April 20, 2013, 8:17 pm
BY S VENKAT NARAYAN
Our Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI, April 20: The United States believed that India would militarily intervene in Bangladesh soon after the August 1975 coup in Bangladesh, in which President Sheikh Mujibur Rehman was assassinated.
Fresh evidence of the US’s concern has surfaced in diplomatic cables obtained and made public by WikiLeaks recently and published in The Hindu today.
The leaked communications provide fascinating details about Washington’s nervousness.
(India had played a major role in helping Bangladesh gain independence from Pakistan. India under Indira Gandhi fully supported the cause of the Bangladeshis and its troops and equipment were used to fight the Pakistani forces. The Indian Army also gave full support to the main Bangladeshi guerrilla force, the Mukti Bahini. On 26 March 1971, Bangladesh emerged as an independent state with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as its first Prime Minister. Mujib was assassinated by a group of young army officers at his home along with his entire family, except two daughters who were in Germany at that time).
On November 27, 1975, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger wrote to US Ambassador to India William B Saxbe "recommending" that he meet Foreign Minister [YB] Chavan because "the situation demands immediate attention in New Delhi." A high-level US-India meeting was in any case scheduled in Washington DC for later that month.
Saxbe was to convey the US "fear that mutual Indian and Bgd [Bangladesh] misperceptions of each other’s intentions might create a dynamic of events that led to consequences neither country really desired. The USG (US Government) continues to believe that India shares our view that it would be extremely detrimental to the prospects for stability and peace in the subcontinent, and would set in motion unpredictable chain reaction, if external powers were to intervene in the internal affairs of Bangladesh," Kissinger’s wrote to the Ambassador (1975STATE281302_b, secret).
Concurring with the US Embassy’s assessment that "Indians remain in the posture of watching the situation carefully on the ground but have not yet decided to act," Kissinger said the US believed "it is essential, while we may still have some ability to influence situation to convey to the GoI (Government of India) at a senior level the sense of Bengalee [Bangladesh’s] concerns, just as we have raised Indian concerns with the Bgd [Bangladesh]."
From intelligence documents archived in the US State Department, it is known that a joint memorandum by the Central Intelligence (CIA), the Defence Intelligence Bureau, the Bureau of Intelligence and Research in the State Department concluded that Indian military intervention "cannot be ruled out."
Washington was so convinced of India’s intentions that it even persuaded Iran, then under the pro-American Shah, to dissuade New Delhi from any such action, and even actively sought the opinion of the Soviet Union, which would have stood by India.
US Ambassador to Iran (who was a former CIA Director) Richard Helms noted after meeting Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Ali Khalatbary (1975TEHRAN11543_b, secret dated November 27, 1975): "Khalatbary responded that GoI [Government of Iran] was equally concerned about events in Bangladesh and possibility of Indian intervention... Ambassador urged Iran [to] weigh in with Delhi and Dacca to help defuse situation. When Khalatbary expressed doubts about influence Iran enjoyed in Delhi, (US) ambassador encouraged him not to underestimate important role Iran can play in this matter."
In Moscow, US Ambassador Walter J Stoessel met Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Nikolay Firyubin and inferred that "the Soviets are less concerned about preventing possible Indian intervention than they are that it succeed decisively if undertaken (1975MOSCOW18221_b, secret dated Dec. 20)."
"Firyubin... left no doubt that, from Moscow’s standpoint, the question of regional stability, and by extension the prevention of a substantial increase in PRC (People’s Republic of China)’s influence in the area, were more important... I would not conclude from this that the Soviets are encouraging the Indians, but from Firyubin’s presentation it can be infer[r]ed that they might not do much to discourage them either."
He added: "To my question about current Indian attitudes, he said that the Indians had been satisfied with the bilateral talks, but ‘only god knows’ what the future will bring."
US fears were fed by Bangladeshi officials: "During conversation at a reception January 3, an officer of Bangladesh deputy high commission told me, in response to my question about how relations are going between Bangladesh and India, that Indians are harbo[u]ring and training Bangladesh opposition personalities and force," said a cable from the American consulate in Calcutta (1976CALCUT00023_b, secret).
"Source was visibly nervous about imparting the foregoing and moved on quickly after having done so," the cable dated January 5, 1976 said. Bangladesh also sought the US help. In response, Kissinger, in a cable to the US Embassy in Dhaka, said: "We will continue to be sympathetic to Bangladesh’s needs and concerns (1975STATE265069_b, secret)."
For their part, Indian officials denied any movement of troops to the Bangladesh front (1976NEWDE000693_b, confidential, dated January 14, 1976): "Indians, at every opportunity, have been telling visitors here that it is slanderous to say that Indian troops have been augmented along the Bangladesh border (then Prime Minister) Mrs (Indira) Gandhi having made this point to Senator (Codel) McGovern most recently Jan. 9," it said, referring to a Congressman’s visit to India and Bangladesh to ascertain the ground situation.
Then Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Samar Sen also "scoffed at reports that India had acted in any way that threatened" Bangladesh (1976DACCA00272_b, confidential), notes a cable from the US Ambassador to Bangladesh at that time, Davis Eugene Boster.
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