Henry Kissinger mused.

The dire warnings appeared to work and President Nixon within the same conversation goes on to decide to circulation the American Seventh Fleet into the Bay of Bengal from waters off Vietnam, on the pretext of evacuating US citizens from the warfare zone.

Nixon spoke back by way of declaring "Would you movement the aircraft service? i might do it instantly. i wouldn't wait 24 hours."

The Seventh Fleet, led by way of the seventy five,000-ton nuclear powered aircraft service u.s.a.business, was considered essentially the most bold naval drive of the time. The handiest plane carrier India had was the growing old Vikrant which become readied to take on the large drive in case catastrophe did strike.

mentioned Col Quazi Sajjad Ali Zahir (Retd.), a Bangladesh freedom fighter who become honoured past this 12 months with the Padma Shri via India, observed, "main Democrats, like Ted Kennedy, brother of slain US President Robert Kennedy, were with us. however the Republicans were blind-sided. The ordering of the united states seventh fleet into the Bay of Bengal did not in reality influence the warfare because the Russians right away sent their personal fleet to counteract this chess circulate by means of the west."

In a later conversation in 1972, Kissinger informed the U.S. President: "now not one has yet understood what we did in India-Pakistan and how we saved the China option which we need for the bloody Russians. Why should we give a damn about Bangladesh?"