As the Pakistanis See It

During the Second World War my old friend Liu Chieh, today Free China’s Ambassador to the United Nations, said to me: America treats China like a faithful wife whom one can be sure of despite neglect and infidelity, while its attitude toward Soviet Russia is that of a man toward a capricious mistress who has to be given presents and continually flattered and made love to from fear she may go off with someone else.

This simile applies to the contrast today between our attitudes toward our loyal and longstanding ally, Pakistan, and toward India. Even after Communist China’s attack on India we continued to treat Nehru on the assumption that he so yearns for Moscow’s embrace, or for his lost love, Peiping, that unless we display the tenderest concern he might refuse to allow us to continue being his Sugar Daddy. At the outset of the conflict we rushed to offer emergency arms aid even before Nehru admitted there was an emergency; while he was maintaining diplomatic relations with Communist China and still urging her admittance to the United Nations; while he was still looking to Communist Moscow for aid which, of course, never came. At the same time we pressured Pakistan to enter into a coalition with Nehru’s India for defense of the sub-continent without any guarantee that the “Hindu imperialists,” who had hitherto sided with the Communist powers and proclaimed Pakistan India’s Enemy Number One, would not destroy her if and when Nehru reached an accommodation with Peiping via Moscow.

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Freda Utley

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During the Second World War my old friend Liu Chieh, today Free China’s Ambassador to the United Nations, said to me: America treats China like a faithful wife whom one can be sure of despite neglect and infidelity, while its attitude toward Soviet Russia is that of a man toward a capricious mistress who has to be given presents and continually flattered and made love to from fear she may go off with someone else.

This simile applies to the contrast today between our attitudes toward our loyal and longstanding ally, Pakistan, and toward India. Even after Communist China’s attack on India we continued to treat Nehru on the assumption that he so yearns for Moscow’s embrace, or for his lost love, Peiping, that unless we display the tenderest concern he might refuse to allow us to continue being his Sugar Daddy. At the outset of the conflict we rushed to offer emergency arms aid even before Nehru admitted there was an emergency; while he was maintaining diplomatic relations with Communist China and still urging her admittance to the United Nations; while he was still looking to Communist Moscow for aid which, of course, never came. At the same time we pressured Pakistan to enter into a coalition with Nehru’s India for defense of the sub-continent without any guarantee that the “Hindu imperialists,” who had hitherto sided with the Communist powers and proclaimed Pakistan India’s Enemy Number One, would not destroy her if and when Nehru reached an accommodation with Peiping via Moscow.