The Lyndon B.Johnson Administration’s Foreign Policy Towards South Asia,1963-1969

During the Cold War period,South Asia had an extremely important geostrategic position and became an important area of strategic competition between the United States and the Soviet Union.During the Johnson administration,the United States gradually adjusted its South Asia policy,changing the "neutral" policy of not actively intervening between India and Pakistan,and adopting an active "co-opting" policy.At the beginning of the Johnson administration,from the "Kashmir conflict" between India and Pakistan in March 1963 to the "Fighting in the Rann of Kutch" between India and Pakistan in April 1965,the United States pursued a "neutral" and "wait-and-see" policy of not actively getting involved,and mainly played the role of the United Kingdom and the United Nations to alleviate the conflict.After the War of1965 India-Pakistan,the South Asia policy of the United States changed from "retreating behind the scenes" to active mediation and direct intervention.The United States suspended its military aid to India and Pakistan after pressure failed.Finally,India and Pakistan reached the Tashkent Agreement under the mediation of the Soviet Union.After the war,on the one hand,the Soviet Union increased its military aid to India;On the other hand,the Johnson administration delayed the resumption of all its aid to Pakistan,which angered Pakistan.In April 1968,Pakistan notified the United States of the Peshawar Agreement,which terminated military cooperation between the United States and Pakistan.In February 1970,U.S.forces were forced to withdraw from their Peshawar base,and U.S.-Pakistan relations hit a low point.During the Johnson administration,the South Asia policy of the United States was deeply influenced and restricted by many factors,such as the international Cold War,the two-power pattern in South Asia and the domestic politics of the United States.First of all,the South Asia policy of the United States is an important part of its global Cold War strategy,and dealing with the strategic competition of the Soviet Union is the core of its South Asia policy.With the deterioration of Sino-Soviet relations,the Sino-Indian border conflict and the expansion of the Vietnam War,the United States tried to actively intervene and dominate South Asia in order to adapt its Southeast Asia strategy.Secondly,the two strong structure of India and Pakistan in South Asia and the contradictions between the two countries are deeply rooted,so the United States can only carry out "relatively balanced" diplomacy between India and Pakistan.By means of aid,the United States wooed India and Pakistan and maintained a relative balance between them to maximize its own interests.Thirdly,the American Congress and its domestic public were strongly dissatisfied with the aid of the United States being used by India and Pakistan in the war,forcing the Johnson administration to stop the military aid to both sides.Johnson,Bundy,Bowles and others played important roles in the decision-making process of the United States’ South Asia policy.Finally,the existence of US-Pakistan military alliance and India’s "non-alignment" policy reserve a certain policy space for the US to actively "co-opt" and "relatively balanced" diplomacy.The Johnson administration’s South Asia policy was to walk a tightrope between India and Pakistan.As the conflict between India and Pakistan intensifies,the assistance and interference of the United States will inevitably lead to the deepening of mutual suspicion among the three parties.The US tightrope walking policy in South Asia faced a crisis as India moved from "non-alignment" to strengthening ties with the Soviet Union.The Johnson administration provided economic and military aid including food to India and Pakistan,which improved the people’s livelihood of India and Pakistan to a certain extent,but its interference policy not only eroded the sovereignty of the two countries,but also produced dependence on the United States.