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HVK Archives: India has supporters in Jimmy Carter, Kissinger

India has supporters in Jimmy Carter, Kissinger - The Observer

Aziz Haniffa ()
May 28, 1998

Title: India has supporters in Jimmy Carter, Kissinger
Author: Aziz Haniffa
Publication: The Observer
Date: May 28, 1998

What do former US President Jimmy Carter, his then National
Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, former Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger and noted conservative columnist Patrick Buchanan
have in common?

They all believe India was justified in conducting the recent
nuclear tests even if the rationale each of them provided for New
Delhi's action in commencement speeches, television interviews
and op-ed articles may differ.

Even though mainstream opinion In the US has been condemnatory of
the Indian tests, people like Carter and Kissinger have
implicitly endorsed India's view that there is a sense of
hypocrisy and double standard in the western, particularly
American, attitude to the tests. Carter sees the "sheer
hypocrisy" right here m the United States, where Washington still
maintains thousands of warheads and has been sluggish in its
efforts to completely eliminate them.

In fact, experts say the US has absolutely no intention of
eliminating all of them even if a utopian situation vis-a-vis
arms control is achieved inter nationally and the recent
endorsement of sub-critical tests and computer simulations make
clear this intent. As for Kissinger, he sees India as an emerging
global power, and not just a regional power, a view he made very
clear in an interview immediately after he hosted a power
breakfast for President K R Narayanan last month in New York.
Narayanan was awarded the World Statesman Award by the Appeal for
Conscience Foundation, largely on the urging of Kissinger.

Kissinger believes that India, like China, is not a country that
the US can push around. as it does some countries in South
America or even Its massive neighbour Mexico, with threats of
sanctions and other punitive measures. He sees India as vital to
the stability of not only the subcontinent but Asia in general,
saying Washington should be coveting New Delhi not only because
of its massive economic potential but because of its immense
strategic importance.

While Kissinger is circumspect on the hypocrisy and double
standard contention, since he has major consulting business in
China, the likes of Brzezinski and Buchanan, even though they
belong to two different camps, have no qualms about what they see
as a blatant double standard of US policy towards China and
India.

Many an independent observer here has pointed out how Washington
continues to pander to China, despite Intelligence reports
indicating over and over again of nuclear and missile
proliferation and clandestine transfers to Iran and Pakistan,
while India, even before the tests, has been denied dual-use
technology and constantly lectured on with regard to
proliferation despite its proven record of not transferring
nuclear or missile equipment to Third World countries.

Carter, delivering the commencement address at Trinity College in
Hartford, Connecticut, said last week it was hypocritical for the
United States to castigate India for its nuclear tests,
considering Washington's refusal to drastically reduce its
massive nuclear arsenal. "It's hard for us to ten India you
cannot have a nuclear device" when the US is basically saying
"wen keep ours, 8,000 or so; we're not ready to reduce them yet,"
he said. Carter who has become immensely popular since leaving
office in 1980, having emerged as a diplomatic trouble-shooter
and a renowned humanitarian for his charitable work in the inner
cities of this country as well as in developing countries - said:
"we claim we're for a comprehensive test ban to prevent all
testing of nuclear weapons, but we still haven't ratified the
treaty." "We claim we want to reduce nuclear arsenals, (but) the
START (strategic arms reduction talks) treaty (that) was passed
about eight years ago" is yet to be ratified by either the US or
Russia. Carter, the last US President to visit India in 1978,
said India was "the greatest-sized democracy in the world, a very
proud country" that looks at the United States with admiration
but also with deep concern.

Brzezinski, in a commentary in the Washington Times, said: "the
United States has never pursued a genuinely universal and non-
discriminatory policy of halting proliferation."


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