Office of the Historian

265. Backchannel Message From the Presidentʼs Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to the Ambassador to Pakistan (Farland)1

Washington, December 10, 1971, 10:53 a.m.

You will be receiving flash instructions through regular channels concerning Pakistani proposal for immediate ceasefire.2 The President has directed that future scenario be within the framework of the proposal which I provided to you within this channel.3 Above all, no actions should be undertaken within regular channels that have not been previously cleared with President via this channel. There is to be no additional pressure on Yahya.

In everything we do with Yahya, we cannot have it said that we stabbed Pakistan in the back. This must be your guiding principle on each issue from this point on.

Warm regards.

  1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 643, Country Files, Middle East, India/Pakistan December 1–10. Top Secret; Sensitive; Exclusively Eyes Only.↩
  2. See Document 264.↩
  3. See Document 259.↩