Washington was caught on the wrong foot when India conducted the peaceful nuclear explosion of May 1974, and again when its intelligence agencies were unaware of India testing the nuclear bomb for a second time in 1998, according to declassified U.S. documents posted on the Net by the Nuclear Proliferation International History Project and the National Security Archive.
The State Department's Intelligence and Research (INR) wing had felt that India was preparing for a nuclear test from 1972 onwards but Washington's focus on Vietnam and its preoccupation with China and the Soviet Union perhaps led it to give India low priority. As a result, the U.S. was taken completely by surprise when India tested the nuclear bomb in 1974.
The U.S. was partly to blame because despite the wealth of assessments, barely five months before the test, its Embassy felt India might not test because it was facing grave economic problems and there were no rumours of a test as in 1972.
The documents also give the impression that top-level policymakers at that time were not overly concerned about the dangers of proliferation. The intelligence community gave scattered assessments and the government was prone to scaling down their warnings when reports to the contrary came from other sources.
INR first voiced its suspicions in early January 1972 and barely a fortnight later the U.S. Embassy here saw “straws” suggesting an underground test “some time in future.” But after the Canadians said they had warned New Delhi of the implications of using raw material supplied by them for making nuclear bombs, the doubts subsided. The doubts resurfaced after the Canadians felt that as Indian nuclear scientists were capable of combining “guile” with “technical proficiency,” they could easily have “easily misled” them.
The Americans were still not sure and became further baffled when the Canadians and the British did not detect any Indian intention to test though they seemed to have the capability.
By mid-1972, the suspicions were back again after a Japanese Embassy official said the “Indians have decided to go ahead with a nuclear test” which could occur at “any time” in the Thar Desert. But subsequent cables cast doubt on the diplomat's assessment.
The conflicting reports prompted National Security Assistant Henry Kissinger to go in for a high-level study memorandum on the implications of an Indian nuclear test for U.S. interests. The study and the response, however, remained unattended for some time in Mr. Kissinger's office, indicating that the U.S. government's attention was on other issues and it did not give much importance at that time to nuclear proliferation issues. Assessments continued to swing one way or the other but after the test was made, the U.S. felt it had missed the signs.
Keywords: India, U.S., Nuclear Proliferation International History Project, State Department's Intelligence and Research, nuclear bomb
India owes the farsightedness, courage and fortitude of the leadership of Mrs. Indira Gandhi and Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee it's nuclear status as it stands today.
@ Saleem Mir: Well said. And eventually nuclear weapons will be used by someone in some part of the world (maybe the time's quite near). But on the other hand, this is human nature. We love destruction, and weapons of distruction are always a higher priority than development. Though nuclear weapons along with ICBMs work as great deterrents, but i wonder for how long they can prevent a large scale conflict.
The problem was that the Pakistan felt that the tests were directed against them. The prime reason we tested the bomb was to counter the Chinese as they have always been working on undermining India's influence and growth. Why else would they help Pakistan this long if not to nurture them against India. But for the Chinese interference, I feel India and Pakistan would have found some common ground long ago. About the present topic - nuclear weapon is the weapon of the present and the future and if we dint have this weapon we will have to be a stooge of one of the countries that posses the bombs. It is always known that negotiation can only be done from a position of strength.
I totally disagree with your opinion, Mr. Mir. India as a nation has to protect itself from its hostile neighbors, and it also need to boost the morals of the citizens and its allies. After independence, when the country was still in its infant stages, it was attacked more than once by its neighbors. Those wars cost India more money and lives, moreover poised a threat to India's sovereignty. So, the cost of making India nuclear powered is very insignificant in front of that. Moreover, India did not do it at the cost of millions of dead, unfed and uneducated masses, as suggested by you. However, your statement might stand right for our neighbor across the border. Moreover, we don't have lunatic ruling us in India, we've a very strong democratic system and though our politicians might be corrupt in certain aspects, but they never dare to 'sell' the country. For a stronger India and a peaceful sub-continent, the nuclear empowerment was a must for India.
The testing of "nuclear device", a euphemism coined by New York Times describing the underground Indian test in 1974, was and remains the worst moment in subcontinental history. ZA Bhutto of Pakistan wowed his people will eat grass but eventually make an atom bomb. This both countries did at the cost of millions dead, unfed and uneducated masses. The scourge of nuclear weapons has not given any of these countries any edge over the other. It has,however,brought them closer to self destruction should a lunatic on either side of the divide should venture to destroy the other.
And because of the Test and other factors,we all know the unprintable epithets that his boss Nixon used when referring to our then PM
without even for a moment thinking that the PM was a woman and that he used language unbecoming of the President of the U.S.of A.Also it is common knowledge that all subsequent Prezs were more pro-Pak while
not even giving any thought to our emergence on the International Arena as a Regional balancing Power worthy of respect and consideration.India may be a slow coach but is surely a country not to be trifled with.
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