Pakistan may have given China access to a key us fighter jet at the height of the Vietnam War in a quid-pro-quo transaction that may have endangered the lives of American pilots, according to US documents made public here.The revelation, contained in a secret December 1968 memorandum written by George Denney, deputy director of Intelligence and Research at the State Department, comes as the administration of President George W. Bush seeks to broaden security ties to Islamabad as part of the war on terror.‘‘In July 1968 an intelligence source revealed that Chinese technicians had been allowed to examine US-provided F-104 aircraft at Pakistan’s Sargodha Air Base and to collect F-104 spare parts and material samples which were taken back to China for analysis,’’ Denney wrote to then Secretary of State Dean Rusk. He pointed out that he believed the Pakistani action ‘‘violates the terms of acceptance’’ that it signed while taking the jets.—AFP
