Security & defenceFounding years
Dulles and Nixon come calling
Visits by the Secretary of State and the Vice-President in 1953 marked Washington's turn towards Pakistan as a Cold War partner.
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Karachi, December 1953
Sindh, on the Arabian Sea
24° 52′ N · 67° 01′ E
Karachi, December 1953
Sindh, on the Arabian Sea
24° 52′ N · 67° 01′ E
Background
For its first six years Pakistan sought American military and economic support with little success. That began to change in 1953. The new Eisenhower administration was looking for ways to contain Soviet influence in the Middle East and Asia, and Pakistan's new prime minister, Mohammad Ali Bogra, had come to office in April 1953 directly from the Pakistani embassy in Washington1.
What happened
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and Harold Stassen, director of the Mutual Security Agency, toured the Middle East and South Asia in May 1953; Dulles was in Karachi from 22 to 25 May2,3. After the trip, according to the State Department's documentary history, American planning moved away from the idea of a Middle East Defence Organisation built around Egypt and towards the defence of the "northern tier" of states bordering the Soviet Union - a group in which Pakistan could play a part3.
Vice-President Richard Nixon visited Pakistan from 6 to 9 December 1953 during a long goodwill tour of Asia4. American diplomatic reporting from the visit records that military aid was so prominent in everyone's mind as to be almost the only subject of serious discussion. The Governor-General, Ghulam Muhammad, suggested that the size of any aid mattered less than a firm commitment, followed by a US military mission to assess Pakistan's needs. Nixon said he had reached conclusions he would share with the Secretaries of State and Defence before a final decision5.
Why it mattered
Nixon returned a supporter of aid to Pakistan, and within weeks the administration moved towards a decision; in February 1954 Eisenhower announced that the United States would provide military assistance6. Many historians see the 1953 visits as the hinge between Pakistan's years of unanswered requests and the alliance that followed7. They also left a personal legacy: Nixon's favourable view of Pakistan's leaders would shape his policy as president nearly two decades later7.
Different perspectives
In Pakistan the American turn was welcomed as overdue recognition of the country's importance. In India it was viewed with alarm; Nehru argued that arming Pakistan would bring the Cold War to South Asia and complicate relations between the two neighbours8.
Sources
- Mohammad Ali Bogra, Wikipedia · Reference
- John Foster Dulles – Travels of the Secretary of State, Office of the Historian, US Department of State · Official
- Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Volume XI, Part 2, Editorial Note (Dulles–Stassen visit and military aid), Office of the Historian, US Department of State · Primary document
- Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Volume XI, Part 2: United States relations with Pakistan; wheat aid; visit of Vice President Nixon to Pakistan; military aid, Office of the Historian, US Department of State · Primary document
- Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Volume XI, Part 2, Document 852 (telegram on the Nixon visit), Office of the Historian, US Department of State, December 1953 · Primary document
- Statement by the President on Military Aid to Pakistan, The American Presidency Project, UC Santa Barbara, 25 February 1954 · Primary document
- The United States and Pakistan, 1947–2000: Disenchanted Allies (Dennis Kux), Woodrow Wilson Center Press / Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001 · Scholarly
- India and Military Aid (statement, 1 March 1954), Nehru Archive, 1 March 1954 · Primary document
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