National Security Council

July 13, 1971

Secret

 

Military Supply for Pakistan

 

Our military supply policy toward Pakistan has been the subject of considerable debate within the bureaucracy, the Congress and with India. The following is a summary of how the current policy evolved and the details of our present position on this controversial subject.

 

Background

In 1965 when hostilities broke out between India and Pakistan, the United States placed an embargo on the supply of all military equip­ment to both countries. All grant assistance was terminated and none has been resumed except for modest military training programs.

In 1966 the embargo was modified to permit the sale to both coun­tries of non-lethal end items such as communications, medical and transportation equipment.

 

In 1967 the policy was further modified to permit the sale of ammu­nition and spare parts for those items of military equipment, such as aircraft and tanks, provided by the United States prior to the 1965 Indo-Pakistan conflict. A one-time exception to the continuing em­bargo on lethal equipment was announced in October 1970. This authorized the sale to Pakistan of 300 armored personnel carriers and about 20 aircraft.

 

The Government of Pakistan purchases munitions list items either through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program or commercially from the manufacturers or distributors. Items under the FMS pro­gram are purchased either from stocks which are under direct De­partment of Defense control or from the Defense Department's commercial contractors. All equipment either obtained commercially or delivered under the FMS program to Pakistan government repre­sentatives in the United States must be licensed for export by the State Department's office of munitions control before it may be ex­ported. There are also items which are common to military as well as civilian use (such as certain automobile and truck spare parts) which are not on the munitions list, but which may require a Department of Commerce license.

 

In light of the outbreak of fighting in East Pakistan on March 25-26, we have taken certain interim actions with regard to military supply for Pakistan. While no formal embargo was imposed, the following interim actions were taken in early April:

 

(A) A hold was put on delivery of FMS items from Depart­ment of Defense stocks; no such items have been re­leased to Pakistan since then.

 

(B) The Department of State's Office of Munitions Control has suspended the issuance of new licenses and renewal of expired licenses (valid for one year) for items on the munitions list - for either FMS or commercial sales.

(C) We have held in abeyance any action on the one-time exception arms supply offer announced last October: No item in that offer has been delivered to Pakistan or its agents, and nothing is scheduled for delivery.

 

By early April, when these interim actions were taken, the Govern­ment of Pakistan or its agents had obtained legal title to, and were in possession of commercial contractors under the FMS program, and other commercial suppliers, continued to utilize valid licenses issued before the actions taken in early April. Some of these items, legally the property of the Government of Pakistan, have been shipped to Pakistan from U.S. ports and it is likely that additional military sup­plies, under valid licenses, will be shipped in the future.

Our overall military supply policy toward Pakistan continues under close review. It has been based on the judgement that it is desirable for the United States to continue to supply limited quantities of mili­tary items to Pakistan to enable us to maintain a constructive political relationship. We have also wanted to ensure that Pakistan is not compelled to rely exclusively on other and especially Chinese sources of supply.

 

The Details

The State Department's Office of Munitions Control and the De­partment of Defense have recently completed a full accounting of:

 

-- those military items for which there are valid outstanding li­censes, and

-- those items being held and scheduled from release from U.S. stocks through the remainder of this year.

The point of this exercise was to get a firmer handle on what exactly is involved.

 

The following are the most important points to emerge from the study:

 

--The total dollar value of current outstanding licenses for the shipment of arms to Pakistan is about $29 million. About two-thirds of this ($18.4 million) is accounted for by De­partment of Defense Sales (FMS) and the remaining third ($10.7 million) is almost entirely commercial sales to agen­cies of the Government of Pakistan, including the military forces.

--Concerning the FMS sales under valid license ($18.4 mil­lion), up to $13.5 million is still eligible for shipment from the U.S. either having already been turned over to the Government of Pakistan or its agents or being out of Department of Defense control because it has been contracted out to commercial suppliers. Of the straight commercial sales under valid license ($10.8 million), about $9.5 million is for sonar equipment which was originally to have been built in the UK, but reportedly will not now be constructed. Thus, under our current policy up to about $14.8 million is still eligible for shipment to Pakistan. Of this $14.8 million, about $10.8 million of the license will expire by August 13 and under the current policy cannot be renewed.

 

In practical terms what this means is that the pipeline of military shipments to Pakistan is gradually running dry. By the middle of next month, unless there is some change in the temporary hold we have placed on FMS deliveries and on issuing new licenses or renewing old ones only up to $4 million of military items will be eligi­ble for shipment out of the country. If we were to continue the cur­rent restrictions, nothing would be eligible for shipment by March 26, 1972.

 

 

Source: Bangladesh Liberation War and the Nixon House 1971, Enayetur Rahim and Joyce L. Rahim, Pustaka Dhaka, p – 149 - 152