Nixon rebuffed
BY denying all military and economic aid to Pakistan the U.S. House of Representatives has censured simultaneously the Yahya regime’s genocidal policy in Bangladesh and the Nixon Administration for its unabashed endorsement of that policy. $425 million worth of economic aid, military sales, and PL surplus food shipments authorized last year and another $225 million economic aid proposed during the current U.S. fiscal year. That the ban will not affect the provision of $ 100 million for aid to Bangladesh refugees shows on which side the sympathy of the House lies.
The decision of the House is unprecedented. Foreign aid is seldom if ever, unattached with strings. But this is the first time that aid-giving has been made conditional openly, Congressman Gallagher’s amendment to the $3.3 billion Foreign Assistance Bill, seeking to bar Pakistan from the American munificence, stipulates that the ban will remain in force till the President has reported to Congress that the Pakistan Government is cooperating in efforts to restore reasonable stability in Bangladesh and allowing the evacuees to return home. Adoption of the amendment without a vote of dissent is proof that despite the U.S. Administration’s friendliness towards the military junta in Pakistan, not a single member of the House was prepared to put up with Yahya Khan’s homicidal spree in Bangladesh.
The provision for continued military and economic aid to Pakistan in the original Bill, which has now been struck down by the House, is in keeping with the U.S. Administration’s double-talk over Bangladesh. Mr. Gallagher’s amendment seeks to bring U.S. policy in line with those of the democratic countries. The amended Bill is expected to have an casy passage in the Senate. President Nixon’s first reaction to the House decision has been one of anger. Perhaps he thinks that if aid is suspended an irate Pakistan may not only upset the present balance of power in this region, but also obstruct the emergence of a new balance which he proposes to seek during his Peking trip. But with the election barely a year away will he dare to alienate public opinion as expressed through the House of Representatives? (Editorial]
Reference: Hindustan Standard 06.08.1971