India, Pakistan, Nukes, and US

Dateline: 06/12/98

At the end of the Gulf War, India's Chief of Staff was asked what lessons he had learned from observing the conflict. His response ...

"Don't fight the Americans without nuclear weapons." ¹

... should have served ample notice of the drama now playing on the Indian subcontinent.

Oh, there were some other "subtle" hints.

Ex-leader Says Pakistan Has Nuclear Bombs
United Press International, August 23, 1994
Barry Schweid
Former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif has admitted his country has a nuclear bomb and warned that an Indian attack in the disputed territory of Kashmir could trigger a nuclear war in South Asia, the semi-official news agency Pakistan Press International reported Tuesday.
(c) copyright United Press International, August 23, 1994. All Rights Reserved.

India Calls Pakistan's Nuclear Offer A Cover-up
Reuters, August 26, 1994
India said Tuesday a Pakistani offer to renounce nuclear arms if New Delhi did the same was an attempt to cover up Islamabad's secret atomic weapons program. Foreign Ministry spokesman Arif Khan told reporters in New Delhi that India was still awaiting Pakistan's response to a proposal it made last January to sign a joint nuclear "no first use" pledge.

India Seeks Nuclear Deterrent
United Press International, September 01, 1994
Sukhjinder S Bajwa
India should keep open the option of arming itself with nuclear weapons as a deterrent to potential threats from Pakistan and China, a leading Indian politician said Wednesday.
(c) copyright United Press International, September 01, 1994. All Rights Reserved.

Seeing these developments, the United States Arms Control And Disarmament Agency stepped in.

Director of U.S. Arms Control And Disarmament Agency In India
Agency France Presse, November 01, 1994
John Holum, director of the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, arrived here Tuesday for talks with Indian officials on nuclear non-proliferation and arms control, Indian officials said. Holum was scheduled to meet senior Indian defense officials and Foreign Secretary Kris Srinivasan during his three-day stay, they said.
(c) copyright Agency France Presse, November 01, 1994. All Rights Reserved.

The ACDA works to formulate, negotiate, and implement arms control, nonproliferation, and disarmament treaties and agreements between all countries of the world. These efforts encompass both nuclear and conventional weapons and weapons delivery systems.

The main treaties you'll read about in relationship to the India / Pakistan situation are the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Looking at the following links, you will see that neither India, nor Pakistan have ratified either of these major treaties.

CTBT Signatory Countries
NPT Signatory Countries

While the ACDA and President Clinton continue working diligently to compel India and Pakistan to ratify and respect these and other arms control treaties, their success now seems unlikely.

You can draw parallels between India / Pakistan and the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Two countries confront each other with nuclear weapons at point-blank range. Nuclear war was avoided in 1962 only when both countries gave up something. Our missiles came out of Turkey, the Soviet Union's from Cuba. But this trade worked only because both countries could "afford" to give a little. Both countries had more missiles. Lots of them. Neither India, nor Pakistan have (as far as we know) similar "back-down" opportunities.

Here are a few other interesting articles and excerpts describing  the nuclear road traveled by India and Pakistan:

President Bill Clinton
US Air Force Academy, 31 May 1995
"The breakup of the Soviet Union left nuclear material scattered throughout the Newly Independent States and increased the potential for the theft of those materials, and for organized criminals to enter the nuclear smuggling business. As horrible as the tragedies in Oklahoma City and the World Trade Center were, imagine the destruction that could have resulted had there been a small scale nuclear device exploded there."

U.S. Eyes Trained On India And Pakistan
United Press International, February 22, 1996
Ian Christopher Mccaleb
WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- CIA Director John Deutch said Thursday the possibility of an escalated nuclear arms race on the Indian subcontinent causes the most alarm within the U.S. intelligence community.
(c) copyright United Press International, February 22, 1996. All Rights Reserved.

Pakistan Builds 'Unsafeguarded' Nuke Reactor: U.S. Study
Press Trust Of India, April 13, 1996
Washington, April 13 (PTI) A U.S. Defence Study says that Pakistan "is building an unsafeguarded nuclear reactor that will provide it with a substantial capability to produce weapons-grade plutonium." The reactor is expected to become operational in the late 1990s, the Study on Proliferation released by the U.S. Defence Secretary's office says. About India, it says that India's very active nuclear energy programme has enabled it to obtain all of the essential materials and facilities for producing nuclear explosives.

India Set To Join Select Nuclear Submarine Club
Reuters, May 22, 1996
Paul Majendie
LONDON, May 22 (Reuter) - India is set to join the world's select club of nuclear submarine states with help from jobless Russians eager to hawk their expertise, defence experts said on Wednesday. Next to join the nuclear sea powers after India could be Japan and Brazil, according to the latest annual edition of Jane's Fighting Ships. Its editor, Captain Richard Sharpe, said the Indian nuclear submarine programme was a well-funded top priority with Russian design assistance. Building is due to start in 1997 and they will be in service by 2004. "The whole Indian subcontinent has about it an overheated atmosphere of instability," he said.

All of which brought us to this latest item:

India seeks global pact on nuclear arms
Sunday May 31, 1998, 4:03 PM EDT
By John Chalmers
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India tried to cool regional tension Sunday, repeating its call for a no-first-use weapons pact with arch-rival Pakistan and a new global convention for nuclear disarmament. But later a Foreign Ministry spokesman said an official at its embassy in Islamabad had been attacked and badly beaten up and that New Delhi had summoned Pakistan's ambassador to protest. The spokesman said the incident "had very disturbing connotations and was entirely unacceptable."

¹ Quoted by Patrick J. Garrity, Why the Gulf War Still Matters: Foreign Perspectives on the War and the Future of International Security, Report No. 16 (Center for National Security Studies, July 1993), p. xiv.

Your opinion is welcome on the
U.S. Government Info/Resources Bulletin Board
Totally Free. Conspiracy Theories Welcome. Open 24-hours.

Federal Job Openings and Resources
40,000 people will get U.S. Government jobs this year. Want to be one of them?

Index to U.S. Government Web Space
Links to over 250 agencies, bureaus, commissions and offices in all three branches of government.

Previous Features