Previously Secret Documents on the Indian and Pakistani Nuclear Programs on the World Wide Web

Washington, D.C. -- May 12, 1998 --In the wake of India's first nuclear weapons tests in 24 years, the National Security Archive has published 22 declassified U.S. government analyses of the Indian and Pakistani nuclear program on the World Wide Web. These documents illustrate issues and concerns that guided policy during a critical period in South Asia's nuclear history: as the U.S. assessed the liklihood that India would opt for nuclear weapons, tried to devise means of dissuading it from doing so, and gauged the response of neighboring Pakistan.

These documents date from 1961, when India had an already advanced civilian nuclear program, to 1974, when it conducted its first test, to 1983, when the State Department confirmed that Pakistan's nuclear weapons program was well under way. They depict issues that guided India's nuclear policy (as interpreted by the U.S.) and the U.S. government's response.

These documents are available as part of an online briefing book entitled India and Pakistan -- on the Nuclear Threshold. They are part of the Archive's ongoing project on U.S. policy toward South Asia, which is documenting nuclear developments om India and Pakistan from the 1950s to the present. The project aims to create a focused selection of documents, which will be made available to researchers and the public at large. It receives the generous support of the W. Alton Jones Foundation.

Click here to go to the briefing book.