SRINAGAR: India and Pakistan came close to a possible nuclear exchange at the height of the 1999 Kargil war, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst and journalist Burkha Dutt claimed on Friday.
The two South Asian rivals, according to two separate accounts, were ready to risk the use of nuclear weapons.
In his account CIA analyst Bruce Riedel claimed in an interview with The Independent that the US spy agency had tipped off the intelligence to then president Bill Clinton.
Reidel made these claims in a written obituary for former US National Security Adviser Sandy Berger who died of cancer on Wednesday.
The CIA had warned President Clinton of the plans, which formed part of the daily top secret classified briefing on July 4, 1999, when he was scheduled to meet visiting Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Riedel wrote: The morning of the Fourth, the CIA wrote in its top-secret Daily Brief that Pakistan was preparing its nuclear weapons for deployment and possible use. The intelligence was very compelling. The mood in the Oval Office was grim.
Berger urged Clinton to hear out Sharif, but to be firm.
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Pakistan started this crisis and it must end it without any compensation. The president needed to make clear to the prime minster that only a Pakistani withdrawal could avert further escalation.
Sandy knew Clinton better than anyone, his natural inclination was to find a deal. This time, no deal was possible, it must be an unequivocal Pakistani climbdown.
It worked. Sharif agreed to pull back his troops. It later cost him his job: the army ousted him in a coup and he spent a decade in exile in Saudi Arabia. But the risk of a nuclear exchange in south Asia was averted.
“It was Berger’s finest hour.”
Another account came from Barkha Dutt in her new book. This time the source was Indias ex-National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra who was cited as saying that Delhi was considering the use of a nuclear weapon during the eight-week-long conflict in Kargil.
Former NSA Brajesh Mishra told Dutt that then prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had written a secret letter to Clinton warning him that India would use any means available unless Pakistan was not convinced to withdraw.
Crossing the Line of Control was not ruled out, nor was the use of nuclear weapons, said Mishra, who had handed Vajpayees letter to a top US official in Geneva, NDTV reported.
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