New Delhi, May 15 -- In the aftermath of the near warlike India-Pakistan conflict it is clear that China has firmly established itself as Islamabad's benefactor. The role that the United States played in bankrolling and indulging Pakistan throughout the 1980s during Soviet occupation of Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989, will be increasingly played by China with India as their common nemesis. In fact, Pakistan has been America's client state since the 1950s, proving to be a conduit to China in the 1970s, including facilitating President Richard Nixon's historic visit to Beijing in 1972.

In this context, this passage in the archives of the U.S. State Department is highly instructive. It says, "According to Henry Kissinger, "When the Nixon...