Taken from “Pakistan: At the Crosscruntt of History” by Lawerence Ziring
Yahya Khan had been selected by Ayub to salvage what he could from the ill fated strategy to liberate Kashmir in 1965. It was Yahya who oversaw the consolidation of the few gains Pakistan reaped from the conflict and who prevented the army from splitting into different factions. For his service, Ayub promoted Yahya to commander-in-chief of the army in spite of his junior standing among the higher-ranking officers. Commissioned in 1938, he served in the Middle East and Italy during World War II. After Pakistan was created he was instrumental in the development of the Army Staff College at Quetta. Made a brigadier at age thirty four, he was subsequently transferred to army headquarters, where he assisted Ayub in the modernization of the Pakistan army. The youngest officer to be promoted to the rank of Major General, Ayub named him his chief of staff just before martial law was declared in 1958. Yahya remained at Ayub’s side throughout the forty four months of martial law and the two men developed a close working relationship. Yahya worked with American military advisers in integrating U.S. provided weapons systems in the Pakistan army. He also was made responsible for supervising the construction of the new capital of Islamabad, having served on the commission that recommended the project and later as the chairman of the Capital Development Authority that prepared the overall plan. Promoted to Lieutenant-General for his performance in the 1965 war, when he took command of the army in 1966 he was confronted not only with healing the psychological wounds, but with repairing the physical damage done to the armed forces by a misguided group of high military officers.
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