Critical Triangle continues....

If anything it was Eisenhower trying to rein in his over enthusiastic Secretary of State and wrote to Dulles “this is one area of the world where, even more than most cases, emotion rather than reason seems to dictate policy. I know you will be watchful to see that we do not create antagonism unnecessarily.” To this Dulles replied “… it is difficult to help one without making an enemy of the other.” While the “other” was India in this case subsequent actions of Dulles would show that the immediate impact was far more on Afghanistan than India.

The Afghans protested almost immediately, and unlike Nehru who was deemed a “nuisance,” the Afghan case (that Russia might use US military assistance to Pakistan as an excuse to walk into Afghanistan) was received sympathetically by the President.

Afghanistan’s Ambassador to the US told Dulles that any military assistance to Pakistan would make Afghanistan weaker in that equation. Given festering problems between the two like Pashtunistan, this was in effect a power vacuum that would have to be filled and if America did not fill it the Soviets most certainly would.

To be continued.....