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The South Asia Story
The First Sixty Years of US Relations with India and Pakistan
First Edition
- Harold A Gould - Centre for South Asian Studies, University of Virgina, Charlottesville
April 2010 | 136 pages | SAGE India
This book deals with the complex and changing U.S. relations with India and Pakistan in the sixty years since World War II. It carries a series of brief sketches on how twelve U.S. presidents, starting with Franklin Roosevelt, perceived and dealt with South Asia. The author proposes that though there are broad historical patterns in which the policies and decisions of these American presidents can be classified, yet their unique personalities and ideological predispositions also played a role in the political choices they made. Since none of them ever had any substantial experience with South Asia prior to assuming office, probing the reasons for their preferences and decisions is an enlightening and interesting exercise.
With the unfolding of the South Asia policies of the new U.S. President, Barrack Obama, this book will provide the much needed background study to the readers.
With the unfolding of the South Asia policies of the new U.S. President, Barrack Obama, this book will provide the much needed background study to the readers.
Prelude
World War II and the Roosevelt Administration
The Truman Administration 1945-1953
The Eisenhower Administration (1952-1961)
The Kennedy Administration (1961-1963)
The Johnson Administration (1963 to 1969)
The Nixon Administration (1969-1974)
The Ford Administration (1974-1977)
The Carter Administration (1977-1981)
The Reagan Administration (1981-1989)
The Bush-1 Administration (1989-1993)
The Clinton Administration (1993-2001)
The Bush-2 Administration (2001-2009)
Postscript
Notes
References
Index
Delightful and engaging, this slim and pithy first-hand account of the way the US’ South Asia policy has been taking shape over the decades under successive American Presidents, could be described as a small but revealing window to the "goings on" in Washington with regard to India and Pakistan. While enabling the reader to place the US’ relations with India and Pakistan in a historical perspective, the work opens a door of investigation to a host of issues currently punctuating the interstate relations of this region.
