Quote:
Originally Posted by Equilibrium
At the time, it seemed to the Nixon Administration that the invasion of East Pakistan was an attempt to severly cripple Pakistan- a critical US ally in South Asia at the time- or a prelude to a final showdown to destabilize all of West Pakistan with Soviet support.
At the time, the Nixon Administration believed that if Pakistan went down the drain with the US standing by it would affect the rapprochement with China by demonstrating to Mao that in moments of crisis, especially with the Soviet Union or Soviet aligned (as it seemd) India, that the US could not be depended upon to fulfill its obligations to its allies.
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Look, the matter isn't what Nixon believed. Its more about what actually conspired. Nixon somehow came to the conclusion based on his own reasoning that India was heading towards dismembering West Pakistan once East Pakistan fell. Now this wasn't the Indian military strategy atall. We were fighting a war in our east with a two pronged agenda. 1. To stop the genoside that the Pakistani Army had unleashed on the Bengali populace and thereby stop the massive refugee crisis that we faced with our limited resources. 2. Though officially not accepted, to eliminate the Third Front. We had 3 volatile fronts, 2 with Pakistan and 1 with China. An independent Bangladesh did greatly reduce the pressure from our forces.
However, the question of West Pakistan going down the drains was a moot point, because it was simply not there in our goalsheet. It was Nixon's own whims and fancies and thus when India saw the worlds most powerful democrasy "Tilt" towards a nation that was overtly tearing all international laws, converting them to smithereens in face of large scale genoside, rape and political assasinations through the nations military, it felt the need and urgency to "Tilt" to a counter balance. USSR. And mind you our bonhomie with the Soviets actually cought colour after 1971 and from there onwards there were no stoppings.