Critical triangle continues....

The apprehension was not misplaced. Even after Pakistan became fait accomplice, with the Congress agreeing to it, the State Department in a press release on 10 June 1947 seemed to deny or, at the very least, ignore the existence of a Pakistan. The press release stated, “The future constitutional pattern is a matter to be determined by the Indian people themselves and whatever that pattern may be the US Government looks forward to continuance of the friendliest relations with Indians of all communities and creeds.”

Events elsewhere in the world simply strengthened any embryonic policy at this stage to start conflating interests in order to gain greater international recognition for the Pakistan cause. In February 1947, the British Government had informed the US that it could, due to its precarious financial position, no longer continue to bear the burden of supplying Greece and Turkey against the emerging communist threat. Deeply frustrated with his own negotiations and perceived Soviet perfidy over the future of Europe, US President Harry Truman announced the Truman Doctrine and authorised aid to the two countries. In June 1947, the Marshall Plan was announced, which provided huge financial stimulus for the recovery of Europe. A key condition of this plan was Congressional oversight of the funds disbursed, which, whether calculated or not, led to the USSR’s rejection of the plan. States under Soviet occupation that had initially accepted the plan, consequently, rejected it. Though not the reality, the optics as viewed from Delhi in 1947 would have been that the Marshall Plan was to buttress anticommunism. The US-USSR split had become all too obvious by 5 March 1946 when Winston Churchill gave his famous “Iron Curtain” speech and, while exact cause and effect is hard to prove, this combination would have played heavily into the calculus. Tellingly by September 1947 Pakistan’s Finance Minister, Ghulam Mohammed, was already requesting aid from the US.

To be continued......