How Bhutto lobbied Washington

Elizabeth Bumiller has a very interesting piece in the New York Times about Benazir Bhutto’s successful efforts over the years to win the support of Washington insiders. The network of American friends she assiduously cultivated—starting in 1984 when she was 30 years old—was key to her political success in Pakistan. Thus when she first became prime minister in 1988, it was because of pressure put by the Reagan administration on the Pakistani president, who had resisted appointing her despite the plurality of votes her party had won in the Pakistani Parliament. It comes as a revelation to me that the U.S. was exercising such direct influence on Pakistani politics, even in the 1980s.

While the piece is instructive on how a political figure such as Bhutto operates, it doesn’t live up to its opening line: “Benazir Bhutto always understood Washington more than Washington understood her.” Bumiller does not explain what it was that Washington failed to understand about Bhutto.

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Gintas writes:

Your comment, “It comes as a revelation to me that the U.S. was exercising such direct influence on Pakistani politics, even in the 1980s,” is interesting to me, because at that time I was working for a defense contractor. It was made clear to us that Bhutto’s appointment was good news for our company because that would mean arms export sales to Pakistan, arms we built. And we also knew that we only sold arms to countries friendly to the US. (It’s a rather loose definition of friendly.)

LA replies:

As shown in the Times article Bhutto’s contacts with Washington figures were mainly directed at persuading them that she believed in democracy and liberalism and was a friend of the West.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 29, 2007 03:08 PM | Send