THE WAR WE COULD HAVE DECISIVELY WON BY THE NIGHT OF THE 9TH OF SEPTEMBER 1965

In 1979, I had the privilege of publishing the popular edition of the late Air Marshal Asghar Khan’s account of the 1965 war between Pakistan and India that had started on the night of the 6th of September. The book was titled First Round. It’s Urdu version was also published.
It is a well-known fact that even though at the time of the war Air Marshal Asghar Khan was heading the PIA which earlier Air Marshal Noor Khan had built, the credit of building the Pakistan Air Force into a formidable fighting machine belonged to the late Asghar Khan. Their roles had been switched by President Ayub Khan before the war.
Within twentyfour hours of the start of war, the PAF had virtually destroyed the Indian airpower mostly on the ground and the rest in the air battles. The most famous of these battles had taken place in the skies of Sargodha where one of our great heroes Squadron Leader M.M Alam had downed five Indian MIGs within barely three minutes.
By the morning of the 8th of September India was virtually defenseless in the Air. At that time Asghar Khan had arrived in Beijing as President Ayub Khan’s special envoy to seek Chinese support in the war.
The late Air Marshal told me in person about what transpired in his specially arranged meeting with the Chinese Premier Chon Eai.
“Whereas we assure you our full assistance and backing Mr Asghar Khan, the War inorder to be won decisively requires formidable political will. Even as we are talking, the arrangements are underway in Islamabad for an emergency meeting between the American ambassador and your President. It so happens that unless Pakistan bows to pressure which I am afraid it surely will, your country is poised for a historic triumph over India. Pakistan at this moment enjoys complete dominance in the skies, and all it needs to do to bring India down to its knees, is to bomb selected targets in New Dehli. For this an unbending WILL is required which I am afraid is not going to come into play. Pakistan can solve the Kashmir problem now or never.”
This conversation was confidential and classified and the late Air Marshal didn’t write a word about it even in his book. It was disclosed to me in an informal moment of a discussion on the WAR.