Office of the Historian

271. Memorandum From the President’s Deputy Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Komer) to President Johnson1

Washington, December 20, 1965, 5:30 p.m.

We have a fascinating up-to-the minute report2 [1 line of source text not declassified] that: (a) Bhutto seems to regard Ayub as having sold out on his US trip; (b) Bhutto may be planning to use some papers relating to a secret Pak/Chicom deal against Ayub; (c) Bhutto thinks he’d better quit—he actually dictated a letter of resignation to Ayub; (d) Bhutto believes that Aziz Ahmed has been won over to the American side, and that G. Ahmed is also on that side. The only mention of you is that Bhutto says you “back-patted Aziz Ahmed” a great deal (and apparently to good effect).

This report suggests that the visit (plus our hard line posture leading up to it) have really shaken the Paks, that changes in Pak policy are in the offing, and that Bhutto may be on the way out3 (we don’t know, of course, whether he actually did send his resignation to Ayub). This report also tends to confirm some older reports from the same source on a secret Pak/Chicom understanding.

R.W. Komer 4
  1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, Pakistan, Vol. V, Memos, 9/65–1/66. Top Secret; Eyes Only.↩
  2. Not found.↩
  3. President Johnson discussed the subsequent resignation of Bhutto in a telephone conversation with former President Eisenhower on November 4, 1967. Johnson said that he had discussed Bhutto with Ayub during Ayub’s visit to Washington in December 1965. [text not declassified] He told Eisenhower that he warned Ayub about Bhutto: “I just said to him—now, Mr. President, I know you rely on Bhutto just like I rely on Dean Rusk and like Eisenhower relied on Dulles, but you can’t rely on him that way and I am not entering your internal affairs, but this man is damn dangerous as far as you are concerned and you are my friend and I am going to give you this warning and I know whereof I speak. [text not declassified]” (Johnson Library, Recordings and Transcripts, Recording of Telephone Conversation Between President Johnson and President Eisenhower, November 4, 1967, 10:05 a.m., Tape 67.14, Side B, PNO 40)↩
  4. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩