290. Telegram 4091 From the Embassy in Iran to the Department of State1 2

Subject:

  • Secretary Connally Travel: Memorandum of Conversation From Secretary Connally’s Meeting With President Bhutto at the Presidential Palace in Rawalpindi on July 6, 1972: Part VII of VII: Summary Comment.

Comment: I thought the conversation was very frank, very warm and extremely cordial. My assessment is that Bhutto fully understands his diffiuclties. He is enormously upset about the Indians and their attitudes but is both intelligent and pragmatic enough to undertake the rebuilding of his own country without letting bitterness blind him as to what he has to do.

Connally
  1. Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1970–73, POL 7 US/Connally. Secret; Immediate; Nodis. Also designated as CONTO 269. The time given for the transmission of the telegram is apparently wrong. Sent with instructions to pass to Islamabad, New Delhi, Dacca, the White House for Davis, and Treasury for Dixon.
  2. Former Treasury Secretary Connally concluded from his conversation with Pakistani President Bhutto that while Bhutto was “enormously upset” with India, he was intelligent and pragmatic enough to move beyond the crisis and rebuild his country without letting bitterness blind him.