Global Perceptions

Indo-U.S. relations have followed a turbulent course. The appreciation of American support to India’s Indepen­dence struggle was soon dissipated by the U.S. arming of Pakistan following their Mutual Aid Treaty of 1954. There­after U.S. sympathy for India, in the wake of the Chinese aggression, again led to high expectations. But their attempt to secure a Kashmir settlement favourable to Pakistan and the negative U.S. response to the supply of modern arms turned India towards the Soviet Union. Indo-U.S. relations reached their nadir in 1971. U.S. inability to restrain Pakistan’s genocidal East Bengal policy, leading to the stream of refugees into India, and the spectre of a U.S.­China-Pakistan axis culminated in the Indo-Soviet Treaty.