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Politics : War -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ish who wrote (10326)	12/23/2001 8:12:14 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 23908

Pakistan's search for great power allies against India initially focussed on the United States. The Mutual Defence Assistance treaty which Pakistan signed with the US in 1954 was seen as a way to counter India. Prime Minister Bogra was clear about the reason for seeking an alliance with the United States: At present, we can't get a settlement, mainly because India has greater military strength...When there is more equality of military strength, then I am sure that there will be greater chance of a settlement.11 Pakistan's balancing effort was partly successful: between 1954 and 1959, Pakistan received $522 million in military hardware, in addition to other defence support as well as economic aid of over $600 million.12 The US alliance also allowed Pakistan to buy high-technology weapons like the F-104 Starfighter, which partly helped to compensate for India's quantitative superiority.13 Nevertheless, the alliance was a risky one for Pakistan. Because of the close US-Israeli relations, the alliance caused problems between Pakistan and some Muslim states.14 Egypt was so incensed at Pakistan that, after the Suez war, it refused to allow Pakistani troops as members of the United Nations Emergency Force in Egypt and refused to receive the Pakistani Prime Minister when he wanted to visit Egypt. Nasser even declared that "Suez is as dear to Egypt as Kashmir is to India."15 Pakistanis were proud of being the only state founded for Muslims and they had expected to make common cause with other Muslim states.16 Antagonising Muslim states was thus particularly difficult for Pakistan.17 That Pakistan was nevertheless willing to do so in order to balance India indicates how strongly Pakistan felt the threat from India. The US-Pakistan treaty also threatened to ruin Pakistan's relations with China and the Soviet Union, since the treaty was designed primarily to counter these communist powers. idsa-india.org