Secret December 9, 1971

Department State Washington DC

Memorandum for Mr. Henry A Kissinger

The White House

From: Theodore Eliot Jr

 

Subject: Contingency Paper on Military Supply for Pakistan

 

There are a number of possible options in the event a policy decision were taken to attempt, through military supply to Pakistan, to deter further Indian action against West Pakistan.

 

These options in ascending scale of magnitude are as follows:

 

1. Return to the April 1967 military supply policy toward Pakistan; i.e., the cash sale of lethal spares for previously supplied equipment and sale of ammunition and non-lethal end items. Export of these items was terminated on November 8, 1971.

2. Reactivation of the 1970 one-time exception to our arms embargo. This would involve the sale of about 20 planes and 300 armored personnel carriers. The one-time excep­tion has been held in abeyance since April 1967.

3. Transfer from third-country stocks of U.S. supplied lethal end items; e.g., from Jordan or Iran. This would require a prior policy decision that we were willing to supply these items directly to Pakistan.

4. Direct U.S. sales or grants of lethal end items directly to Pakistan.

 

There are no legal impediments to resumption of military supply to Pakistan should the President make a policy decision to do so. To date, all actions taken to revoke or restrict licenses for the export of military goods to Pakistan have been based on the exercise of the President's general authority to control the export of military goods "in the furtherance of world peace and the security and foreign policy of the United States." New licenses for such exports could, therefore, be issued upon an appropriate policy determination that such issuance would be in the furtherance of the above objectives. Similarly, there would be no legal obstacles to resuming grant assistance or FMS sales for cash or credit.

 

Theodore L. Eliot, Jr.

Executive Secretary

 

 

Source: Bangladesh Liberation War and the Nixon House 1971, Enayetur Rahim and Joyce L. Rahim, Pustaka Dhaka, p – 430 - 431