accommodation and to wrest a sizable area away from a neighbor four times as large. Yet, under the disorganized conditions prevailing on the subcontinent, when present boundaries had not yet hardened, such goals may have will to succeed. . . (Barnds, 1972, p. 71).
This paper will begin by examining the relationships between India, Pakistan, and the United States. It will then turn toward the historical basis for these uneasy relationships, and look in detail from the 1950s through the 1980s. Using the historical as a partial test case, the paper will then turn to the factors that influenced the relationship between the United States, Pakistan, and India; in particular, those of an economic or strategic bent. Finally, the paper will conclude with a basic assessment of the balance of the issues and comment on the future prospects that are possible between the three countries.
In 1947, when both India and Pakistan emerged as two independent countries, the United States seemed pleased and even paid verbal tribute to Great Britain for allowing such a relatively peaceful transition of power. This transition, from colonialism to democracy, meant, in effect, that the United States had two potential allies in its Cold War with the Soviet Union. President Harry S. Truman, in making remarks to India, noted that: "We welcome India's new and enhanced status in the world community of sovereign independent states and assure the new domination of our continued friendship and goodwill." He later commented to Pakistan that, "on this auspicious day which marks the emergence among the family of nations of the new dominion of Pakistan, I assure you that the new dominion embarks on its course with the firm friendship and goodwill of the United States of America" (Choudhury, 1975, p. 73).
Thus, almost from the outset, the relationship between the United States, Pakistan, and India, while seemingly cordial on the outside, has been tempered wit...