বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খণ্ড
Q. What, then, was the basis of your belief that the result of these negotiations would in fact be autonomy for East Pakistan?
Dr. KISSINGER. I did not say that this would in fact be the case. I said that we had said we would support this, that we would use our influence in Pakistan to help bring this about and that we were willing to listen to a specific time-table.
Q. I thought you said that-
Dr. KISSINGER. I said it was our personal judgment; that could not be proved, and it was off the record, that it was likely that once negotiations started and were showing some progress that it would lead to the release of Mujibur, but we don't insist on this.
Q. I thought you said it was inevitable.
Dr. KISSINGER. I said off the record, that it was our judgment that the inevitable outcome would be political autonomy for East Pakistan and we had talked in this sense to the Government of Pakistan and they had in fact proclaimed that they were prepared to grant political autonomy for everything but foreign policy, defense, and currency, I believe.
Q. We have been very much involved in the negotiations, from what you say.
Dr. KISSINGER. Not on substance.
Q. Not on substance? Autonomy for East Pakistan, et cetra?
Dr. KISSINGER. Well, the negotiations had never, in fact, started.
Q. Well, in arranging them. The question I really have is: Today there is a report that Yahya Khan has called for assistance from East Pakistan in forming a coalition government. Is this in accordance with the path we were following and our goals? Did we approve this and is it encouraging in any way?
Dr. KISSINGER. We cannot accept the position that we are responsible for every detail of this negotiation. We, in general, have encouraged the return to civilian government. I do not want to go into the details of the political moves that are now being made. We were not in the position where we were taking responsibility, as a country, for every move in this negotiation. I was simply trying to explain; one, that we did show humanitarian concern, two, that we did take action at the end of March with respect to the East Bengal situation, three, that we did try to bring about the political conditions in East Pakistan that would make it possible for refugees to return.
The details of the negotiations would have had to be between Islamabad and the Bangladesh and whether one particular government or another is the right mix is a detail into which we cannot go, particularly since I have not studied this now.
Q. May I follow that up? Were we then actually attempting to play the same role in South Asia as we have attempted to play in the Middle East, that of an honest broker? Is that what you are telling us?
