Pakistan Chronicle By Sir Morrice James. London: Hurst & Company, 1993, 242 pp.
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Abstract
The book Pakistan Chronicle--authored by Morrice James, who had twenty
years of experience in South Asia, of which nine years were in Pakistan as
deputy and head of the United Kingdom's diplomatic mission-may not be an
excellent academic research document, but it deserves credit for certain merits.
The psychoanalyses and behavioral studies of some Pakistani military and political
elite, especially Ayub, Bhutto, and Zia, are some of the book's outstanding
contributions. The book contains excellent discussions on different pacts and
treaties Pakistan conducted, such as the Mutual Assistance Pact with the United
States (1954), the Indus Water Treaty (1960), the Tashkent Declaration (1966);
the crises Pakistan faced, such as the anti-Qadiani Riots in 1953, the Kashmir dispute, and the Bangladesh War in 1971; and the Afghan conflict that involved
the two superpowers. In the 1960s. the author observed that India considered
Kashmir an integral part of itself and nonnegotiable, and that position has not
yet changed.
As the British high commissioner, the author could give a firsthand description
of national and international forces that strained Pakistan’s relationship with
the West, especially Britain and America, and of how Pakistan gradually developed
a pro-Chinese foreign policy ...