The Kashmir dispute has been one of the most important factors in determining the balance of power in South Asia after World War II. The American views on Kashmir have been shaped by a variety of regional interests pursued by the US in South Asia. Changing circumstances have given birth to new US perspectives, which have often been at variance with each other. This paper focusses upon the conflicts, and contradictions typifying the Kashmir policy of the US over a span of slightly over five decades, subsequent to the partition of the Indian subcontinent. Different developments in the South Asian region, impacting on the US perceptions and evoking the changing views, have been chronicled in this paper from a historical standpoint.