Washington: US tilt towards Pakistan and its overtures to China in the early 70s apparently led India to go ahead with the decision to conduct its first nuclear test in Pokharan in 1974, which caught the entire Western intelligence by surprise. A secret State Department intelligence note, dated January 14, 1972, acknowledged that US policy had an impact on India’s decision making on nuclear weapons, saying there was “little doubt” that the then president Richard Nixon’s announcement of his trip to China changed New Delhi’s calculations.