Author: Brian Cloughley
Publisher: Oxford University Press Pakistan
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 448
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0195795075
Description
This is an in-depth study of the Pakistan Army. The scope of this book is wide because field marshals and generals ruled the country for many years. The author describes Pakistan’s violent internal politics and erratic international relations in the context of military involvement, with the deep knowledge gained through long association with the country and its armed forces.
Pakistan’s three wars with India are covered vividly, suing unpublished sources and facts, and opinions from Indian as well as Pakistani accounts. The dramatic story of the country’s resurrection under Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, after the disastrous war with India over Bangladesh, is told in an eminently readable way.
The book also highlights the years of dictatorship that followed. The later history of the army, while Pakistan was grappling with unaccustomed democracy and verging on anarchy, is told using close personal knowledge of many of the senior players. The author’s description of the present-day structure and control of the army-one of the world’s largest-in the subcontinent’s new nuclear age, is timely and compelling.
This new edition of the book contains a chapter which describes the dramatic resignation of the Army Chief in 1998 (giving his hitherto unpublished personal reasons), and the intrusion into Indian-administered territory in Kashmir by Pakistan-backed militants in 1999, using information provided by senior foreign officials as well as highly placed Indian and Pakistani sources.
REVIEWS
Cloughley’s book-through a soldier’s view-offers a perspective on he nature of Pakistan army, and therein lies its merit.
-Lt Gen (Retd) V R Raghavan,
The Hindustan Times
An elegantly written book, the detailed accounts of the deployments of Indian and Pakistani forces in the various fronts and sectors of the battlefield represent military history at its best.
-Ian Talbot
Contents
LIST OF MAPS
LIST OF PLATES
FOREWORD
THE ARMY OF PAKISTAN 1947-1997: INTRODUCTION
1. The Beginnings
2. Ayub Khan-Adjutant-General to President
3. Preparations for War
4. 1965 Phase One: Kashmir
5. The September War
6. The last years of Ayub
7. Yahya Khan and the Inevitability of the 1971 War
8. Civil War and the Indian Invasion
9. War in the West and the Fall of Yahya
10. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
11. The Years of Zia
12. Democracy Again
13. The New Modern Army
14. Epilogue: Karamat to Kargil
AFTERWORD
ANNEXES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX