Diplomatically humbled and strategically isolated by the US-Pakistan-China axis, India deepened its relationship with the Soviet Union and ensured…

End Of Uncertainty: East Bengal refugees celebrate after Bangladesh was declared an independent nation

Sandeep Dikshit

Though all three of India’s wars between 1962 and 1972 bore a heavy imprint of the Cold War, external meddling was at its peak in the Bangladesh war. The US, under President Richard Nixon, ignored media documentation and diplomatic dispatches of Pakistani brutalities because of a seminal event that took place in July that year. America’s foreign policy czar Henry Kissinger suddenly dropped out of sight while on a visit to Islamabad. It was later revealed that the Pakistanis had facilitated a clandestine meeting between Kissinger and China. Following that, he told Indira Gandhi she could not expect US assistance if the Chinese attacked.Amid this US-Pakistan-China axis, India seemed diplomatically humbled and strategically isolated. New Delhi decided to deepen its relationship with the Soviet Union. Their bilateral ties had an uncertain start after the 1962 Sino-India war. They developed firmer roots after the 1965 war when US had cut off all military ties with India as punishment for crossing swords with Pakistan, a vital member of its South East Asia Treaty Organisation.A month after Kissinger read the riot act to Gandhi in July 1971, Delhi also signed the Indo-Soviet Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation. It restored the geopolitical balance tilting against India. Its Article 10 guaranteed that if either of the parties was attacked, both would start mutual consultations to eliminate this threat. The message was not lost on the US, China and Pakistan.Soviet supplies began pouring in for India and the war began. The Soviet Union twice vetoed US resolutions for ceasefire when India had the momentum of the war. US shifted gears from diplomatic to military threats by dispatching warships to intimidate India. But the Soviets sent cruisers and even a nuclear submarine to tail the US fleet. This message was also unambigious; the US stayed away. The war ended the atrocities in Bangladesh, but failed to achieve closure on India’s western front. US looked the other way and Pakistan began making the atomic bomb. The two then collaborated in sending militants to bring down the USSR-backed Afghan government. Later, Pakistan was to replicate the policy in Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir.