Remembering Dennis Kux, doyen of US-India relations

‘Estranged Democracies’ was the first comprehensive volume that provided an objective American account of how the complex bilateral relationship

Estranged Democracies and Disenchanted Allies sum up, in a very pithy manner, the distinctive texture of the troubled and turbulent relationship that the US developed with India and Pakistan respectively during the Cold War decades. These phrases are the titles of two highly acclaimed books by Dennis Kux (born 1931), a former US ambassador and diplomatic historian who passed away in France in late March. Born in London, Kux, who was of Austrian origin, joined the US Foreign Service in 1955 and retired in 1989 after serving as ambassador to the Ivory Coast. He was posted to Pakistan first in 1957 and again in 1969 and had a ringside view of the Nixon-Kissinger era and the bloody birth of Bangladesh. One of the early Tamil-language experts in the US foreign service, Kux served in senior positions in the South Asian bureau at the US State Department, including as country director. The South Asian dilemma, apropos of American foreign policy, continued to engage him. After retirement, Kux was offered a fellowship at the National Defence University.

He recalls the trigger pulse, as it were, for his deep exploration of US foreign policy towards India: “One of the things that most puzzled and frustrated me was the uneven pattern of US-India relations, the swings between periods of cooperation and antagonism, and the often emotional character of the relationship. Why was it that these democracies seemed to have so much trouble in getting along? What caused these two countries to have such volatile relations, occasionally friendly, sometimes hostile, more often than not estranged?” The puzzle was unravelled with the professional acumen of a seasoned diplomat and the academic rigour of a researcher, and the result was a 500-page tome, Estranged Democracies: India and the United States 1941-1991, published in 1993. It was the first comprehensive volume that provided an objective American account of how the complex bilateral relationship evolved from Franklin D Roosevelt to George H W Bush.

The early 1990s were a happening phase in the troubled India-US bilateral after the collapse of the Soviet Union. PM Narasimha Rao was in the saddle — valiantly dealing with multiple challenges, among which ending the “estrangement” with the US was a major priority. Kux offered sage advice, noting, “For India, a better relationship with the United States requires a strengthening of the approach initiated by the Janata government in the late 1970s and resumed after Mrs Gandhi’s 1982 visit to Washington.” The Bill Clinton phase was more than eventful for the bilateral relationship and PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s resolute decision to cross the nuclear Rubicon in May 1998 enabled the beginning of a cautious “engagement” between Delhi and Washington.

Equally definitive is The United States and Pakistan 1947-2000 : Disenchanted Allies, published in 2001. The end notes to this book are over 60 pages and are a treasure trove for understanding the contradictions that plague Pakistan. Kux’s sagacious observation about some “constants” related to South Asia provides much grist for the mill in the current context. He notes: “Geography continues to give Pakistan strategic importance as the junction of western, southern and central Asia.” The current talks that Pakistan is facilitating between the US and Iran show this relevance and the value that Rawalpindi will continue to have for the White House. Indeed, Dennis Kux’s contribution in mapping the tempestuous US-South Asia relationship will remain luminous and unsurpassed.

The writer is director, Society for Policy Studies, New Delhi