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.
Jan-Feb 1977, volume 2, No 1/2