SOA files, lot 54 D 341, “Political Affairs—General”
The Director of the Office of South Asian Affairs (Kennedy) to the Ambassador in Turkey (McGhee)
officials–informal
Dear George: Your letter of December 19, 1952, enclosing a memorandum of conversation with the Afghan Ambassador to Ankara, General Assadullah Khan Seraj, was indeed interesting.1 The Ambassador’s views are almost identical with those expressed by the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister to our Ambassador in Kabul, by the Afghan Ambassador here to the Secretary and Under Secretary in recent conversations, and by the Afghan Ambassador in India to Ambassador Bowles. In talking to the Afghans, we have maintained the position that it seems desirable for the Afghan Government at this time to send an ambassador to Karachi to reciprocate the despatch of a Pakistan Ambassador to Kabul. We believe that during the past few months, until the recent bombing incident at least,2 there were signs of an improving atmosphere between the two countries. Keeping in mind our unproductive November 6, 1950, approach to Afghanistan and Pakistan, we wish to refrain from putting the US in the middle again. On the other hand, we did suggest to Sir Zafrulla, before he went to the Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Conference, some wording of a formula by which the Afghans might be induced to name an Ambassador to Karachi. Unfortunately the most difficult problem is trying to show the Afghans that the root cause of their difficulties is not the policy of the Government of Pakistan, but rather it is the issue of “Pushtoonistan” which, created by Afghanistan, continues to annoy Pakistan and thus to be disadvantageous to Afghanistan. We now expect to continue to urge the Afghans to send an ambassador to Karachi and to emphasize the need for improved Pakistan–Afghanistan relations in the interest of Afghanistan’s own security vis-à-vis the USSR.
Very best wishes for the New Year.
Sincerely yours,
- Not found in Department of State files.↩
- In telegram 353 from Kabul, Dec. 18, 1952, not printed, the Embassy reported on a series of bombings between Dec. 7 and 10 by Pakistan aircraft designed to disperse Afridi and Orakzai tribesmen gathered in Pakistan territory near the Afghanistan border under the leadership of Wali Khan, who was described by the Embassy as a “known GOA agent”. (789.00(W)/12–1852)↩