From Nixon to Trump: Why US can never be India’s ally

On July 31, 1969, Richard Nixon highlighted the  common goal of the world’s oldest and biggest democracies. “Peace for the world, independence for all nations, progress, justice and freedom for all people in those nations,” the 37th POTUS said after he landed in India. “It is a very great honour for me to return to India for the third time.”

Mentioning an incident from his visit to India as vice-president 16 years ago, the president said that when he asked Jawaharlal Nehru what “he believed was the greatest need for India and her neighbours in Asia”, the then-PM replied, “What we need above everything else is a generation of uninterrupted peace.”

Nixon continued, “That was true then. It is even more true now. …and our major goal will be to try to succeed now in the dream that he [Nehru] had then—a generation of peace for India, for Asia, for the world.”

More from Opinion

Sergio Gor’s senate hearing signals the future of Indo-American ties How Trump’s ‘War on Drugs’ buildup against Venezuela has a hidden agenda

US and Pakistan are all-weather allies

Nixon’s support for India was a façade. Two years later, he laid bare his disgust and revulsion for Indians. “Undoubtedly,  the most unattractive women in the world are the Indian women,” he told his pro-Pakistan NSA, Henry Kissinger, on June 17, 1971.

A year ago, the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman-led Awami League won the Pakistani general election—but Pakistan’s military dictatorship refused to acknowledge the victory. By March 1971, Pakistan’s military started a brutal, bloody and devastating crackdown on Bengalis.Nixon and Kissinger staunchly supported the Pakistani dictatorship’s genocide and hated India for supporting Rahman, his party and their attempt for an independent East Pakistan.

A trove of declassified tapes released from May 2018 to May 2020 reveals their bigotry and hatred for India and Indians.

In another conversation during a private break from a White House meeting with Indira Gandhi, Nixon told Kissinger, “ To me, they turn me off. How the hell do they turn other people on, Henry? Tell me.”

Impact Shorts

More Shorts

How army remains Pakistan’s biggest business house

60 years on, why 1965 India–Pakistan war still matters

The tapes were obtained by professor Gary J Bass of Princeton University. In  an opinion piece headlined ‘The Terrible Cost of Presidential Racism’ in The New York Times on September 3, 2020, he writes about “how US policy towards South Asia under Nixon was influenced by his hatred of, and sexual repulsion toward[s], Indians” and his “racism” and “misogyny”.

In his 2013 book, The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide, Bass writes: “Nixon and Henry Kissinger, the brilliant White House national security adviser, were driven not just by such Cold War calculations, but a starkly personal and emotional dislike of India and Indians.”

“Nixon bitterly said, “The Indians need—what they need really is a—” Kissinger interjected, “They’re such bast*rds.” Nixon finished his thought: “A mass famine.”

Nixon overlooked the genocide perpetrated by then-Pakistani president Yahya Khan and East Pakistan governor General Tikka Khan under Operation Searchlight. More than 300,000 Bengali Hindus in East Pakistan were killed and more than 200,000 raped.

The bigger shock from Nixon was yet to come. During the 1971 India-Pakistan War, he and Kissinger encouraged China to amass troops at the LAC to intimidate India.

“If the People’s Republic were to consider the situation on the Indian subcontinent a threat to security… the US would oppose efforts of others to interfere with the People’s Republic,” Kissinger reportedly told China.

The duplicitous US foreign policy was exposed when Kissinger promised “all-out help” to India if Beijing attacked while trying to persuade China to mobilise troops at the LAC.

Moreover, Nixon dispatched a carrier task force from the Seventh Fleet, which included the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise and the attack submarine USS Gurnard, to the Bay of Bengal to counter India.

Only a Soviet intervention stopped the US Seventh Fleet. India and the USSR had already signed the Indo–Soviet Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation on August 9, 1971.

The USSR quickly deployed a destroyer and a submarine to the Indian Ocean and announced to dispatch another destroyer, a nuclear-guided missile submarine and a battle cruiser with nuclear missiles. The number of Soviet nuclear-powered submarines in the Indian Ocean totalled 10.

The 1971 war exposed not only the US hypocrisy on India but also proved the unbreakable ties, spanning over decades to come, between America and Pakistan.

The 1979-1989 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan further cemented the US-Pakistan relationship. The Mujahideen, massacred by the Soviet Mi-24 (Hind) copter gunships, were desperate to counter them. Stinger, the man-portable air defence system, was the only solution to target the “Satan’s Chariots”—and Pakistan was the conduit.

President Jimmy Carter, despite being hostile to Pakistan’s nuclear ambitions and human rights violations, supported Islamabad in ousting the Soviets from Afghanistan.

Under the CIA’s Operation Cyclone, planned by Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson, CIA officer Michael G Vickers and the agency’s regional head Gust Avrakotos, the US started supplying the missiles, one of the main reasons for the Soviet withdrawal, to the Mujahideen via Pakistan.

After the USSR pulled out, Pakistani president Zia-ul-Haq, Wilson’s dear friend, launched Operation Tupac in the late ’80s to destabilise J&K. As the Mujahideen fighters and other ISI-trained terrorists started infiltrating J&K, the US turned a blind eye—a favour granted for Pakistan’s help in fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan.

Even after the Soviet withdrawal, the US support to Pakistan in the form of economic and military assistance, including F-16s, amounting to billions, continued despite Islamabad’s financing and training of terrorists who were killing Kashmiris and Indian security personnel.

Under the Reagan Doctrine, the US granted $3.2 billion to Pakistan in 1981–1987 and another $4.2 billion in 1987–1993. Besides, 40 F-16s were sold to Pakistan for $1.2 billion.

Aid to Pakistan was only suspended by George HW Bush in 1990 under the Pressler Amendment due to concerns about its nuclear programme.

When Pakistan conducted nuclear tests in May 1998, the US suspended economic and military aid to Pakistan under the Glenn Amendment. However, five months later, Bill Clinton, under the Brownback Amendment, waived the sanctions based on the Glenn, Symington and Pressler Amendments for one year except “military assistance, dual use exports and military sales”. Moreover, Pakistan was provided financial support via the IMF and World Bank.

George W Bush resumed military aid to Pakistan following 9/11 after terming it a key ally in its ‘Global War on Terrorism’. Pakistan continued to support the Taliban and the Haqqani network in Afghanistan while pretending to be aiding the US in fighting terrorists.

Similarly, Barack Obama granted $1.5 billion annually to Pakistan until bin Laden was found in Abbottabad in May 2011. However, he resumed aid in 2013.

In his first term, Donald Trump suspended military aid to Pakistan in 2018 after he realised that the US had “foolishly given Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years” but Islamabad gave “safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan”.

Joe Biden reversed the military aid freeze and approved a $450 million F-16 fleet sustainment programme to Pakistan.

The aid was a US reward for Pakistan’s signing deals with US arms manufacturers Global Military and Northrop Grumman in August 2022 for the sale of 155mm shells to be provided to Ukraine, according to  BBC Urdu. Pakistan earned $364 million in the process.

In his second term, Trump temporarily suspended foreign assistance to Pakistan in January, but it was part of the wider freeze on $60 billion in USAID funding. One month later, he okayed $397 million for Pakistan to maintain its F-16 fleet.

Trump’s stance highlights anti-India policies

American hegemony has failed to overpower Russia, especially under Vladimir Putin, despite the Soviet Union’s disintegration. The US image of a superpower that can coerce, dominate or dictate terms to Russia has been shattered, especially in the last few years.

Biden walked into the Ukrainian quagmire in his futile bid to fight Russia. Trump has disastrously failed to extricate the US from it.

No other US president has highlighted the American failure to contain Russia more than Trump, whose cringeworthy obsequiousness to Putin and the regurgitative claim of sharing a great rapport with him have failed to stop the Russia-Ukraine War.

In his anger, frustration and failure in stopping the war, Trump has again highlighted the inherent decades-old American prejudice against India and the unflinching support for Pakistan.

First, the US president’s comments and actions post-Operation Sindoor show his pathetic attempt to take credit for ending the India-Pakistan hostilities. Since May 10, he has claimed around 40 times to have brokered the ceasefire.

India refused to acknowledge his false claim.

Pakistan—permanently obliged to the US—lauded Trump for his “decisive diplomatic intervention” and his “pivotal leadership” for stopping the war and then nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Pakistani Army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, even weaselled his way into the White House by recommending Trump for the prize.

In his fourth month in office, Trump has already started warming up to Pakistan. Neither Trump nor his deputy, JD Vance, named Pakistan in the Pahalgam carnage or asked it to stop financing and training terrorists.

In fact, days before the attack, State Department Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs senior official Eric Meyer met Sharif and “acknowledged the potential of Pakistan’s mineral sector” and the interest of US companies. Before their meeting, Pakistan hosted an international summit called Minerals Investment Forum to attract FDI to the country’s mining sector.

Four days after the Pahalgam attack, US firm World Liberty Financial (WLF) signed a deal with the newly formed Pakistan Crypto Council, headed by Bilal bin Saqib, a key advisor to Pakistan’s finance minister.

A US delegation headed by WLF cofounder Zachary Witkoff, son of Trump’s friend and West Asia envoy Steve Witkoff, was welcomed by Munir and met Sharif. WLF, founded in 2024, is 75 per cent owned by Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner.

Second, the US started targeting India, even before Trump’s return, after it failed to stop Putin. The Biden administration also singled out India for purchasing Russian oil, which, it alleged, was financing the war.

One month after Russia invaded Ukraine, Biden told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that it wasn’t in India’s interest to buy more oil from Moscow and could hamper the US response to the war.

Trump took the American bias against India to a different level by slapping an additional 25 per cent tariff on India, set to kick in on August 27, for purchasing Russian oil.

In the latest diatribe, Trump’s trade adviser, Peter Navarro, accused India of being “ a laundromat for the Kremlin”. “They don’t need the oil. It’s a refining profit-sharing scheme. It’s a laundromat for the Kremlin.”

In a Truth Social post last month in which he dubbed the Indian and Russian economies “dead”, Trump blatantly lied saying that the US and Russia   almost do no business.

Both Trump and Navarro need to be reminded that the US  i mported $192 million of refined oil (petroleum products), of which $135 million was from the EU-sanctioned Vadinar refinery (Gujarat), between January 2024 and January 2025, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).

Moreover, America has been importing nuclear fuel, precious metals and agricultural products from Russia—around $3 billion in imports in 2024. US International Trade Commission data show that the US imported fertilisers worth $1.1 billion, palladium $878 million, uranium $624 million and aircraft engine parts $75 million.

Between January and May this year, US imports from Russia jumped 23 per cent YoY to reach $2.1 billion—palladium imports up 37 per cent, uranium 28 per cent and fertilisers 21 per cent. While the US has only singled out India, its European allies continue to import Russian LNG, pipeline gas and crude oil. The  top five European importers—Hungary, France, Slovakia, Belgium and Spain—of Russian fossil fuels in July were NATO members.

These five countries paid €1.1 billion to import Russian fossil fuels with natural gas accounting for more than 67 per cent of the imports, per CREA data. Hungary was the largest EU importer, purchasing €485 million of Russian fossil fuels. France was the second-largest importer (€239 million), Slovakia third (€ 169 million), Belgium fourth (€102 million) and Spain fifth (€66 million).

The reason for the 25 per cent tariffs was as absurd. According to the US, the reason for the 25 per cent tariffs was to “ deter Russia” in Ukraine.

“He’s taken actions … sanctions on India and other actions as well. He’s made himself very clear that he wants to see this war end,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt—with a great brain and lips, per Trump—told reporters recently.

The US has been shamelessly silent on European imports of Russian fossil fuels worth billions.

The worst US hypocrisy was regarding China. Trump and his senior aides had also threatened to impose tariffs on China, the largest purchaser of Russian crude, but didn’t dare to go ahead.

Targeting India while sparing China also exposes the basic flaw of a bully—he surrenders when cornered by another bully. Putin and Xi Jinping are the only two leaders who have challenged US dominance and power and Trump’s vision of a unipolar world.

A history of interference

The US has a history of interfering in India’s internal affairs in the name of democracy, secularism, religious freedom and human rights—irrespective of a Democratic or Republican government.

The Clinton administration pressured India on human rights in Kashmir and  refused to recognise the instrument of accession. In October 1993, Robin Raphel, the then-US assistant secretary of state for South Asia, said, “We view Kashmir as a disputed territory. We do not recognise the instrument of accession as meaning that Kashmir is forever an integral part of India.”

In fact, in his September 1993 address to the UN General Assembly, Clinton said, “Bloody ethnic, religious and civil wars rage from Angola to the Caucasus to Kashmir.”

In his 2013 book Magnificent Delusions, Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, writes that  Obama secretly offered Pakistan in 2009 to ask India for negotiations on Kashmir if it stopped supporting terrorist groups.

In March 2024, the US again  interfered by expressing concern “about the notification of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act on March 11”. “We are closely monitoring this Act and how it will be implemented,” the State Department said.

However, India’s independent foreign policy in the last few years has rattled the US, especially under the Trump administration.

Despite Trump’s offer to mediate in the Kashmir dispute five times in his first term, India was firm that it is an indisputable part of India. India also rejected his repeated claims of having brokered the ceasefire with Pakistan in May.

Not only does New Delhi continue buying Russian oil, it has also  paused the purchase of American military equipment, like Stryker combat vehicles and a $3.6 billion deal to buy six P-8I reconnaissance aircraft.

The purchase of Russian oil aside, the US wants to use India merely as a pawn against China—like it used Pakistan against the Soviets in Afghanistan.

American moves are calculated strategically to serve only its interests, not those of other nations. Military and security experts and commentators have mistaken the change in India-US relations in the last few years as an alliance.

When Nixon wanted to establish ties with China, Pakistan played a major role in the rapprochement. Kissinger secretly took off from Pakistan for China in July 1971 and set the stage for Nixon’s meeting with Mao Zedong.

In the subsequent decades, successive American presidents overlooked two developments inimical to India.

First, the US allowed China to assist Pakistan in missile development.

Several Pakistani missiles are either copies and rebranded versions of Chinese missiles or have been manufactured with China’s assistance—the Shaheen 1, 2 and 3, Abdali, Hatf 5, Babur, Ra’ad and SMASH.

The Pakistan-China missile cooperation continues despite several US sanctions on state-owned Chinese entities, which hardly have any commercial relations in America.

Second, the US expressed concerns about Pakistan’s nuclear bomb ambitions only publicly despite Islamabad’s sole aim being to use nuclear deterrence against India.

The US intelligence knew about AQ Khan’s activities in helping Pakistan develop nukes for more than two decades but remained silent. Ignoring authentic intel on Pakistani-Iranian nuclear cooperation and Saudi and Libyan financial assistance to Khan’s nuclear bomb project, the Regan and George HW Bush administrations looked the other way.

By 1987, Pakistan had a nuclear bomb. Subsequently, Khan turned to nuclear proliferation to assist countries, especially Iran, seeking nukes. Through a network of middlemen in around 12 nations, including the US, the UK, Turkey, Malaysia, the UAE, Japan, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, South Africa and Pakistan, Khan started selling bomb designs, advanced materials, centrifuges and components and logistical and technical assistance to other countries.

Pakistan’s nuclear proliferation also fuelled missile development as North Korea agreed to sell missiles in exchange for centrifuges with Khan visiting the country more than 10 times.

The US only acted when it was revealed that Khan had provided N-weapons-related tech to North Korea, Iran and Libya. The US forced Pakistan to shut off the Khan network only after 9/11.

Nothing could be a bigger proof of America’s blatant biases towards Pakistan and massive leeway when Munir issued a nuclear threat to India on US soil. During his latest US visit, earlier this month, he said, “We are a nuclear nation. If we think we are going down, we’ll take half the world down with us.”

Trump has made the anti-India US policy more evident by imposing 50 per cent tariffs on India as against only 19 per cent on Pakistan. All Munir had to do was to take advantage of this growing chasm between Washington and New

Delhi and threaten India.Trump’s shifting stance on India is the biggest evidence that India can never trust the US.

In February 2020, during his first visit to India, Trump sounded like Nixon. “America loves India, respects India. India gives hope to all of humanity,” he said to a 125,000-strong crowd at the ‘Namaste Trump’ rally at Motera Stadium (Narendra Modi Stadium), Ahmedabad.

Two months later, Trump threatened to retaliate if India didn’t revoke the ban on anti-malarial medicine hydroxychloroquine, which he believed, contrary to scientific research, could fight the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

In his second term, he praised Modi’s tariff negotiating skills during their joint presser at the White House in February. “He is a much tougher negotiator than me. There’s not even a contest.”

On the same day, he said, “Traditionally, India is right at the top of the pack pretty much. There are a couple of smaller countries that are actually more but India charges tremendous tariffs.”

Now, Trump blames India for financing Russia’s war against Ukraine by purchasing Russian crude.

The writer is a freelance journalist with more than two decades of experience and comments primarily on foreign affairs. He tweets as @FightTheBigots. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.