The conclusion for American policy follows:
It is to hope that the two great Islamic communities of the sub-continent can still find some relationship such as that between two parts of a commonwealth which will allow them to live in independent companionship. But there must be full autonomy and self-government for East Bengal Accordingly no action of ours should encourage or seem to discourage military domination of the East by the West.
This means no military assistance of any kind to West Pakistan. And it means that even small or symbolic assistance which seems to suggest support can be as damaging as substantial help. The foregoing factors also forbid any economic assistance so long as it could serve either directly or indirectly to pay for suppression of Bengali autonomy or independence.
And no arcane strategy involving the Chinese can be a justification for a different policy. These considerations of course mean a continuation of an embargo on arms for India and a clearly expressed disapproval of any possible Indian military initiative.
With all else, we must be completely generous in helping alleviate the suffering of the refugees.
One of the clear lessons of these last years is that our power in the third world is limited. It is not, within our competence to solve" the problem of East Bengal. But it is within our competence to be compassionate to urge (as evidently have the Soviets) against the use of force and above all to stop doing the wrong thing. [John Kenneth Galbraith is a former U.S. Ambassador to India.]
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