1972-01-17
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The height of the India-Pakistan war, Naval Task Force 74 of the US Seventh Fleet, led by the attack carrier Enterprise, sailed into the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal. The purpose of the mission was to evacuate Americans from East Bengal if necessary, but another reason was to impress the Indians and to counter any Soviet ships that might appear in the region. Last week, even as the ships began returning to their normal area of operations, the Pentagon announced that henceforth the U.S. Navy will be seen more often, and in greater strength, in the Indian Ocean.
The reason is that the Soviet navy has asserted its sway over the ocean almost by default. The British fleet, which once ruled the waves east of Suez, began to withdraw its forces in 1966. The Russians, meanwhile, have gradually created a squadron of ten or more ships on regular patrol, occasionally including nuclear submarines. During the recent war, there were 15 ships in the Soviet flotilla, including two guided missile cruisers.
Washington worries that an overwhelming Soviet presence in the Indian Ocean might raise an implicit threat to the Strait of Malacca, through which Japan gets its oil from the Middle East, as well as to Indonesia and even Australia. The U.S. until now has had only a brace of destroyers and the Valcour, an ex-seaplane tender stationed at the former British base in Bahrain. From now on, though, task forces from the Seventh Fleet will be periodically patrolling the strategic sea lanes and showing neutral nations something other than the Russian flag.