WASHINGTON: The world was ‘on the edge of a nuclear confrontation between India and Pakistan in early 1990 because of the tug-of-war over Kashmir, according to a new account by Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist Seymour M. Hersh.
The detailed report, titled “On the Nuclear Edge,’~ the March 29 issue of The New Yorker magazine.
Hersh, quoting senior U.S. intelligence officials by name, termed the showdown in the spring of 1990 “the most dangerous nuclear confrontation of the postwar era.” He said the Bush administration kept the conflict secret, failing even to disclose it to key members of Congress.
According to Hersh, the nuclear confrontation was defused by the intervention of President Bush’s personal envoy, then deputy national security adviser Robert Gates. Who was sent to India and Pakistan to negotiate a stand down between the two countries?
The administration continued to keep a tight security lid on the crisis, in part because officials feared exposing substantial sales of U.S. nuclear arms to Pakistan during the 1980s, Hersh wrote.
In the late 1980s the U.S. government “had permitted Pakistan to buy restricted items inside the United States for its nuclear arsenal” despite federal laws prohibiting such purchases, Hersh said.
In his 15,000word account. Hersh quoted by name two senior U.S. intelligence officials — Gates and Richard Kerr— as well as other U.S. crisis management officials. Gates was until recently director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and Kerr was deputy CIA director.
“I was convinced that if a war started, it would be nuclear,” Gates was quoted.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 9, 1993
