Neighbours in Arms

Book excerpt: As chairman of the US Senate's Arms Control Subcommittee, Larry Pressler advocated the now-famous Pressler Amendment, enforced in 1990 when President George H.W. Bush could not certify that Pakistan was not developing a nuclear weapon. Aid and military sales to Pakistan were blocked, including a consignment of F-16 fighter aircraft, changing forever the tenor of the United States' relationships with Pakistan and India, and making Pressler 'a temporary hero throughout India and a devil in Pakistan'. This book reveals what went on behind the scenes in the years when the Pressler Amendment was in force, through a cast of characters that include presidents, prime ministers, senators and generals in the US, India and Pakistan. It exposes the enormous power wielded by the military-industrial complex, which the author terms 'Octopus', and how it controls significant aspects of the American presence in the Indian subcontinent. The book provides a comprehensive account of how US foreign policy in the subcontinent was formed from 1974 till today, and ends with recommendations of a new US-India alliance that could be a model for American allies in future.