The Foreign Policy Of The Kennedy Administration Towards Pakistan(1961-1963)

After the globalization of the Cold War began,the United States carried out all-round containment of the Eastern camp.After seeking cooperation with India in South Asia,it turned to support through alliances with Pakistan.The Kennedy’s South Asia policy goal is to integrate India and Pakistan against the Eastern camp.For this reason,it adjusted its South Asia policy.The military conflict on the Sino-Indian border in 1962 objectively provided the impetus for the Kennedy administration to adjust its policy towards Pakistan.The Kennedy administration considered the risk of military assistance to India after weighing it.That is,it can maintain the alliance relationship with Pakistan while greatly intensifying US-Indian relations,and at the same time bear the cost of complicated US-Pakistan relations for a certain period of time.In the end,the United States disregarded Pakistan’s opposition and provided military assistance to India in an attempt to bring the US-India relations closer,which triggered a crisis in US-Pakistan relations.Since the foundation of mutual needs between the United States and Pakistan is still solid,the United States has also exercised restraint in its aid to India.After the storm,the relationship between the United States and Pakistan has generally recovered and continues to remain generally stable.Based on the existing research results,this article attempts to restore the Kennedy administration’s adjustment to Pakistan’s policy and its motivation based on the collection of American diplomatic documents and the memoirs of relevant policymakers in the 1950 s and 1960 s.Especially after the outbreak of the Sino-Indian border conflict,Kennedy faced the complicated regional situation in South Asia and the different feedback information and opinions from various parties.How to seize the fleeting opportunity to promote US-India relations under the complex situation.Previous studies tended to pay more attention to the results of the US military assistance to India,ignoring Kennedy’s personal preference for political ideas and the third world view,changes in the regional situation and the adaptation process of Kennedy’s cognition and decision-making,thus ignoring Kennedy’s specific contribution to South Asia.A complex decision-making process that weighs the pros and cons of policy adjustments.It is the original intention of this article to explore the complexity of the Kennedy administration’s policy decision-making thinking about Pakistan,the complexity of the decision-making “process”,the complexity of the decision-making background,and the complexity of the policy implementation results.