The Prime Minister

On April 5, 1979 Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the prime minister of Pakistan was executed.  He was overthrown in the summer of '77 in a coup that many suspect involved the CIA.  Bhutto, while having mixed relations with the Soviets, had implemented a number of socialistic policies in Pakistan.  He also led the country to develop nuclear weapons.  As the US opposed all those things, in't not inconceivable that Washington had a hand in his downfall in favor of General Zia-ul-Hac, the overt leader of the coup.  Moreover, while Bhutto had enjoyed a strong personal relationship with Nixon, Carter was opposed to him from the beginning of his presidency.

His daughter, Benazir, maintained that he was executed because the US did not want a nuclear Pakistan.  (She would herself become a leading Pakistani politician, serving two terms as prime minister and was running a third time when she was assassinated in December 2007.)  The US did oppose Pakistan obtaining nuclear weapons, but learned to accept it in the face of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979.   The US would begin pumping money into Pakistan as part of the efforts to support the mujahideen in Afghanistan.  The relationship would through continue 9/11 with mixed results.