Memorandum
From Harold Saunders of the National Security Council Staff to the President's
Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger)/1/
/1/
Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 625,
Country Files, Middle East, Pakistan, Vol. V, 16 May-31 Jul 71. Secret;
Sensitive.
SUBJECT
Your Talk with President Yahya
In Your
Absence
Following
the postponement of your departure Saturday,/2/ there was an increase in
general skepticism in
/2/ July
10.
The papers
have carried the following on your appointments in Nathiagali: Foreign
Secretary Sultan Khan has been with you the whole time. General Hamid flew up
for lunch with you (Deputy Chief of Martial Law Administration and Chief of
Staff who was also at dinner Thursday evening) Friday. Saturday, Defense
Minister Ghiasuddin Ahmad is reported to have flown up for lunch. In
/3/
Saunders' conversation on July 10 with M.H. Sufi, Presidential Adviser on Food,
Agriculture and Kashmir Affairs, was reported to the Department in telegram
6984 from
/4/
Saunders' conversation with Ahmad on July 10 was reported to the Department in
telegram 6985 from
The main
speculation among the skeptics on your change of plans is that you have been
playing some sort of mediation role between
What Yahya
Will Say This Afternoon
The result
of your first day's talks was an apparent Pakistani decision to produce a
comprehensive package on the refugee question. Hilaly told me yesterday
afternoon that Yahya was holding a meeting this morning to put together a
package for you to take back to President Nixon. Presumably that will be given
to you at your meeting this afternoon/5/ with a request for US diplomatic
support, both in the consortium capitals and in
/5/ No
record of Kissinger's conversation with President Yahya on July 11 has been
found.
The
package, I surmise, will collect things that the Pakistanis were already
considering doing:
-Yahya
plans to announce appointment of a senior civil servant (sounds like a Bengali
elder statesman) to oversee all elements of the refugee program. According to
Ahmad, he would have to be responsible directly to the President and would have
authority to order the military to desist from excesses. (Whether this is
possible remains a question mark.)
-They may draw together and repeat all past statements on non-discrimination
for Hindus, amnesty, property restitution and security.
-They might show some recognition of the food problem. Since they have asked us
now to begin moving our PL 480 stocks again, they could look to that to
dramatize that food is again moving through the ports. (They have been
disappointed in the response of the international community to their appeal for
help in transportation.)
-They could include the essence of Ahmad's interim development plan which would
focus on
-They may call for Indian cooperation in all this.
Although I do not know exactly how they will formulate this package, what
Hilaly and Ahmad were talking about yesterday seems okay as far as it goes. It
is an effort to be responsive to your suggestion for a package to separate the
refugee issue from the question of political settlement and hopefully to buy
time.
Points for
You to Stress
However,
there are two points to be made when Yahya gives this to you:
1. First
is the need for energetic follow-up. There has to be a sense of real movement
not just the appearance of movement. This may require a hard prod at U Thant
since the UN man in East Pakistan is moving much too slowly.
2. The
real point will be much more difficult to make. You have suggested this package
as a means of trying to separate the refugee issue from the question of final
political arrangements in
Recalling
your talk with Foreign Minister Singh, you may wish to tell Yahya that the
Indian leadership is not posing specific conditions for a political settlement
and would accept any that is "non-military and non-communal."
(Presumably this means civil administration-the Indians would like
establishment of elected government-and clear absence of bias against Hindus.)
Talking
Points
You might
make the above points this way:
1. You are
glad to see the Pakistanis pulling their steps together in a package that can
be presented as a comprehensive approach toward a refugee solution. It is
important that this be followed up energetically.
2. You
will recommend to the President that the
3. It is
also important that special attention be given to following up with a good
presentation to the Consortium. You will do what you can with McNamara, but it
will be tough going with him and with our Congress and public.
4. The key
issue obviously is the terms of political accommodation. You have not presumed
to get into this. In fact, you have suggested preparation of a package of steps
on the refugee problem in order to try to separate that from the issue of
political arrangements in
5. You
would like, therefore, to give President Yahya your impression that the Indians
would accept any solution that is "non-communal and non-military."
Mrs. Gandhi said she is not wedded to any particular solution. You hasten to
add that you do not think
Source: Document 100, volume XI, South Asia crisis 1971, Department of State.