Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume E–7, Documents on South Asia, 1969–1972

373. Telegram 5592 From the Consulate General in Dacca to the Department of State¹ ²

Dacca, December 11, 1971, 1125Z

Subject:

• British Plans re Bangla Desh

Ref:

• Islamabad 123430 London 11230

1. We note with interest that British are moving smartly ahead to establish some basis for early dealing with Bangla Desh, which now appears to be as certain as anything normally is in international affairs.

2. While we appreciate difficult and complicated questions involved in working out conditions in which we would recognize new sovereignty, such as Bangla Desh, it seems to us that at this stage of the game, some little preparation such as the British have obviously been doing could make things much easier. We assume that last sentence para one of State 222979 refers only to West Pakistan and that USG is not “ready to make a major effort ... to preserve Pakistani territorial integrity and armed forces” including East Pakistan. I therefore again strongly urge that we make preliminary soundings with reliable Bangla Desh reps in Washington or elsewhere which would, at very least, prevent them from assuming that we are inalterably opposed to idea of independent Bangla Desh or that we would take inordinately long to recognize a BDG substantially established in East Bengal

Spivack

1. Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1970–73, POL 16 BANGLA DESH. Secret; Immediate. Repeated to Islamabad, New Delhi, Calcutta, and London.
2. Consul General Spivack recommended that the U.S. contact representatives of Bangladesh to “prevent them from assuming that we are inalterably opposed to idea of independent Bangla Desh or that we would take inordinately long to recognize a BDG substantially established in East Bengal.”