ABSTRACT
Every American administration attempts to summarize and consolidate its policies in a series of classified national policy directives. This was true during the Ronald Reagan administration, when policy toward India was laid down in a series of National Security Decision Directives. This chapter shows that the Reagan administration pursued policies that advanced American interests—both short term and long term. When the Reagan administration took over, it discovered that considerable progress had been made by the Jimmy Carter administration in rethinking American policy toward all of South Asia. The Carter administration had made some effort to back up friendly states in the vicinity, especially Pakistan. But Reagan's officials concluded that Pakistan was important for other reasons, as well. The Reagan administration made some significant changes in American nonproliferation policy in South Asia. Indians, Pakistanis, and many Americans who follow South Asia had very low expectations concerning US policy toward the region when Ronald Reagan came to office.
