The country against which the U.S. military aid and alliances were directed, at least so far as official declaration in Pakistan are concerned was India. When asked if a military with the U.S. would not make a settlement of the Kashmir problem more difficult, Mohammed Ali Bogra, then Prime Minister of Pakistan said “Yes at first. But again I am convinced that ultimately it would make a settlement easier. At present we cannot get a settlement mainly because India has greater military strength and Nehru is not much interested in a settlement.
Chaudhry Mohammed Ali, another Prime Minister of Pakistan, has said that the “hope of receiving the Kashmir tangle to Pakistan’s satisfaction through the acquisition of military strength by joining Baghdad and SEATO pacts is the very raison d’etre for Pakistan to remain a member of these pacts. Subrawardy another Prime Minister of Pakistan was no less unequivocal. Pakistan, he said, would “continue to seek alliances, military and otherwise, as long as there is remote danger from India to the country’s safety and territorial integrity.” Defending the Baghdad Pact, he remarked: “Even if there is a five percent of chance of attack from India, I must be strong enough to see that that chance should be zero chance.”
Obviously, Pakistan objective was to dictate terms of a settlement on Kashmir to India from a position of strength. Speaking in the foreign affairs debate in the Pakistan National Assembly on 26th March 1956, the Foreign Minister of Pakistan said: The most notable achievement of the SEATO is the joint reaffirmation by the members of our stand on Kashmir Another Foreign Minister said at a public meeting in Lahore on 20th October 1956 that “ a powerful neighbouring country which was inimical to Pakistan had in fact forced us to seek friendship elsewhere.”
“That country,” he went on, “has great differences with this country and the two pacts have enable Pakistan to ensure its defence against aggression.” The next day he confirmed that the country he had in mind was India. On another occasion he said: “Pakistan will not agree to commit suicide by getting out of the Baghdad pact which is our defence against India. Time was to show that Western Military aid to Pakistan resulted only in encouraging Pakistan to commit further aggression on India.
These statement were made and more were to be made in subsequent years, in defiance of public assurance given to India by the President of the United States and its secretary of State that U.S. Military aid to Pakistan was not intended to be used against India and that should it be so used the U.S. would come to the aid of India against Pakistan.
The senate foreign relations Sub-committee had to warn Pakistan in 1961 that military assistance “has never been given to Pakistan for defence against possible attack from India.” These assurances were repeated in subsequent years, only to be ignored when the occasion for their fulfillment arose in 1965.
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