Through the festive streets of Rawalpindi clanked five Chinese-built T-59 tanks, dipping their long, angular gun barrels as they passed President Mohammed Ayub Khan's reviewing stand. Then the walls of the capital reverberated to the roar of a Pakistani Air Force flyby, led by four silvery MIG-19s. A flock of American-supplied aircraft trailed cautiously at the rear, mostly B57 bombers, F-86 Sabres and F-104 Starfighters. Ayub's armory had a new look, and he was flaunting it before his SEATO and CENTO allies.
During last summer's Indo-Pakistani border war, Ayub lost some 500...