Abhishek Asthana

It was the early 1960s. The Cold War was hot. Espionage was a household term. The US wanted closer surveillance over the Soviets. They wanted to fly their spy planes, but thanks to the Atlantic Ocean, they needed an airbase somewhere close. They began surveying areas in west Pakistan and finally zeroed in on Peshawar. They immediately asked the then Pakistan president, Ayub Khan, for a 10-year lease to construct a base — conveniently named Little USA — which could house 800 US personnel. It would have a golf course and a movie theatre too. Khan readily agreed.

The rent-seeker of everything nasty in its backyard was happy to seek rent. Hence, foreign aid flew, military assurances were made, the Pakistan-friendly Indus Waters Treaty was signed, and, very unexpectedly, the Republicans lost the elections in the US. A new guy with a noticeable tilt towards India walked into the Oval Office. The new US president, John F Kennedy, liked Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India.

It was an adversarial situation for Pakistan. The Kashmir issue was still unsolved, and US foreign aid to India continued unabated. Khan made a flurry of trips to the US to get things back on track. On one such trip, he had his newly minted foreign minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, with him. When Bhutto met JFK in the White House, the latter saw a Pakistani........

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