The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965—the second of four skirmishes between India and Pakistan during the twentieth century since their independence in 1947—was defused when the United Nations intervened after six weeks of conflict by appointing the U.N. India-Pakistan Observation Mission (UNIPOM), which accomplished its task in six months.
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 was the second flare-up between the two countries over the Kashmir Valley (Kashmir and Jammu)
On January 17, 1948, the U.N. Security Council adopted Resolution 39,
Following India’s setback in a border battle with the People’s Republic of China (October 10-November 20, 1962), India began negotiations (December 27, 1962-May 16, 1963) with Pakistan on the future of Kashmir, but to no avail. The defeat of the Indian army by China was seen by Pakistan as a window of opportunity to achieve Pakistan’s irredentist aims by force while the Indians had become demoralized. This military calculation appeared to be realizable in the context of serious communal disturbances in Kashmir, especially between 1962 and 1964, a period during which the region’s Muslim population felt growing resentment of Indian control.
The Pakistani military began a probe in a disputed border zone with India—the Rann of Kutch,
Meanwhile, relations between India and Pakistan soured further: Indian letters to the Security Council of March 5, March 17, April 27, 1965, accused Pakistan of attempting to integrate part of the Indian territory of Jammu and Kashmir and also of negotiating with the People’s Republic of China
In his report of September 3 to the Security Council, Secretary-General U Thant declared that the cease-fire agreement of July 27, 1949, between the two belligerent nations (following the First Kashmir War) had collapsed. The next day the Security Council, presided over by Arthur J. Goldberg, voted on Resolution 209,
However, at the Security Council’s 1,238th meeting, on September 6, U Thant reported on new and alarming developments: India’s attack across the West Pakistan borders on such Pakistani cities as Lahore, Sialkot, and Kassur. The Security Council adopted a unanimous resolution on the same day, urging both belligerents to cease hostilities immediately and withdraw their forces to status quo ante as of August 5. From September 7 to September 16, U Thant visited the subcontinent and, in his dispatch to the Security Council on September 16, reported on the willingness of India and Pakistan to accept a cease-fire and on the sheer difficulty of reaching a peaceful agreement between them because of their insistence on mutually unacceptable conditions.
On September 20, after the hostilities had spread to the international border between India and West Pakistan, the Security Council, at its 1,242d meeting, adopted Resolution 211,
The cease-fire resolutions continued to be violated by both belligerents, and the Security Council met several times from late September through early November, 1965. On November 25, Secretary-General U Thant appointed Brigadier-General Tulio Marambio as his special representative to meet with the representatives of India and Pakistan for the purpose of formulating a plan for withdrawal in compliance with the November 5 Resolution 215. Ultimately, through the good offices of the United Nations, the cease-fire was achieved on December 26, 1965.
On January 10, 1966, Lal Bahadur Shastri of India and Muhammad Ayub Khan of Pakistan, who had met in Tashkent on January 4 at the invitation of the premier of the Soviet Union, Aleksey Kosygin, agreed to withdraw all armed personnel by February 25, 1966, to positions held prior to the conflict. On February 26, U Thant reported on the successful completion of the withdrawal of troops by India and Pakistan. UNIPOM was disbanded on March 22.
The United Nations, established for the purpose of maintaining international peace and security through the Security Council as stipulated in chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, tried sincerely (though not entirely successfully) to contain the escalating conflicts between the two newly independent neighboring countries of South Asia. The U.N. intervention in the Indo-Pakistani conflict of 1965 was crucial in avoiding a calamitous politico-military crisis in the subcontinent.
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Ganguly, Sumit. Conflict Unending: India-Pakistan Tensions Since 1947. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. A competent, lucid, nonpartisan analysis of the background and the course of the conflict of 1965. -
Indo-Pakistan War, 1965: A Flashback. 1966. 2d ed. Rawalpindi: Inter Services Public Relations, Government of Pakistan, 2002. An account of the conflict from Pakistan’s perspective, to be read with caution, especially in respect to the appraisal of the country’s military action and its impact on India. -
Johnson, Rob. A Region in Turmoil: South Asian Conflicts Since 1947. London: Reaktion Books, 2005. Places the Kashmir disputes in the broader context of conflicts in the subcontinent in the second half in the twentieth century. A sound analysis. -
Paul, T. V., ed. The India-Pakistan Conflict: An Enduring Rivalry. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. A collection of scholarly articles on the subject by a group of Canadian and American experts. Rich in theoretical analysis. -
Singh, Arun. U.N. Security Council and Indo-Pak Conflicts. Delhi: Capital Publishing House, 1992. A detailed report on and analysis of U.N. deliberations on the Indo-Pakistani conflict of 1965. -
United Nations. Yearbook of the United Nations, 1965. New York: United Nations Publications, 1965. An easily accessible primary document.
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