Re: How was it like in the 60s and 70s
It was a classical example of civilian hawks, as bhutto was much more in favor of fighting with india than ayub was in 1965. Bhutto even use the tashkent conference with some lies mixed in to cause trouble for Ayub in his final years.
Perhaps Ayub knew, but as far as military goes specifically PAF, I have read that Pakistan was supposed to get an upgrade to F-4s and F-5s around 65-66 which got pretty much written off after the 1965 war. US thinking was that they didn’t arm Pakistan so it could fight india, but I still don’t get why we still were flying american planes and even bought sabres in '69 after the saanp behavior of US in the '65 war. We had rather good choices in mig-15s and 17s from china on cheap credit.
As far as bengalis go, I think the west and east wing rivalry sort of united pakistanis in the west and the east. I am not talking about ethnic nationalists as they would be giddy to cause trouble for Pakistan. In fact, it was one of the best times for east pakistan civil service and I think that if Pakistan somehow had turned the rivalry to a positive competition, then it could be like the rivalry between east or west coast or the south as it is in the US right now.