Office of the Historian

333. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in Pakistan1

Washington, November 8, 1980, 0102Z

297580. For the Ambassador. Subject: Military Sales to Pakistan.

1. (Secret—Entire text)

2. COS [less than 1 line not declassified] is being instructed in a parallel message to ask General Akhtar to inform Zia that we are prepared to make available from U.S. Army stocks 200 Redeye missiles for purchase through regular Foreign Military Sales channels.2 We are making this offer in the context of ever increasing Soviet pressure on Pakistan. We prefer Akhtar as a channel in order to get the message directly to Zia without the information becoming more widely known in the Pak Government.

Muskie
  1. Source: Department of State, Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Intelligence Liaison Files, TIN 980643000018, Box 3, Islamabad 80–81. Secret; Priority; Roger Channel. Drafted by Coon and approved by Kux (INR/DDC).↩
  2. Neither the parallel message nor Zia’s response to the offer was found.↩