White House
National Security Council
Secret
Memorandum for The President
From: Henry A. Kissinger
Subject: Military Supply to
The following is the general background to the
drying up of the pipeline of military supply to
Following your guidance, I made clear from the
beginning that no action should have been taken by State or Defense that the
Pakistanis might interpret as pressure that might close the door to our
continued constructive dialogue with them or that would jeopardize your special
relationship with President Yahya. This, of course, has ruled out any effort
to use our military supply as a sanction, the imposition of an official and
public embargo or similar measures to isolate or quarantine Pakistan.
You will recall, however, that the WSAG meeting,
soon after the fighting broke out in East Pakistan in late March, felt that it
would be prudent to establish close control over equipment going to the area
until the situation clarified. As a result, a series of in-house measures were
quietly taken in late March and early April that permitted us to hold up informally
any dramatic and controversial shipments (ammunition, major items, spare parts
for lethal equipment) from Defense stocks. The issuance of new or renewal of
old export licenses for Munitions List items was suspended. No effort was made
to reach out into the commercial market or to stop export at customs since this
would have given the appearance of an embargo and conveyed the wrong political
signal to the Paks. This meant that equipment going direct from manufacturers
to Pakistani shippers still continued to flow.
Some of the early confusions in our policy arose at
this point. Defense said at an early WSAG meeting that there was no major
problem in holding shipments because no significant items were scheduled for delivery
until June. This was my understanding of our policy in April that we did not
have a problem for 6-8 weeks.
As time passed, State persistently pressed Defense
to tighten the restrictions that had been established. On June 24 State sent a
memo to you recommending that the export of arms be stopped altogether.
This recommendation was overruled, and State and
Defense were instructed to continue exports under then existing guidelines.
During this period, a recent review now shows some equipment was released from
Defense stocks as well as directly from manufacturers.
The passage of time also made it necessary to get a
more precise picture of where all the equipment involved was, and I asked
Defense for list. The procurement system is intricate and it was not until
mid-July that a
comprehensive list was established. Only then did it
become clear what effect the restrictions against new licenses was having in
reducing the pipeline.
The Pakistanis did not make an issue out of the
restrictions that had been established even though they had the practical
effect of reducing the pipeline as old licenses expired. They recognized that
our resisting embargo in the face of strong and increasing Congressional
criticism had the virtue of avoiding public condemnation of them. They also
made the judgement that it was more important to keep the Congress from cutting
off economic assistance.
Nevertheless, despite the slowing flow (about $5
million worth of primarily spare parts), military supply became a major issue
in our relations with the Congress and with India, where it was widely
interpreted as US support for Pakistan and an anti-Indian move, in part this
was because of mishandling by State which, until a story broke in the press
right after Foreign Minister Swaran Singh's visit here, was implying that
nothing was going to Pakistan. They explained the restrictions that had been
put into effect but did not explain what equipment was still free to move.
Under these circumstances, Assistant Secretary Sisco
in late August began on his own to explore with Ambassador Hilaly the
possibility of hastening the final drying up of the pipeline with a minimum
loss to
The Pakistanis went along with this exercise. The
substance of the final response to press queries was cleared by State through
the Pakistani embassy here with President Yahya.
After the Paks had gathered all they could, they
agreed to the termination of some $3.6 million in outstanding licenses which
could not be used. Some $160,000 worth of spare parts remain at dockside in
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