explained, “so they decided to telescope the process.” The incursions were the result, and last week, as Mrs. Gandhi began a series of visits to border troops, New Delhi abounded with rumors of further dramatic escalation.
While the Indians and Pakistanis were trading bullets and talking of a larger war to come, the rest of the world was merely talking. Despite the fact that they had supplied both the arms and the money to fuel the fighting, the world's major powers seemed unable to slop the conflict. Russia, which has supplanted the West as India's premier armourer, confined itself mainly to low-key tongue-clicking in Pravda, perhaps because Moscow feels it is backing the eventual winner. Military conflict, the Pravda article said, “would cause dire human and material sacrifice and would cause further difficulties in the long run.” And the People's Republic of China-a principal supporter of Pakistan's causc- concentrated chiefly on bawling out the Sovicts.
Nobody Is Listening
Nowhere was the impotence of a major power more evident than in Washington. Although the Nixon Administration called on the combatants to show restraint, the pleas fell on deaf cars. In India, where anger at the fact that the U.S. continued arms shipments to Pakistan until a month ago still runs high, a senior official bristled at the U.S request: “We got the pats on the back for our restraint and Ihey got the arms.” he snapped. “You say you're putting pressure on the Pakistanis. We say you're trying to cat the cake and keep it.” Nor did the U.S- mect with any greater success in Islamabad. For all his reliance on U.S. support. Yahya resolutely clung to the view that Pakistan could be saved without the release of Mujib and without buckling under to the Mukti Bahini.
Given Yahya's intransigence and the increasingly provocative Indian border crossings, it was difficult to see how full scale war could be avoided. Indeed, many foreign military attaches in New Delhi predicted that Jessore would fall to the Mukti Bahini by the end of this week-thus setting the scene for the proclamation of an independent Bangladesh and, perhaps, a retaliatory declaration of war by Pakistan against India. If that should happen the sub-continent would be engulfed in a more punishing conflict than any it has ever seen. For unlike past wars between India and Pakistan, this might well decide the ultimate fate of one of the antagonist. “The birthpangs of Bangladesh will signal the death-throes of Pakistan as we have known it." said one American diplomat. “Yahya knows that, his army knows it. And they won't go down without putting up one hell of a fight."
Why India Won't Risk Peace
If India fails to provoke Pakistan into an all-out war, it surely will not be for lack of trying. Truc enough, no one scriously believed that New Delhi had precipitated problems in Hast Pakistan where none had existed before: But neither did anyone doubt that the Indians had sought to take every possible advantage of the crisis from the beginning. Nor was there any question but what with the “opportunity of a lifetime,” as one Indian politician described it, now in hand. New Delhi would risk everything to transform its dream of a weak, dismembered Pakistan into a reality.
