US arms—there never was an embargo anyway
From J. K. BANERJI NEW YORK, June 24.-But for the current newspaper revelation of the massive and systematic deception practiced by successive administrations to justify and explain away the made-inUSA Indo-China war, the current deception exposed by the New York Times about the very recent departure from US parts of two freighters carrying arms, ammunition and military equipment would have come as a big shocker and not taken as a mere “slippage,” that is error on the part of one or more Government departments in carrying out the alleged Government policy halting further arms supply to Pakistan.
But the very nature of this slippage at a time when, according to the Governments own reckoning, 200,000 people have been massacred in Bangladesh and over 5,000,000 have fled the country tells one story: the lack of any commitment on the part of the Nixon administration not to provide Yahya Khan the weapons with which to drown in blood the political aspirations of the majority of the Pakistani people.
However, to give the devil his due, this administration cannot be blamed for violating any arms embargo because it never talked of an embargo. Instead, what it said, as the Washington Post pointed out yesterday in its leading editorial, was that “no military items have been provided to the Government of Pakistan or its agents since the outbreak of fighting in East Pakistan on March 25 and nothing is now scheduled for such delivery.”
Government spokesmen are insisting vehemently that whatever war goods left these shores in the two ships-one in May and the other only day before yesterday–were procured by Pakistan gratis, on credit or cash down prior to March 25.
During Press briefings at the State department it became apparent, as a barrage of questions was hurled at the ‘spokesmen, that all the Government departments generally involved in arms procurement from this Country—Defence, State and Commerce—were at one stage or the other involved actively or passively in the procurement of military hardware that left for Pakistan in those two boats.
The administration now says that the situation is now under continuous and intensive review to find what happened, why it happened or whether it should have at all happened.
But the mystery is not so deep. The evasions, the confused explanations and finally the unaccustomed defensive stance that marks the explanations “when an embargo is not an embargo,” to borrow the title of the Post editorial, make one thing rather clear: The administration was less than candid when it not only failed to inform Sardar Swaran Singh when he met the President and his State Secretary for June 16 of the real situation in the matter of Pakistan receiving US arms, but created the impression that no arms were being shipped after March 25.
India’s efforts to deal with the crisis that officially is described as a potential threat to its security solely through efforts to persuade the international community not to give military and economic aid to Pakistan any more obviously have been less productive than expected. Is there any contingency plan to follow in case of diplomacy’s failure to deliver the goods? United Nations? corrective military intervention? Or more of the same?
Reference: Hindustan Standard 25.6.1971