[Fiji Hill]

What President Nixon's detractors leave out is the fact that in 1971, India and the Soviet Union were closely allied, and that the Soviets were pouring arms into India. As the White House saw it, the destruction of Pakistan, an American ally, by India would greatly increase Soviet influence in the region. See The Evolution of Soviet Security Strategy, 1965-1975 by Avigdor Haselkorn (New York: Crane, 1978).

[James C. Bennett]

The Russians supplied India with armaments when America refused to sell them, and even forced Britain to stop such sales - one of the Soviet premiers famously gave India’s Nehru tours of Russian aircraft factories with promises of supplying India with the latest of Russian weaponry - at a time when the West refused to entertain any such efforts.

The American bet was on a religiously “cohesive” Pakistan to survive over the long term, in comparison with what was thought to be a very unstable, secular India. On top of that, the Russians quite early on shored up support for India in booting out French and Portuguese territorial claims from within her territory - especially Goa.

Things turned out quite differently, for all parties, through the years. India, no doubt, acted in India’s interests and stuck with it.