“It was difficult to get State and Defence even to comply with Trump’s directives to stop certain activities. I discovered that contrary to the South Asia strategy, which called for the suspension of all aid to Pakistan with a few exceptions, when Mattis visited Islamabad in the coming weeks, the Pentagon was going to deliver a military aid package that included more than $150 million worth of armoured vehicles,” he writes.

McMaster says soon after he came to know about it, he called for a meeting with Mattis, the deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Gina Haspel, and other senior officials. “I started by noting that the President (Trump) had been very clear on multiple occasions to suspend aid to the Pakistanis until they halted support for terrorist organisations that were killing Afghans, Americans, and coalition members in Afghanistan...We had all heard Trump say, ‘I do not want any money going to Pakistan’,” he says.

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Mattis, the former NSA writes, noted the possibility that Pakistan might retaliate in certain ways, but others, including Ambassador David Hale, who had joined by video from Islamabad, did not share those concerns.

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