Interview with General A.I. Akram [Part 4 of 4]
Summary
Agha Ibrahim Akram was a lieutenant general who served in the Pakistan Army during the 1965 and 1971 wars with India. The interview Akram conducted for War and Peace in the Nuclear Age concentrates on the history of tension and conflict between Pakistan and India. He reviews the three wars: the devastating bloodshed that followed partition in 1947, the pride he felt in 1965 as chief of staff of an infantry division along the West Pakistan border, and his bitterness toward India over the Bangladesh war in 1971. Despite the persistence of tension between Pakistan and India, Akram recognizes circumstances in which their perspectives and geopolitical positions meet. For instance, he fully supports India’s critique of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty: that the major nuclear powers only selectively enforce and adhere to its provisions. He wishes that South Asia could be a nuclear-weapons-free zone but is willing to settle for India and Pakistan’s interdependence: “The two countries—we are the protagonists of South Asia. We’ll actually cross the threshold together or not cross it at all.” Akram also recalls 1974 as the watershed year when India detonated a nuclear explosive and took one step toward becoming a nuclear power in hopes of enhancing its global status. That moment also coincided with skyrocketing oil prices, which stiffened Pakistan’s resolve to develop nuclear energy for electricity and, if need be, weapons.
Topics
Nuclear weapons, Nuclear arms control
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Transcript
India-Pakistan war, 1971
Interviewer:
Let me ask you about the 1971 war. First, your
personal experience there but also what it meant. Did it mean a sense of
loss to pakistan? How did it feel?
Akram:
Well I was a divisional commander in that war. I was
stationed -- my division was in what was then West Pakistan, is now Pakistan, at
the front. Uh, it was a traumatic event for Pakistan in that we not only lost part of our territory to
an enemy whom we knew was an enemy.
Interviewer:
Could we start again?
Akram:
Uh, well I was a divisional commander in the '71 war and my division was stationed at the front
in the western part, what was then West Pakistan and now Pakistan. Uh,
'71 was a very traumatic and painful
experience for us because A1 we lost a part of our territory and B1 we
suffered a defeat from India. Well we
maintained that we would not be defeated by India. It so happened that the Indians
attacked the Pakistan core in East Pakistan under conditions when we were in a
weak position. Our forces there were not able to resist and so it was
easy for the Indians to secure a victory. It
wasn't a great victory anyway. But from our point of view it was
terrible to suffer a defeat at the hand of the Indians. At the same time and losing part of our territory.
It was a painful experience. It took us time to get over it. I think we
have got over it now.
Interviewer:
The 1971
war -- what did this mean for Pakistan, the defeat in that war?
Akram:
Well... I was a divisional commander in that war and my
division was stationed at the front on the western side, what was then
called West Pakistan and is now just Pakistan. Uh, from the point of view of our
own response or reaction to that war; it was a most painful and most
traumatic experience for Pakistan in that
we lost a part of, part of our country to a neighbor who had always
acted as the enemy of Pakistan. And we
hated the idea of losing a war to India. It
was also a matter of national pride or a matter of professional pride in
the Pakistan
army. Because we were as good as the
Indians. So we suffered in that way also.
It was traumatic in that the Indians had built
up and orchestrated a world-wide propaganda campaign against Pakistan to project Pakistanis or West
Pakistanis as brutal and cruel colonizing people who were colonizing and
ill treating the East Pakistanis. And in a way the impression was
created that we were the bad guys and they were the good guys. It wasn't
shared by everybody. As a matter of fact our American allies uh, stood by us uh, in a political sense in
that President Nixon did try and
persuade Mrs. Indira Gandhi not to
start a war on, on the East Pakistan issue.
And I think he did extract a promise from her that she wouldn't. But she
went back on her promise and she did actually -when she came back from
her visit to Washington she gave orders for the finalization of the plan
to invade East Pakistan. It was a traumatic
and painful experience for us. It took us time to get over it. But that
is the kind of war we will not be -- hope not to fight again.
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