USA supported Pakistan both politically and materially. US President Richard Nixon denied getting involved in the situation, saying that it was an internal matter of Pakistan. But when Pakistan's defeat seemed certain, Nixon sent USS enterprise to the Bay of Bengal, a move deemed by the Indians as a Nuclear threat. Enterprise arrived on station on Dec 11, 1971. On 6 Dec and 13 Dec, The Soviet navy dispatched two groups ofships , armed with nuclear missles, from Viadivostok, the trailed US. Task force 74 in the Indian ocean from 18 Dec until 7 Jan, 1972.
Nixon and Henry Kissinger feared Soviet expasion into South and South East Asia. Pakistan was close ally of the People's Republic of China, with whom Nixon had been negotiating a reproachment and where he intended to visit in Feb 1972. Nixon feared that an Indian invasion
of west Pakistan would mean totalsoviet domination of the region, and tha it would seriously undermine the global position of the United States and the regional position of the America's new tacit ally , China . In order to demonstrate to China the bonafides of the United States as an ally,and in direct violation of the US Congress-imposed sanctions on Pakistan, Nixon sent military supplies to Pakistan and routed them through Jordan and Iran, while also encouraging China to increase its arms supplies to Pakistan.The Nixon administration ignored reports it received of the genocidal activities of the Pakistani Army in East Pakistan, most notably the Blood telegram. The Soviet Union had supported the Bangladeshis, and supported the Indian Army and Mukti Bahini during the war, recognizins that the independence of the Bangladesh would weaken the position of its rivals the United States and China developed, the USSR would take counter-measures. This was enshrined in Indo-Soviet friendship treaty signed in August 1971. The Soviets also sent a nulear submarine to ward off the threat posed by USS Enterprise in the Indian Ocean.
