PAKISTAN AND WEST On 19 May 1954, after some hard negotiations, Pakistan and the United States of America

concluded the Mutual Defence Assistance Agreement and entered upon a period of association euphemistically called a 'special relationship'. For over twelve years, the United States provided Pakistan with considerable economic and military assistance. In 1959, misunderstandings arose in the relations between the two countries and have since grown and multiplied, especially after the Sino-Indian conflict. Relations have followed a chequered course, sometimes bearing on economic matters and sometimes, more profoundly, on political issues. The pendulum has swung from one extreme to the other, from association to estrangement. There was a time when Pakistan was described as the most 'allied ally' of the United States and, to the chagrin of other 'client States' of Asia, it was asserted by President Ayub Khan, in an address to the United States' Congress in 1961, that Pakistan was the only country in the continent where the United States Armed Forces could land at any moment for the defence of the 'free world'. When, during the U-2 episode, in an attempt at refined diplomacy, the United States prevaricated with ambiguous statements, Pakistan, more royalist than the monarch, openly admitted that the aircraft had taken off from Pakistan and that, as a staunch ally of the United States, Pakistan was within its rights to allow it to do so. In less than a quarter of a century, Pakistan's relations with the United States and India have completed a cycle in each case. Vigorous efforts have been made to drag Pakistan away from the posture of confrontation to cooperation with India and, in this very process, relations with the United States have changed dramatically from those of the most 'allied ally' to the point at which it is alleged that there is 'collusion' between Pakistan and the United States' principal antagonistthe People's Republic of China. Plow these twin cycles have been completed offers an exciting study of the interplay of a host of related factors: national ethos, geography, a turbulent past, and hoary traditions. The pride and passions of an ancient people stirred by nascent Asian nationalism are involved. The story ranges over a wide horizon: from religion to economics, from geography to politics, from history to myth, from race to genocide. In this web the United States has been entangled at almost every point. This book attempts to examine one facet of this many-sided situation. Although, in the recent past, relations between Pakistan and the United States have been characterized by a series of vicissitudes, only the United States' decision to terminate military assistance to Pakistana country to which

it is technically still bound by the obligations of a Mutual Defence Treaty and an association in the defence alliances of CENTO and SEATO finally put a stop to the special relationship. On Wednesday 12 April 1967 a State Department spokesman announced in Washington: We have concluded an extensive review of our policy with regard to the provision of military equipment to India and Pakistan and have decided that we will not resume grant of military assistance which has been suspended since September 1965. We are therefore closing the U.S. Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) in Pakistan and the U.S. Military Supply Mission in India (USMSMI). This process is expected to be completed by July 1, 1967, in both cases. We have also decided to remove present U.S. Government restrictions on the kinds of spare parts, which may be sold to India and Pakistan for previously supplied equipment. Henceforth we will be prepared to consider, on a case-bycase basis, all requests for export permits covering the cash purchase of spare parts. The United States will continue to keep its military sales policy under careful review to ensure that it is not contributing to an arms race between India and Pakistan. We strongly hope that both countries will make progress in resolving the problems and differences that divide them and that they accord an increasing priority in the allocation of their resources to

agricultural development

and

industrial

This decision was of far-reaching consequence to the future of the subcontinent and of Asia as a whole, which is now replacing Europe as the principal source of crises affecting the gravest issues of war and peace. For centuries Europe was the centre from which conflicts radiated. This is not to say that Asia was free from trouble while Europe remained in the grip of revolutions and upheavals. History has not, so far, blessed any part of mankind with absolute tranquillity. What has happened is that the eye of the hurricane has shifted to Asia, where a cruel war is being fought in Vietnam, on the outcome of which hinges the fate of people everywhere. That ravaged country is engaged in a lifeand-death struggle, for the moment confined to Vietnam; but it is quite possible that, when it reaches a certain critical point, the war will pass its present frontiers, turning the land mass of Asia into an immense battlefield and, perhaps, spreading its consuming names beyond. How close the world could come to the brink of a total conflagration was seen at the time of the recent war in the Middle East. The crisis preceding that war threatened to undo the detente between the Soviet Union and the United States. That this did not happen and the Soviet Union stepped back should not mislead us into thinking that the Soviet Union will always step back, so jeopardizing its claim to world leadership. The fighting between the Arab states and Israel put west Asia and south-east Asia together in the same furnace of war, making people fear that their joint sparks might set fire to the whole world. In both the origin and termination of this five-day war there was a direct connection traceable to Vietnam. But for the United States' deep involvement in Vietnam and the Soviet Union's increasing concern with that war, the crisis in the Middle East would neither have erupted so suddenly nor ended so abruptly. Thus no major political event, particularly in Asia, can be divorced from the Vietnam war with regard both to origin and result..

Significant decisions which seem to affect Pakistan only have, in reality, a wider relevance. The escalation of the war in Vietnam would become a simple matter if it concerned Vietnam and the United States alone, but every step in the escalation has to be measured in terms of responses not only of Vietnam and the United States but also of China and the Soviet Union among other states. America's decision to terminate military assistance to Pakistan has to be considered in the wider perspective of its Asian implications. The stakes are very much higher than they appear to be, and this has to be recognized in the protection of larger national interests. If international events are looked at from one angle only, the United States' decision to terminate military assistance to Pakistan would seem to be an abrupt and arbitrary act. If, however, world issues are objectively analysed, not in the context of bilateral relations but globally, the decision appears to be neither abrupt nor arbitrary. It is essential to examine both this important decision and the future course of American-Pakistani relations in a comprehensive and objective manner in order to determine how we stand now and how we may yet stand with the other nations of the world. Attempts to foresee the future can help the formulation of accurate political judgements and the enlightenment of our people as to the kind of problems or hazards that might have to be faced in a world which moves uncertainly between co-existence and co-annihilation.