The US had to limit its support to West Pakistan, at least directly, due to a large number of killings in East Pakistan. The British and the US had coordinated a pincer attack to intimidate India as the British were approaching India’s territorial waters from the west. The US fleet was followed by the British naval group comprising the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle with commando carrier HMS Albion. Meanwhile, the Indian Navy’s fleet was led by the 20,000-ton aircraft carrier, Vikrant, with barely 20 light fighter aircraft. The deployment was seen as a show of force by the US against India.

The seventh fleet was led by the 75,000-ton nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise along with guided-missile cruiser USS King, guided-missile destroyers USS Decatur, Parsons and Tartar Sam, and amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli. Watch: Azerbaijan Humiliates Armenia By Displaying ‘Spoils Of War’ During Its Victory Parade And, when the 1971 war broke out, the Task Force 74 of the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet was deployed in the Bay of Bengal to attack India under the garb of evacuating US citizens from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). The US wanted to avoid a second India-Pakistan war after 1965, but it had no option but to support its key ally, Pakistan.

Vietnam war us navy task force