INDIA'S CHINA WAR

by Neville Maxwell ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 10, 1971

Much of the material in this brilliant history of the India-China border war by the New Delhi correspondent with the London Times will surprise Western readers. Despite his avowed sympathies toward India and far greater access to Indian information than to Chinese, Maxwell contests the ""defenseless and aggrieved India"" interpretation favored by both the U.S. and Soviet blocs. Carefully examining the imperially conditioned history of the boundaries, recent diplomatic documents, news reports, interviews, and analysis of the Sino-Soviet rift, the Cuban missile crisis and other geopolitical events, he reviews India's newly found good fortune and increased aid receipts after losing the war, and concludes that for India the war was ""a political ploy, not a war."" Maxwell's fine grasp of the Indian political and military situation focuses on the chauvinistic conservative opposition to a Congress Party in decline, Nehru's inability to delegate authority, the culpable vanity of Indian commander Kaul, and the impossible terrain on the Indian side which conjunctively pushed India into its debacle. Maxwell argues that China was willing to negotiate and indeed to yield the entire McMahon line to India in return for a part of the Aksai Chin, where the Chinese, undetected for several years by the Indians, had built a road to Tibet. The war, he notes, was ""the first time a great power has not exploited military success without demanding something more""; China pulled back to 20 kilometers behind the McMahon line, asking Indian reciprocity. (American ambassador Galbraith counseled Indian refusal). For India to negotiate now means ""recantation of the deeply cherished belief that in 1962 she was the innocent victim of unprovoked Chinese aggression."" The book is written with remarkable crispness and assimilability, considering the abundance of unfamiliar place names, etc. It offers acute sidelights on the Sino-Soviet dispute, as well as Indian and Chinese politics, indeed, it is one of the best historical analyses of a recent event published over the past few years.

Pub Date: May 10, 1971

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Pantheon

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1971

Categories: NONFICTION