1971 War: How the US tried to corner India

[salman nedian]

Logical - some BD ppl say they think bagladesh's handmade weapons totting 'army' would have defeated pakistan army in 1971 w/o indian support.

Conclusion - India was not victorious in 1971 war

Your argument is impeccably crafted, i'm speechless.

You better remain speechless. Interfering in some one’s internal matters doesn’t make one brave. I see your above post as a confession for initiating cross border terrorism.

 

[notsuperstitious]

You better remain speechless. Interfering in some one’s internal matters doesn’t make one brave. I see your above post as a confession for initiating cross border terrorism.

You really really got me

And ur signature is proof of your imperialistic designs?

 

[TopCat]

It looks like u dont know ur national histrory.

Let me quote here what TT like Niaz said in one of his earlier posts in this thread:

"First seeds of discord were sown when Urdu was declared as national language and there were riots in East Pakistan back in 1948. This is also true that arrogant attitude of West Pakistani beaurocarcy didn't help. But one cannot deny the fact that without active Indian involvement Bangla Desh would not be there.

BD was inevitable, be with indian help or not. East Timor is a good example. in 1947 there were no Indian help but Pakistan came into existence.
Indian help did help our struggle big time thats true.

 

[messenger]

BD was inevitable, be with indian help or not. East Timor is a good example. in 1947 there were no Indian help but Pakistan came into existence.
Indian help did help our struggle big time thats true.

thank you . alteast you know it .
i dont say that we got BD freedom but i say that we helped BD in attaining freedomand defeated pakistan while doing so .

 

[Solomon2]

And now you Pakistanis think it's all happening again, that India is responsible for the continued fracturing of the nation, rather than your own politicians?

When I witnessed a Pakistani diplomat collapse in my living room and pour his heart out in 1971 I don't recall that he even mentioned India as a factor in his grief, only the decisions of Pakistani leaders and the conduct of its Army. India may poured oil on the blaze, but it was Pakistan that lit the fire and heaped on the wood.

Going to war with India now won't put off the hard decisions for more than a few years, and the cost could be very terrible. But will that matter to those fine Army fellows in Islamabad and Rawalpindi?

 

[leonblack08]

thank you . alteast you know it .
i dont say that we got BD freedom but i say that we helped BD in attaining freedom and defeated pakistan while doing so .

Thank you for saying that.As you can see from my signature,that I am pissed at those who thinks the other way.

USS Enterprise was sent to crush our liberation movement and look how ironic it is,after cyclone SIDR,this same ship helped us for relief work.Because of its amphibious vessels many places were reached which would not have been possible by our armed forces.

We should thank Russia for 1971 as well.Because they threatened to send their carriers to counter USA.Had US forces been on BD,there would be no Bangladesh.We would still have been East Pakistan.Although conditions would be way far from peaceful.

 

[Solomon2]

USS Enterprise was sent to crush our liberation movement...We should thank Russia for 1971 as well.Because they threatened to send their carriers to counter USA...

Kissinger wrote that the carrier task force was sent to the Bay of Bengal to deter any Indian move to invade West Pakistan, because Indira implicitly threatened such. Russia had no carriers. The Pakistani/Bangladeshi diplomat I knew was concerned about engaging the U.S. to help shepherd independence and never seems to have considered the U.S. as a possible enemy of any sort. (Nixon's quotes are often misleading because he often denigrated allies in private just before doing exactly what they wanted. That's the kind of man he was.)

 

[leonblack08]

Russia had no carriers.

My bad then,but Russians did threaten to send their naval fleet.I mixed it up.

 

[rubyjackass]

To get record straight, 1971 war was deliberately engineered by India to break Pakistan in two. I have heard a TV interview of Field Marshall Manekshaw, where he says that as soon as refugees started pouring into the West Bengal, Indra Gandhi called him over and asked Manekshaw " What are you going to do about it". During the meeting it was decided to liberate East Pakistan. India then set about setting up training camps for Mukti Bahini and signed a "Mutual Defense Pact" with Russia to preculde any overt attempt by China or US to help Pakistan and knowing full well that in no way Pakistan had the wherewithal to fight on two fronts a thousand miles apart.

There is always an element of disgruntled population in any country, Mujib was able to exploit it. First statement that Mujib gave on reaching Bangla Desh, after his release from prison by Bhutto was " I have been working for seperation for 20 years'.

First seeds of discord were sown when Urdu was declared as national language and there were riots in East Pakistan back in 1948. This is also true that arrogant attitude of West Pakistani beaurocarcy didn't help. But one cannot deny the fact that without active Indian involvement Bangla Desh would not be there.

These are US policy documents of 1971 regarding Bangladesh.
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/45587.pdf
You will see that the conflict in East Pakistan was well recognised , so much that US was considering recognition to Bangladesh as early as in early March.

Beyond that, we have these questions:
—Should the U.S. be hedging its bets with East Pakistan against
the possibility that East secedes?

Pg 32
Also you will see Indian help to Muktibahini began a little later after the Pakistani governments martial law in East Pakistan. India even asked USA about providing a channel of arms to the separatists.

what is the use of winning a battle if you lose the war?

the indian army knew what it needed to capture and what it could just bypass. it went ahead and captured dhaka and ignored the army posts.

though that really raises the question, what were those posts supposed to protect? the cities or themselves?

Nice one
I guess the posts were themselves facing local resistance. So they could not do much to help stop the Indian forces.

 

[dabong1]

Thank you for actually trying to understand what I wrote unlike many others who spill different kinds of emotion while reacting to my writing

I am not sure but I wrote to someone's post about his dad having a passport from b4 1971 that had both Bangla, Urdu and English. You see I have this Pakistani rupee note from b4 71 too(actually it was in my mom's collection, incidentally) and it also has Bangla, urdu and english. Bangla was not given any national status before 1956. Bangla was given the status amid mass protest, which sometimes took violent forms for rational reasons and i hope you know what happened in 1952, February the 21st. So it was appealed in every way possible and as a result Pakistan made Bangla one of the official languages beside Urdu and English, in 1956 not around 1947/1948. I doubt it would have been the case if we did not demand it. That's what my understanding is.

Thanks for the reply but i still dont understand that if bangla was made an official language way before 71 then how did it become such a big issue?

 

[TopCat]

Thanks for the reply but i still dont understand that if bangla was made an official language way before 71 then how did it become such a big issue?

It remained as an issue till 1971 at it never gone away from either Bengalis as well as W. Pakis mind. W. Pakistan did not really accept it in true sense. Pakistani soldiers destroyed Language movement memorial in the very first hours of 1971.

 

[Al-zakir]

There is a great plan called "Divide and Rule". It actually work if applied with thought and care. British proved it and than later on Indian Hindu being good corroborator to Brits learend it and ultimately applied it to Muslims yet unfortunate enough Muslims still out of clue.

It's apparent to me that Indians are proud to disband united Pakistan in 1971 and in this case you should be because you accomplished a ultimate goal. Congratulate yourself for a master plan that was placed rite after 1947 but completed in 1971. It took you just 24 years. It has helped India so many ways that only visible to people who can grasp the bigger picture.

It has been biggest humiliation and lost to Muslim in south Asia and rest of the Islamic world. Some people will never understand the fact that if we could have intact united Pakistan than our Kashmiri, bihari and Assami brother would have joint us long ago with their lands.

We Muslim are famous in the west for expressing our anger with force and resentment without foreseeing the outcome. We act first and think later where it should be other way around. At least I agree with west on that note.

ultimately we Muslims are the looser with big O.

 

[Rajkumar]

^^i beg to disagree with you. i think it's for your own good to separate yourself from w. pak because if you were with them now ,the fire of extremism would have burned your houses as well.
you will see Bangladesh will rise faster than Pakistan for sure in future.

 

[gromell]

thank you . alteast you know it .
i dont say that we got BD freedom but i say that we helped BD in attaining freedomand defeated pakistan while doing so .

If Bangladeshis did not want independence from Pakistan, India could not have achieved what they did in 71. The fact is Bangladeshis wanted it badly and Indians duly helped us, which worked well for their strategic objective. The cause of independence was not India, it was Pakistan. There should be no doubt on this.

 

[gromell]

Kissinger wrote that the carrier task force was sent to the Bay of Bengal to deter any Indian move to invade West Pakistan, because Indira implicitly threatened such. Russia had no carriers. The Pakistani/Bangladeshi diplomat I knew was concerned about engaging the U.S. to help shepherd independence and never seems to have considered the U.S. as a possible enemy of any sort. (Nixon's quotes are often misleading because he often denigrated allies in private just before doing exactly what they wanted. That's the kind of man he was.)

I don't know if Russia had any carriers at that time but I do know Russia sent their nuclear submarines after US sent their USS Enterprise in the Bay of Bengal. And there was a war against Pakistan in the Western front(at least officially between December 3 and December 16, 1971). Why did USA not attack India then?!