December: ‘The Fourteen Days’ War’

Abstract

When the open war between India and Pakistan at last began on the night of 3 December 1971 the two were unequally matched. Since the 1962 border war with China India’s forces had greatly improved in size, training and equipment, and an indigenous armaments industry had been developed with help both from the Soviet Union and from the Western powers. Consequently India was less affected than her rival when Western arms aid to both India and Pakistan was terminated after the 1965 war. She also received large-scale military supplies from the Soviet Union, which continued after 1965. On the other hand, despite very considerable Chinese help, Pakistan had not been able to escape from the effects of her previous reliance on Western supplies, especially from the United States. Although she had benefited from a limited resumption of military aid by both the United States and the Soviet Union in the late 1960s and from the continuing grant of licences for arms purchase in the West, the military balance in the sub-continent between 1965 and 1971 had been shifting steadily against Pakistan and in favour of India.¹⁹¹