India’s China War by Neville Maxwell

India’s China War by Neville Maxwell
Historical Introduction: the Limits of Empries
(i) The Western Sector
(ii) The McMahon Line
Part I: Collision Course
(i) The Course is Set
(ii) Evasive Action
Part II: The Forward Policy
Part III: The View from Peking
Part IV: The Border War
(i) The Ridge and the River
(ii) Between Two Passes
Part V: Ceasefire

Map: the disputed boundaries and Aksai Chin area





Historical Introduction: the Limits of Empires
(i) The Western Sector

The disputed territories between China and India are located at a no-man’s land, where nothing grows and no one lives, on high altitude Himalayas, one of the most barren regions of the world. For centuries, the Himalayas was the focal point of military and political maneuvers between the three empires, the Russians in the north, the British on the subcontinent and the Chinese over the other side of the Himalayas. A constant and basic British aim was to keep the Russians as far as possible from the plains of India. The British and Russians made Afghanistan to play as buffer between them to avoid collision, but their attempts to make China as a buffer failed as the Chinese refused to cooperate. In 1846, after the British took Kashmir and set it up as the northern frontier, they tried to demarcate a boundary with Tibet at Ladakh, which lay in the valley of the upper Indus at an altitude of twelve thousand feet or more. It had been part of Tibet up to the tenth century, when it became an independent kingdom. In the sixteenth century, it became a tributary state of the Mongol Empire, and in the nineteen century, it was regarded as part of Tibet again. In 1846, since neither the Chinese nor Tibetans cooperated with Britain, no demarcation of the Tibet-Ladakh boundary took place. In 1846 and 1847, the British commissioners drew boundaries in north of the Pangong Lake and stopped at the Karakoram Pass but could not correctly define the northwest boundaries of Tibet. Aksai Chin, which became the heart of contention between India and China a century later, lay between the Lake and the Pass. At 17,000 feet elevation, the desolation of Aksai Chin had no human importance other than an ancient trade route that crossed over it, providing a brief pass during summer for caravans of yaks from Sinkiang to Tibet that carried silk, jade, hemp, salt or wool.
By the 1860s, the Russians forced China to sign the treaties of Aigun and Peking. China lost a great tract of territory in Central Asia to Russia, which took all the north of the Amur River and east of its tributary, cutting off China from the Sea of Japan. China decided not to negotiate boundary settlements from a weak position, and persisted with this approach until the middle of the 1950s. In early 1880s, China and India agreed the Karakoram Pass as the fixed point of boundary, while leaving both sides of the pass indefinite. In the mid-1890s, China claimed Aksai Chin as its territory, and voiced the claim to Macartney in 1896, who drew part of the British boundary in the Himalayas. Macartney presented the claim to the British who agreed with his comment that part of Aksai Chin was in China and part in the British territory. Meanwhile, the forward school of British strategist in London suggested that the British should not only include the whole of Aksai Chin, but also all the territory given to Kashmir in 1865. In 1899, however, the British proposed a boundary demarcation with the Macartney-MacDonald line, which gave China the whole of the Karakash Valley, and almost all of Aksai Chin proper while pushing the British boundary forward on the Karakoram range, but China never replied to the proposal. By the first decade of the twentieth century, the British adhered to the 1899 proposal and aimed at making Aksai Chin as part of Tibet, rather than Sinkiang. In 1911, the collapse of the Chinese power in central Asia prompted the British to revise its objective of keeping Russia away from the plains of India. The British had long expected the Russian annexation of Sinkiang. The forward school of strategist recommended to place Aksai Chin outside Russia but within British territory. The London Government ignored the recommendation, and held to the 1899 proposal and in the Simla Convention in 1914 still placed Aksai Chin as part of Tibet. Up until the end of British rule, Britain had never attempted to exert authority on Aksai Chin or establish posts in it.

For the first decade of the twentieth century, Britain attempted to establish exclusive influence over Tibet. When the British first arrived, Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhutan were all in various degrees of dependence upon or allegiance to China. Nepal was created by a Hindu hill-people invading Tibet in the eighteen century. In 1792, the Chinese troops defeated their invasion of Tibet and left Nepal a tributary of China. Lhasa took Sikkim as a Tibetan dependency, and periodically asserted suzerainty over Bhutan. The British considered the Tibetan, and indirectly the Chinese, dominance as a challenge to its rule. In the nineteenth century, Britain achieved the reversal of the allegiance of the Himalayan states by converting Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhutan as a chain of protectorates. With that, the British were content comfortably with their boundary beneath the Himalayan foothills.

Map: the disputed boundaries and Aksai Chin area.


(ii) The McMahon Line

To the east of Bhutan lay another no-man’s land, demarcating the boundary and presented as both worry and temptation for the British India. In 1873, the British drew a line at the foothills called "Inner Line" to protect the zone beneath the hills. The international boundary comprised of the Outer Line, which ran along the southern border of Bhutan and the foothills leading to the Tibetan tableland. Around the British territory in the northwest, Tawang was the only salient wedge of territory, administered through the great monastery of Tawang in the north and populated by Buddhist tribes deeply influenced the Tibetan culture. In 1907, Britain entered into an agreement with Russia in an Anglo-Russian Convention and set up Tibet as a buffer state, like Afghanistan. The British viewed China as a passive or almost neutral element in its diplomacy. But in the first decade of the twentieth century, as the Manchu dynasty ended, Chinese policy changed sharply in Tibet. Military presence was extended through central Tibet, and more modern institutions replaced the theocratic and ancient machinery of administration, which reducing the role of the Dalai Lama and the power of the monastic orders. By 1910, China had established effective power in Tibet, and the buffer for India to keep Russia away was lost, as the Morning Post in London wrote: "A great Empire, the future military strength of which no man can foresee, has suddenly appeared on the North-East Frontier of India." The British was concerned that China would pose a strategic threat to India, and the forward school recommended more active patrolling in the hills beyond the frontier. It was decided that if China attacked India, Britain would attack China from the sea. The Chief of the General Staff warned of the dangerous pressure through Tawang Tract, and recommended bringing not only Tawang but also a sizeable slice of Tibet into India. From 1911, the Indian government embarked on a deliberate advance of the northeastern boundary. In order not to invite a vigorous Chinese protest, the Indian military made secrete expeditions into the Tibetan tribal belts of Assam which British took for India twenty years ago, bypassing the Parliament’s permission. Although it was outside of the external frontiers, the official British maps showed it as part of the frontier. The officials fobbed that "it is not intended to increase the area administered by" the Indian government. The statement was literally true since the Inner Line was not changed, but it was the Outer Line that was advanced.
In 1911-12, the Chinese power in Tibet suddenly collapsed. The British decided that it was in their strategic and political interest to exclude effective Chinese power from Tibet. In 1913, British convoked a conference at Simla which was aimed at making Tibet a buffer state between Britain and China, like the buffer effect to keep the Russians away. McMahon, the Foreign Secretary of the Indian government, led the British delegation to attend the Simla Conference. The British made open effort to make China accept a division of Tibet into Inner and Outer Tibet, as the agreement made by China and Russia in the case of Mongolia. China would have suzerainty over the whole of Tibet, but would have no administrative rights in Outer Tibet, thereby keeping back from the borders of India. The coercive diplomatic methods of Britain brought the weak and unwilling China to the conference. The Chinese representatives stressed the paramount importance of Tibet and resisted its zonal division, keenly aware of the British effort to separate Tibet or at least a great part of it from China. In April 1914, McMahon induced the Chinese official, Ivan Chen, to initiate a draft treaty, but the Chinese government repudiated the unauthorized compliance immediately. McMahon presented the draft to the British, which plainly cancelled its validity. In July, the conference was closed without Chinese signing the convention. London had instructed McMahon all along not to sign bilaterally with Tibetans if China refused, but McMahon proceeded to sign with the Tibetan representative while Ivan Chen was sent to the next room. Chen was not told of what was being signed and the declaration was kept as secret for many years. Although all this provided much fertile ground for international lawyers, the results of the conference were clear, and was accepted as such by the British Government at the time: the Simla Conference produced no agreement to which the government of China was a party. McMahon admitted this himself: "It is with great regret that I leave India without have secured the formal adherence of the Chinese Government to a Tripartite Agreement." China had emphatically and repeatedly denied that Tibet enjoyed sovereign identity and that China would not recognize any bilateral agreement between Tibet and Britain.

A covert byproduct of the Simla Conference was the McMahon Line. It came as a result of the secret discussions, without the Chinese participation or knowledge, which took place in Delhi between the British and the Tibetans in February and March of 1914. These meetings breached not only the Anglo-Chinese Convention of 1906, in which Britain was to "engage not to annex Tibetan territory," but also of the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907, in which Britain was to engage "not to enter into negotiations with Tibet except through the intermediary of the Chinese Government." The British moved the line progressively to the north of Tawang, which was still short of the goal proposed by the Chief of the General Staff to annex some two thousand square miles of Tibetan territory. McMahon Line essentially pushed the boundary northward about sixty miles, and moved it from the foothills to the crest line of the Assam Himalayas. In doing so, McMahon accomplished for British India what other officials attempted twenty years ago on the Afghan frontier, and brought the tribal no-man land under nominal British sovereignty. China forcefully repudiated the convention and denied the validity of the map, and the Tibetans in practice ignored the Line. In 1919, the British tried once more to induce China to resume the tripartite negotiations. After China refused, the British began providing military aid to Tibetans, including arms, ammunitions, and training in their use. When the British relinquished the Indian Empire in 1947, they started to translate the McMahon Line from the maps as the effective northwest boundary of India, despite that the Line appeared on its maps only ten years before. As the British departed, the new Indian government assured that they would complete their work: "If anything, they intended to pursue an even more forward policy than had the British."

Part I: Collision Course
(i) The Course is Set

With their independence on August 14, 1947, the status of the boundaries of India changed from the pawns for the British to play with their imperial rivals, to become the cell walls of a new national identity. The Indian government followed closely the footsteps of the British colonists. In 1949, India sent troops during an uprising in Sikkim and brought the state as a protectorate. In the same year, India signed a treaty to take over Britain’s rights to guide Bhutan in foreign affairs. In 1950, India increased its control over Nepal and consolidated the "chain of protectorates" in the Himalayan states. Towards Tibet, the new Indian Government followed the British mission in encouraging Tibetan separatism. In its strategic and geopolitical thinking inherited from the British, the Indian Government continued the exclusion of China’s authority from Tibet and attempted to increase the Indian influence. The Tibetans hoped that the transfer of British power to the Indians would give them an opportunity to regain the territory that British took from them a century before. In October 1947, they formally requested India to return their territory from Ladakh to Assam, and including Sikkim. The Indians in return simply asked Tibet to continue the relationship on the basis of the previous British Government.

The Indian plan to continue with British policy was met with major challenges. The absence of the British power and emergence of a strong central authority with the establishment of the Communist China reversed the power balance. With the announcement of Chinese military marching into Tibet, India reacted sharply and threatened that it would support the position of the Nationalist rump on Formosa rather than the People’s Republic of China in the United Nations. A few days later, Chinese army entered Tibet, and Indian government headed by the Prime Minister Nehru issued an angry protest, deploring the "invasion" of Tibet. China replied sharply: "Tibet is an integral part of China, and the problem of Tibet is entirely a domestic problem of China," and warned that it would not tolerate foreign interference. In response to India’s avowal that the use of military would injure China’s reputation in the world, China stated that any governments that interfere with China’s sovereign rights in Tibet as a pretext to obstruct China’s membership in the UN would further demonstrate their hostility. Indian government changed the China’s "sovereignty" to "suzerainty" over Tibet and hoped that China would leave domestic affairs to Tibetans like what Indians did in Bhutan. China viewed the Indian desire to have semi-independence in Tibet as a preliminary attempt to draw Tibet under Indian influence, an inference neither far-fetched nor unfair. When China later established diplomatic relations with Nepal, China became an open competitor in what India regarded as diplomatic reserve. In 1950, after its failed attempt to have some degrees of Tibetan independence and buffer, the Indian government adopted a pragmatic policy of pursuing friendship with China, a central element in India’s foreign policy formulated by Nehru. As China confirmed its authority in Tibet, India did not support the appeal of Tibet to the UN.

The presence of Chinese power in the northern borders alarmed the political rights in India, who feared the Communist China the most. The Opposition criticized the Tibet policy of Nehru and the Government, and accused them of complacency and vacillation. Fundamental reappraisal of China policy was proposed, and India was to deploy forces to guard potentially disputed areas. While maintaining the policy of friendship to China and advocating on behalf of China in the United Nations, Nehru ordered Indian administration to extend at the tribal belt beneath the McMahon Line through the North-East Frontier Agency. In a year, twenty posts were extended into NEFA, and several hundreds porters and escorts moved into Tawang without challenging the Tibetan administration there. The Indian government decided not to modify McMahon Line and push their boundary up from Se La to the McMahon Line. In response to the protests of the Tibetan authorities in Lhasa, the Indian officials stated that India was taking over Tawang. The Tibetans protested again that they "deeply regret and absolutely cannot accept’ what the Indian government "seizing as its own what did not belong to it." The Indian government ignored the protests, forced the Tibetan administration out, and stayed on in Tawang, as the British did in Dirang Dzong in 1944. With this, the Indian government overcame the "dangerous wedge" of Tibetan/Chinese territory that so concerned the British General Staff. Having their verbal resistance ignored, the Tibetans took a toll in blood the Indian extension. One of the Tibetan tribes warmly welcomed a strong patrol comprising seventy-four riflemen and civilians from Assam. The Tibetans feasted and gave them shelter, and then massacred all but one. Nehru ordered an overwhelming show of force, rather than burning the villages or imprisoning the Tibetans as would have done by the British. The McMahon Line was formally transported from the maps to the ground, and was set as the de facto northeast boundary of India. To deal with China about the repudiated McMahon Line, the British provided part of the solution, that India would simply treat McMahon Line as the boundary and leave it to China to protest. Indian Government decided to push the boundary settlement from diplomacy to an absolutist approach, that "India would refuse to open the question to negotiation when or if the Chinese did raise it." In November 1950, the Government unilaterally declared the McMahon Line as their boundary, "map or no map… we will not allow anybody to come across that boundary," as Nehru declared.

In September 1951, the Chinese Prime Minister Chou En-lai, proposed to the Indian ambassador to stabilize the Tibetan frontier through discussions between India, China and Nepal, confirming that China had decided to accept the McMahon Line as India’s northwest boundary. But India passed the opportunity to formalize the McMahon Line. In July 1952, when China proposed to settle "pending problems" related to commercial intercourse and trade in Tibet, the boundary question was not raised. There was doubt in India about the decision not to raise the boundary questions with China. But it was decided that McMahon Line might be the "scars left by Britain in the course of her aggression against China" and that to "seek to heal or ease this scar" was not in the liking or interest of India. The Indian government was fully aware that China, "never having accepted … as the frontier between Tibet and us," would not regard the McMahon Line as the settled boundary. They decided to treat the Line as the boundary and leave it for China to either agree or ignore the statement. In 1954, when the Indian delegation went to negotiate trade and intercourse in Tibet, they even went out of their way to avoid the subject. The agreement stated the famous "Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence," or "Panch Sheel" as Indians called them, the first of which was "mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty." China’s sovereignty in Tibet was unequivocally recognized, and the British attempts and latter Indian attempts to treat Tibet as independent were formally buried. India formed a crucial China policy that India would make clear and treat what India regarded as proper boundary, leaving it to China to protest, and then "refuse to reopen the question." Based on the first principal of the Panch Sheel, China would have not choice but to accept the boundary. It was understood, based on Chinese acquiescence in the 1951 Indian takeover of Tawang, that China was going to accept the McMahon Line. The decision not to renegotiate transformed a boundary problem into a dispute, which then progressed into a border war. China maintained that parts of the boundaries were undetermined and to be negotiated. Indians held that the boundaries were already determined and decided to establish checkposts all along them.

In 1954, the official Indian map made sharp changes in the northern boundaries. The British earlier made Aksai Chin a strategic area to keep Russian advance from India, but never proposed it as a boundary and reflected in the extension of administration, which was far beyond the British capacity. However, India categorically claimed Aksai Chin as part of the northern border and Nehru ruled it as "a firm and definite one which was not open to discussion with anybody." Thus far, the claim remained on the official map change and not reflected on the ground. The Indian posts were set in Ladakh, far short of Aksai Chin. In September 1954, it was decided that border posts should be advanced as far as possible into the disputed areas. The forward move into the middle sector brought prompt Chinese protests that Indian troops had intruded into Chinese territory and violated the principles of non-aggression and friendly co-existence. The Indian government responded that the territory belonged to India and asked China to keep the personnel out. The Tibetans had so far controlled the middle sectors of the boundary passes, and an annual race occurred to get to the high point before the other side. The Indian government accused China of aggression, while in fact the two border forces came into contact as a result of the forward move made by the Indians, a fact that Nehru confirmed to the Parliament years later. The reversed accusation by India, that it was China who "probe forward," took place before the ink was dry on the Panch Sheel agreement and was universally believed.

Aksai Chin was easily accessible from the Chinese side as an ancient trade route wedging from Sinkiang across the plateau to Tibet. It was more difficult for the Indians to reach, as it led to nowhere for them. Through the first half of the 1950s, China used the Aksai Chin route to supply western Tibet and built a total length of seven hundred and fifty miles of road, of which one hundred and twelve crossed the territory claimed by India. By 1958, on the east, the Indians completed the unfinished work left by the British in claiming the McMahon Line as boundary and asserting administration over the tribal territory from Tawang, which was renamed as North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) listed as Indian territory. On the west, the road built across Aksai Chin had become the main traffic artery between Sinkiang and Tibet. The two sides left each other alone, and the boundary problem went faraway from resolving itself.

From 1950 on, Nehru had no peers in the Indian government and acted as the Prime Minister, Defense Minister, and took on the presidency of the Congress Party, and retained the portfolio of External Affairs until his death in 1964. Nehru often made crucial foreign policy decisions without the awareness of the committees or the Cabinet. One Finance Minister resigned in 1956 after complaining Nehru’s "cavalier and unconstitutional" methods. Nehru visited China in 1939 and again in 1954, and was much impressed by the "terrifying strength," the energy and discipline that the Chinese demonstrated in their nation building. The domestic oppositions attacked Nehru for his China policy as appeasement. But in the middle 1950s, the resentment at the assertion of Chinese authority in Tibet died down and was replaced with the popular policy of Hindee Chinee bhai-bhai, or India-China brotherhood. In 1956, Chou En-lai returned Nehru’s visit and was cheered by large crowds. Chou raised the subjects of the McMahon Line. Nehru warned Chou that the Burmese were displeased about the two big neighbors and suggested China to take steps to remove Burma’s misgivings. Chou told Nehru that China had accepted the McMahon Line, albeit established by the British imperialists as unfair, as the boundary with Burma because of the friendly relations between China, India and other countries concerned. Chou reaffirmed that the Chinese Government approached the alignment established by former imperialist neighbors as effective boundary, including the Sino-Russian boundary on the Ussuri and Amur Rivers. The Indians made the McMahon Line as the de facto boundary only five years ago, but China treated the "accomplished fact" as effective boundary. This was the only practical way for China to go on without creating intractable and poisonous disputes with every neighbor. However, China would not simply confirm the McMahon Line that had no treaty basis, but was prepared to accept the alignment in negotiation with India.

In October 1958, after discovering the Aksai Chin road, the Indian Government claimed that the territory had been "part of the Ladakh region of India for centuries." India expressed "surprise and regret" to Peking that the Chinese government constructed "a road through indisputably Indian territory without first obtaining the permission of the Government of India." The note further inquired of a missing Indian patrol. China counter complained that an Indian armed personnel was detained for having intruded into Chinese territory, and asked India to comply with the five principles of peaceful co-existence. With conflict of claims over Aksai China came into open, the Indian Government replied that it was "a matter in dispute," the only time it conceded of the disputed nature of the area before reversing its position in a few weeks. Chinese maps continued to show the Sino-Indian border along the foothills and had the whole of Aksai Chin in China. China expected to discuss the boundary before confirming the alignment. But New Delhi suspected the rational approach as an alarm that China was to advance territorial claims, and the distrust soon became resentful hostility. In December 1958, Nehru wrote Chou En-lai a friendly letter expressing that India had been "under the impression that there were no border disputes" during Chou’s visit in 1956. Chou En-lai replied with equal affability stating that "the Sino-Indian boundary has never been formally delimited" and that "historically no treaty or agreement on the Sino-Indian boundary has ever been concluded" between the Chinese and Indians Governments. Chou En-lai stated that there were border disputes and suggested settling by mutual consultation and joint survey. As Nehru was categorical about the entire boundary, Chou was categorical about Aksai Chin as it "has always been under Chinese jurisdiction" and that the Chinese guards have continually patrolled it. Chou further raised the illegality of the McMahon Line as the product of the British policy of aggression against the Tibetan Region of China, but stated that, in light of the friendly relations China had with India and Burma, China would accept the McMahon alignment as the boundary. Chou En-lai proposed the maintenance of the status quo before the boundary was formally settled. Nehru rejected Chou’s proposal and suggested China to evacuate from Aksai Chin and made it an absolute precondition for discussion of the borders. The Indian Government did not take as adamant position as in negotiations with Pakistan over Kashmir.

In 1959, the Tibetan armed uprising failed in Lhasa and the Dalai Lama fled through the old trade route across the McMahon Line to Tawang, where Indian Government took him under the wing. The Dalai Lama later made an issue of the legality of the McMahon Line, suggesting that if India denied the sovereign status to Tibet, it was also denying the validity of the Simla Convention and the validity of the McMahon Line. There was general sympathy for Tibetans, especially the Dalai Lama in the Indian political class. The latent suspicion of China was revived and the diffidence over China’s takeover of Tibet in 1950 sharpened. Peking complained that Kalimpong (the terminus of the trade route to India through the Chumbi Valley), which China declared as the commanding center for the armed rebelling, was a nest of spies and was used as a base to instigate resistance against China. Aside from the activities of émigrés and American and Kuomintang agents, there was evidence that the Indians played a more active role for Tibetan independence. The Chinese National People’s Congress made angry references to the "Indian reactionaries" for giving aid and comfort to the rebellious feudal forces, working "in the footsteps of the British imperialists, and harboring expansionist ambitions towards Tibet." The old suspicions were thus revived on both sides.

Like Nehru, the Chinese Government recognized that good relations were in its best long-term interests, and the Chinese Ambassador conveyed the concern to the Indian Foreign Secretary: "China will not be so foolish as to antagonize the United States in the east and again to antagonize India in the west." The Ambassador stated that the outcry of Tibetan rebellion in India overcastted dark clouds over Sino-Indian relations and that it would "speedily disperse." The statements expressed urgency and directness, but were undiplomatic. A week later, the Chinese Ambassador was called to the Ministry and was rebuked for having used "discourteous and unbecoming language." He was told that India treated all countries as friends "in consonance with India’s past background and culture and Mahatma Gandhi’s teachings." The diplomatic exchange was coupled with stronger presence of Chinese troops on the McMahon Line to prevent the Tibetan rebels from crossing. On the other side, the Indians also pushed their outposts right up to and over the McMahon Line. The McMahon Line was never demarcated, i.e., marked out on the ground and agreed by both parties, but it followed an unmistakable and inaccessible crest-line. A demarcation must be a joint process, but Indians were unilaterally establishing border posts according to their maps without seeking China’s approval. In September 1959, Nehru rejected Chou En-lai’s letter in which China complained that the Indians were overstepping the McMahon Line. But Nehru admitted that there was "slight" difference in the Migyitun area with the map, which he justified as modifications "based on definitive topography" in accordance with "established international principles." India insisted that China not only should first formally recognize the McMahon Line, but also should accept the boundary India claimed in the western sector. China protested the Indian forward moves and complained that on August 25, Indian troops intruded south of the Migyitun and fired on Chinese. New Delhi protested the next day that China moved into Indian territory and forced Indians out of Longju, accusing China of "deliberate aggression" and warning that it would "use force on the trespasser if necessary," a bluff threat that was not founded in international law.

China’s account of the Longju incident was contrary to India’s. China maintained that the Chinese border guards merely returned fire at the unprovoked attack by the Indians. The Indian claims were militated by the fact that China did not attack the other Indian posts set up along McMahon Line. However, in India, there was no doubt that the incident was Chinese aggression. The Chinese were denounced for the "expansionism" and the "cynical contempt" to treat the "noble concepts of friendship, toleration and co-existence." Meanwhile, another collision broke out on the western sector of the McMahon Line. The Indian troops went to establish posts on Lanak Pass, which India regarded as the boundary feature. The patrol of about seventy men came into contact with the Chinese at the Kongka Pass, which China regarded as the boundary feature and had established a post. On October 20, three Indians were detained by the Chinese; next day nine Indian forces were killed and seven taken prisoner. Chinese suffered casualties, with probably only one killed. The Indians reported to have been ambushed from a hilltop, whereas the Chinese said that the Indians attempted to capture the small Chinese patrol and opened fire. The captured Indians, including the patrol commander, confirmed the Chinese accounts, but after release retracted their statements. However, there was no doubt in India, as the newspaper called "the brutal massacre of an Indian policy party."

In the three following years after the Longju and Kongka pass clashed, the Parliament spent hundreds of hours on the dispute with China. Nehru enjoyed his dominance in the House, which accepted his arrogant authority, but he was also submerged with powerful opposition from the Congress Party. The Defense Minister Menon often became a scapegoat target for the critics of Nehru. In August 1959, the "bluster against China" picked up volume and the opposition criticisms attacked the government’s China policy over the boarder dispute. The opposition was not deep and was formed primarily by small upper-class group, whose views were regarded as "public opinion" and expressed in newspapers, especially the English newspapers. The newspapers reported of the Chinese troops crossing the McMahon Line and suggested of Indian government to aid Bhutan, of which Prime Minister promptly declared that Bhutan was not an Indian protectorate. But up to the end of August 1959, Nehru had told Parliament nothing at all about the boundary dispute with China, about the Aksai Chin road, or China’s proposal to settle the boundary. After the Longju incident, word got out and the existence of the Chinese road came to the House. Nehru coolly validated that the road existed "through a corner of our north-eastern Ladakhi territory" and affirmed that the Chinese claimed of "the hundreds of miles of Indian territory" was "totally and manifestly unacceptable" and was not "a matter of discussion." Nehru stated a few days later the importance of the "two miles of territory in the high mountains, where nobody lives" entail "national prestige and dignity." He stressed that China "having accepted broadly the McMahon Line, I am prepared to discuss any interpretation of the McMahon Line" and "to have arbitration of any authority agreed to by the two parties." About the western sector of the border, Nehru was vague: "The point is, there has never been any delimitation there in that area and it has been a challenged area," but he maintained that "Aksai Chin was and had always been the historic frontiers" of India.

Nehru’s tentativeness about the western sector soon ended with Dr. Gopal, the director of the Historical Division of the Ministry of External Affairs, who was sent to London to review materials on India’s northern borders. Nehru told Gopal to disregard all contemporary political consideration and to make an objective appraisal of the historical evidence. Gopal reported in November 1959 that India’s claim to the Aksai Chin area was clearly stronger than China’s. Gopal removed the reservations in Nehru, whose Government has long adopted a policy that the McMahon Line must not be submitted to renegotiations and, in 1954, the principle was extended to the rest of the northern borders. Menon and other Cabinet members felt that the amateur historian Nehru and the professional historian Gopal were taking the Government in a wrong course. But they only expressed to Gopal and none stood up to disagree with Nehru.

Chou En-lai replied to Nehru’s letter on September 8, 1959, and reaffirmed the basic point that the Sino-Indian boundary had never been delimited, further arguing that the 56,000 square miles between the McMahon Line and the foothills had been Chinese. Chou restated the approach of the Chinese Government: to reach a settlement through friendly negotiations, fair and reasonable to both sides, taking into consideration the historical background and existing actualities, and that in the meantime the status quo should be observed. Chou suggested that China, like India, had been subjected to imperialist aggression, and would like to adopt "an attitude of mutual sympathy, mutual understanding and fairness and reasonableness" to settle the boundary question. Chou raised the issue that India refused to recognize the undelimited state of the boundary and attempted to impose upon China its one-sided claims "militarily, diplomatically and through public opinion." Chou finally asked India to withdraw "trespassing Indian troops and administrative personnel" and suggested that would speedily dispel "the dark clouds hanging over Sino-Indian relations."

The Indian Government read the letter as a veiled claim for the whole NEFA. Chou’s previous assurance that China would accept the McMahon Line almost disappeared. China suspected that India provided covert assistance to the Tibetan rebels, allowed them to raid back along the McMahon Line, and let Kuomintang agents operate freely in Kalimpong, smuggling saboteurs, weapons and ammunition into Tibet. There was an outburst of anti-Chinese sentiment and calls for war in India, but Nehru maintained his friendly and calm tone, while publicly giving sympathy to the Dalai Lama. To the boundary question, Nehru not only ruled out a settlement by negotiation, but also advanced to a categorical claim to the segment of the Aksai Chin, the only land route from Sinkiang to Tibet. He further pushed the Indian forces forward across the McMahon Line and the western sectors. Nehru and his government were in no mood to read between the lines of Chou’s letter, which offered the settlement to be reached. They took the letter as proof that they were faced with "a great and powerful nation which is aggressive." Nehru replied to Chou expressing "great surprise and distress" and argued that the boundaries had "always been the historical frontier" and were settled by "history, geography, custom and tradition." Indian government decided that it was dangerously against Indian interest to negotiate a boundary settlement with China, and that the only reasonable ground to refuse negotiation was the argument that the boundary is already delimited. This argument was put forth for the international community, which now started trying to follow the Sino-Indian debate.

The 1899 Macartney-MacDonald line was the only boundary alignment that the British proposed to China, which left the whole of Aksai Chin on the Chinese side. In his letter to Chou in September 1959, Nehru claimed the reverse: that the 1899 line "signified beyond doubt that the whole of Aksai Chin area lay in Indian territory." Nehru further introduced the Indian demand for restoration of the status quo ante, which was a veiled demand for unilateral Chinese withdrawal. The two clashes at Kongka and Longju brought forth a convulsive response in Indian political opinion. Nehru’s emphasis on long Sino-Indian friendship was criticized fiercely as "irrelevant," "hypocritical," "fatuous," and "dishonest." The critics proposed to pass a resolution to take immediate action to "throw out" the Chinese. Nehru dismissed these as "utterly wrong and useless," but affirmed that "at no time since our independence, and of course before it, were our defense forces in better condition, in finer fettle, … than they are today." Nehru stressed that "I am quiet confidant that our defense forces are well capable of looking after our security." Nehru’s allusions to the possibility of war and assurance of the strong defense force nourished the impression that war with China was a possibility and that it could be won. Thus far, Nehru and his advisers choose the directions toward the war, with no significant public pressure. By 1959, there was aroused political opinion that denounced any compromise with China as appeasement or cowardice.

(ii) Evasive Action

After the Kongka incident, Chou En-lai wrote Nehru on November 7, 1959, and described it as unfortunate and unexpected. Chou proposed a summit meeting to settle the entire boundary question through peaceful negotiations and suggested that, in order to avoid further border clashes, the armed forces of both sides should be withdrawn twenty kilometers from the McMahon Line. China recommended that before the settlement, status quo should be maintained which meant "the situation obtaining at present." India used the word jiggling of "maintaining status quo" to mean Indian patrols moving into the Chinese-held territory. Despite that the proposal of summit meeting and demilitarization appeared consistent with the general approaches of India, Nehru rejected the summit meeting with Chou En-lai, a decision almost universally welcomed in India. In face of the Chinese willingness, indeed eagerness, to settle the boundary dispute through negotiation, India instantly rejected the idea of negotiations. The idea was solid that there should be no discussions until China withdrew from Aksai Chin.

The Chinese proposal of mutual military withdraws placed India on the diplomatic defensive. Nehru equivocated that the Chinese proposal was the same as Indian position of total and unilateral Chinese withdrawal from the disputed territory in the western sector. The Indians urged that "no negotiations can take place on the basis of prior acceptance by China of our frontiers and the immediate vacation of territories forcibly occupied by them." Nehru made puzzling statements: "we will negotiate and negotiate and negotiate to the bitter end. I absolutely reject the approach of stopping negotiations at any state," and that "as far as I am concerned, I am prepared to meet any body in the wide world." In fact, Nehru reaffirmed his position that "we will never compromise on our boundaries, but we are prepared to consider minor adjustments to them and to talk to the other side about them." Nehru was to refuse to meet Chou En-lai until China accepted the Indian version of the boundaries, and withdraw behind the Indian claim line. However, the international community failed to appreciate the ambiguities in Nehru’s words and almost universally blamed China, rather than India, for refusing to negotiate a boundary settlement. The confidence of India hardened after Chou En-lai pressed his proposal after the rejection of a summit meeting. In December, Chou reiterated the Chinese position that the joint military withdrawal along the border would not prejudice the claims of either side. Nehru wrote Chou to explain the rejection of the summit meeting that without preliminary agreement "we would lose ourselves in a forest of data." Chou wrote back and emphasized the importance of agreements that may prevent "endless and fruitless debates," and proposed to meet on December 26, nine days after the delivery of the letter. Nehru replied promptly and coldly expressing regret that his "very reasonable proposals" for joint withdrawals had not been accepted, and that it was impossible for him to meet Chou in the next few days.

The Indian refusal of the summit brought the diplomatic game to stalemate, as China continued to treat the McMahon Line as the de facto boundary in the eastern sector and the western sector unchallenged. From the moment India accused China with "aggression" for the Chinese presence in Indian claimed territory, the Indian Government was obliged to take actions, and Nehru had pressed for a military operation against China and expected the Government would comply. India thus far took for granted its international esteem for its persistent advocate of a rational and civilized approach, and negotiating table as a lightning conductor for international quarrels. This Nehru stated at the end of 1959, "whether it is in the United Nations or whether it is elsewhere, we are respected all over the world," and wondered why "it has been an amazing thing." This was attributed to clever diplomacy, the radiance of Gandhi, and "that we have spoken with conviction and earnestness and sincerity about peace and our desire for peace and … for tolerance … from deep inside our hearts and deep understanding of the world as it is today." India by then occupied a unique position in the world. It was called to act as referee peacemaker or arbitrator from Gaza to the Congo and Korea, and was listened to with respect and courted for understanding. India was the prime articulator of the concept of non-alignment and accepted spokesman for the non-aligned countries. As personified in Nehru, India contributed much to blunt the conflicts of the cold war.

India’s successful foreign policy was demonstrated by its acceptance by both the USA and the USSR, of which presidents made successive visits to New Delhi. The visit of President Eisenhower in December 1959 removed the old disapproval of "immoral neutralism" and replaced it with cordial sympathy. Eisenhower stated that the India "speaks to the other nations of the world with greatness of conviction, and is heard with greatness of respect" and especially appraised India’s falling out with China, even before it became a public knowledge. The US economic aid to India multiplied suddenly. It was $1.7 billion in the twelve years to mid-1959, and the amount increased to $4 billion in the next four years. Both the US and Soviet Union took a dispassionate view of the Sino-India dispute from the beginning. As the Longju incident occurred on the eve of Krushchev’s visit to the US, both the US and Russians have been carefully neutral and deplored the incident as to "discredit the idea of peaceful co-existence." Those who could read between the lines, the dispassionate regret of Moscow "in reality condemned China’s stand." India took the tacit Russian support as high importance. Western countries would readily accept the Indian version of the dispute, and condemn China with, or even before, New Delhi. But such sympathy and support was not easily forthcoming from the non-aligned and especially of other Asian countries, as they were not prepared to accept uncritically the proposition that China was wholly in the wrong. The Russians had already expressed that negotiations were the only way to resolve the border questions, and the fact that India had twice rejected China’s proposal for a summit meeting would make it hard for the Russians to appreciate Indian approach. India extended an invitation to Krushchev for a visit and expected to clarify the validity of Indian approach to the boundary dispute.

In the meantime, China wrote New Delhi another long note stating that Peking was expected the summit meeting and that the Sino-Indian borders were not delimited but China intended to settle the dispute through friendly negotiations. New Delhi studied the note, felt the desire to end the dispute sincere, and decided that there might be something to be gained by meeting with Chou En-lai. It appeared that the summit meeting would serve Indian interest in showing the watching world that India was consistent with its prescriptions of advocating negotiations in every dispute. However, the reversal of policy by dropping the insistence on Chinese withdrawal as a precondition for a summit meeting, the domestic criticism and increasing suspicion over compromise with China would be intensified. To overcome this, a semantic smoke screen was created by making a distinction between "talks" and "negotiations". The day after Krushchev arrived in New Delhi, Nehru delivered a cordial, or even warm, invitation letter to Chou En-lai on February 12, 1960, without informing his government. Nehru stated to Parliament: "I see no ground whatever at the present moment, no bridge between the Chinese position and ours," and "that is, the present positions are such that there is no room for negotiations on that basis, and therefore there is nothing to negotiate at present." The smoke screen covered the general expectation that Krushchev’s visit would bring about negotiations between China and India, and refusal to negotiate confirmed Parliament that Nehru had no intention of meeting with Chou En-lai. On February 16, the members of Parliament learned of the invitation from the newspapers. The Opposition fumed anger on the "sudden and unwarranted reversal" of policy, and described the invitation as a "national humiliation."

Chou En-lai accepted the invitation with "deep gratitude" and arranged a seven-day visit on April 19. The Indian politicians suspected that Nehru would compromise with China and the opposition declared of a "no-surrender week," arranging demonstrations in New Delhi and other cities during Chou’s visit in order to make "things hot" for the Chinese party. Nehru and the Government made a nice compromise by ending the "no-surrender week" the day before Chou arrived and holding no customary public receptions in Chou’s honor. The oppositions reiterated their view of having no talks without "Chinese vacation of aggression" and put out slogans "invaders, quit India," "no surrender of Indian territory," and "down with Chinese imperialism." The oppositions found further international reason for refusing to negotiate with China that ill-effects of compromise would "shatter the morale of all" the rest of Asian countries "who are aspiring to build themselves up independently and in a democratic way." The editorial placed on the eve of Chou’s arrival that, if the talks succeeded, "China’s prestige and power will be enhanced in the eyes of the smaller Asian countries, for India’s action will be construed as acquiescence in and compliance with China’s attitude." If talks broke down, "India will be held up as unreasonable, (but better) to be held up temporarily as unreasonable than to be dismissed as weak and pusillanimous." The pressure not to settle was further increased by the dispute with Pakistan. One month before Chou’s arrival, the Indian Supreme Court reinforced the inflexible approach on the northern boundaries and challenged the compromise that Nehru made with small patch of disputed territory of several square miles with Pakistan.

On April 19, 1960, Chou En-lai arrived in New Delhi, accompanied by Marshall Chen Yi, the Foreign Minister, and a large party. The cheer of "Hindee Chinee bhai-bhai" of yesteryear was replaced with only a polite patter of applause from the diplomats. Both sides exchanged speeches of greeting. Nehru recalled the good will between China and India, and said "unfortunately other events have taken place since then which have put a great strain on the bond of friendship and given a great shock to all our people." Chou replied: "Both of us need peace, both of us need friends," "there is no reason why any question between us cannot be settled reasonably through friendly consultations in accordance with those principles" of Panch Sheel, and concluded that "I have come with the sincere desire to settle questions."

In the following days of visit, the Indian Government maintained adamant and immovable position: there could be no general boundary negotiations; the boundaries were already delimited and ran just where India said they did; and China must withdraw before there could be any of the discussions on "minor rectifications" that were all India would agree to. Chou En-lai reiterated that the Sino-Indian boundary question had been left over from history, and not created by either of the two Governments: it was "only an issue of a limited and temporary nature" and it was "entirely possible to achieve a fair and reasonable overall settlement." China was proposing "reciprocal acceptance of present actualities in both sectors and constitution of a boundary commission." China would accept the McMahon alignment in the western sector, while India would accepted the positions then obtaining in the west. There would be no physical withdrawals involved, as the forward posts on both sides were far apart, but India would drop the claim to Aksai Chin. Chou En-lai maintained the position that he took since his the first meeting with Nehru, that although the McMahon Line was not fair, Chinese Government would accept it because of its friendly relations with Burma and India. After India expressed its claim to Aksai Chin in the note of October 18, 1958, China consistently treated the Indian presence in the territory south of the McMahon Line the same as the Chinese presence in Aksai Chin. China made it clear in the summit meeting that China would accept the McMahon alignment provided that India accept the Chinese control line in the west. However, India insisted on the sin qua non of a boundary settlement that China must concede that Aksai Chin was Indian territory as well as accepting the McMahon Line. The conference had failed from the outset, but the summit meeting continued for the remaining five more days, neither side wished it to break down.

A press conference was held prior to Chou’s departure. Chou concisely reiterated the Chinese position: that the boundary had never been delimited, that the question could be settled through friendly consultations, and that, pending settlement, "both sides should maintain the present state of the boundary and not change it by unilateral action, let along by force." In the meantime the friendship between China and India should not, and could not, be jeopardized by the boundary question. Chou stated that Chinese government, like those before it, could never recognize the McMahon Line because it was "illegally delineated through an exchange of secret notes by British imperialism with the Tibetan local authorities." Nevertheless, he said, China was observing the Line as the boundary, and had not put forward territorial claims as pre-conditions in the negotiations. The press conference displeased the Indians. Nehru waited only until the Chinese were airborne and dwindling in the eastern sky on their way to Katmandu before attacking the Chinese Government as aggressors. He said that Chou En-lai "came here because something important had happened, the important thing being that according to us they had entered our territory … which we considered aggression." After learning Nehru’s word, Chou later was not amused but was "very much distressed by such an attitude, particularly as we respect Prime Minister Nehru." The summit meeting thus failed on the unyielding refusal of India to give up, modify or hold over its claim to the Aksai Chin territory. With Burma, China accepted the McMahon alignment as the basis of the boundary, and with Nepal, "adjustments were made in accordance with the principles of equality, mutual benefit, friendship and mutual accommodation." The Chinese maps showed Mount Everest within China, but China accepted the Nepali (and general) view that the peak itself marked the boundary. Both sides agreed to keep their armed personnel out of a forty-kilometer zone along the boundary. Chou En-lai maintained that the summit had not failed, but the summit cleared the way for a worsening of the situation on the borders. As Chou En-lai faced the American and Indian correspondents who questioned with hostility and suspicion, Chen Yi broke in: "I want to call your attention to the fact that China is a country which is being wronged. I want to stress, China is a country which is being wronged."

Part II: The Forward Policy

The Indians had no doubt about their inherent position that Aksai Chin had been incontrovertibly Indian territory and that the Chinese claim was factitious and concocted to camouflage illegal and clandestine seizure. By describing the Chinese presence as an act or aggression, the Indian Government obliged itself to take actions, even to use force if diplomatic methods failed. It was decided that India "must assert its rights by dispatching properly equipped patrols into the areas currently occupied by the Chinese, since any prolonged failure to do so will imply a tacit acceptance of Chinese occupation, and … Indian patrols penetrate into disputed areas of Ladakh." By the time Chou En-lai left, Indian Government had started implementing a "forward policy," by sending patrols to probe the Chinese-occupied areas and penetrating the spaces between the Chinese positions without attacking them. The objectives were to block potential lines of further Chinese advance and to establish an Indian presence in Aksai China, ultimately undermine Chinese control of the disputed areas by the interposition of Indian posts and patrols between Chinese positions, thus cutting the Chinese supply lines and forcing them to withdraw. The forward policy sprang from the conclusion that there was nothing else India could do. It was based on the fundamental premise that the Chinese would not physically interfere no matter how many Indians posts and patrols were set up, provided that the Indians did not attack any Chinese positions. As soon as the dispute started in 1954, the advance of the Indian boundary posts in the middle sectors intended to threaten with force against the Chinese who maintained their positions, but Nehru and his colleagues had absolute faith that the Chinese would not act likewise. The confidence in the moral unassailability was embedded in the belief that the British were reluctant to use force and if the Chinese did attack, it would rebound against them. It reflected Nehru’s perception that the unique position of India in the world, with the reputation and depth of its pacific instincts, would go with the Indian patrols into Aksai Chin like a moral armor. Nehru and his colleagues held this belief, that the Chinese would stand idly while India gradually and laboriously built up positions of strength, until the brutal disabuse took place in October 1962.

The Oppositions and critics in India began to cherish the phrase "police action," that "to defend your own territory is not to wage war" and "that if you throw out bandits … is just police action on your own territory." "We as a peaceful nation who are members of the UN do not believe in war as any remedy … therefore … the only way is to have a police action whereby we can push the Chinese out of our territory … after that have a basis for negotiation." Others argued that war was not the ultimate catastrophe or even an unmixed evil. It was believed that small and local wars could not always be avoided, and "when such wars are fought … the wisdom of the world" would localize them and would find a workable solution later. "So we need not scare ourselves that any resistance to Chinese aggression will lead to a world war and a destruction of humanity. The world will see to it that this does not happen." The opposition emphasized that "it is conflict that brings out the best in a country, that brings about unity," and that the danger would be turned to good effect "to achieve national cohesion and spur national endeavor." However, Nehru consistently stressed the dangers of war, that "war between India and China would be one of the major disasters of the world … for it will mean world war … which will be indefinite. We would not be able to limit it in time, because it will not be possible for China to defeat us and it will be impossible for us to march up to Peking across Tibet." In the rhetoric allusions to the ultimate possibility of war, the conceived context was that India was going to war for its territory after exhausting its patience and gaining a position of strength. It never occurred to New Delhi that war might arise from Chinese reaction to or anticipation of Indian moves. Nehru and his colleagues were unwavering in their faith that whatever India did along the borders, China would not attack. This basic assumption was the basis of the forward policy, a military challenge to a militarily far superior neighbor.

The Indian armed forces had been neglected in the 1950s. Nehru and Indian Congress ruled out possible threats to India one by one, and concluded that "no danger threatens India from any direction, and even if there is any danger we shall be able to cope with it." As for China, the Himalayas made "an effective barrier and not even air fleets could come that way." It was believed that its size, its geo-strategic position and the interest of the great powers would keep India immune from any significant external attacks. "If any power was covetous enough to make the attempt" to acquiring the commanding position, "all the others would combine to trounce the intruder. This mutual rivalry would in itself be the surest guarantee against an attack on India." Nehru held this rational and pragmatic view of external threats to India after independence and until the main Chinese assault in November 1962. The Indian Government stressed on development to come first. Military aid from abroad was considered unacceptable since it would impair India’s non-alignment and be unreliable. The positively pacific, almost pacifist approach to international relations, the emphasis on development, and insistence on non-alignment, all reinforced the Gandhian disapproval of men of war as part of the Indian Congress attitude. The civilian leadership thus placed the soldiers into disadvantaged position. After Menon became the Defense Minister in 1957, he was warmly welcomed for being energetic and politically relevant. The military had misgivings about Menon’s interference in steadily promoting officer Kaul, who played a central and disastrous role in the border war. Following its conception in the beginning of 1960, the total lack of military means made the Army resist the implementation of the forward policy until the end of 1961.

While the Sino-Indian border dispute halted, China proceeded to negotiate boundary settlements with other neighbors. Since 1954, the US equipped and trained Pakistan’s armed forces and it became no longer easy for India to defeat Pakistan. From 1960, the Indian Government tried to tutor Pakistan to adopt the Indian approach and the same attitude in dealing with China over the northern frontier. Instead, Pakistan agreed with China that the boundary had never been delimited and negotiated with China on October 13, 1962. By December 26, 1962, the two Governments jointed announced to have reached "complete agreement in principle," in which China followed for the great part what the British had proposed to China in 1899 and ceded some 750 square miles of territory to Pakistan. With Burmese Prime Minister, U Nu, China sought a settlement since 1956. U Nu found that after having emphatically repudiated all past boundary agreements with the British, China was prepared to open negotiations on the basis of what the British proposed. China found the "unequal treaties" imposed by Britain as unacceptable, but not the alignment that the British proposed. China offered Burma the whole Sino-Burmese boundary along McMahon Line, an agreement converted to a treaty in October 1960. China settled the boundaries with other neighbors equably and equitably shaded an adverse light on India’s position, but brought more sharply the deadlock between India and China. India reiterated its boundary could not be a matter of negotiation, and denied "the necessity of further or formal delimitation." China replied that "refusing to negotiate and trying to impose a unilaterally claimed alignment on China is in actuality refusal to settle the boundary questions," and warned that while India maintained the position, China would "absolutely not retreat an inch."

By the spring of 1961, Nehru found the Chinese position unchanged. China was still ready, indeed eager, to negotiate a boundary settlement with India, while indicating that China would agree to the McMahon Line. In the fall of 1961, Nehru Government gave categorical orders for immediate implementation of the forward policy. China protested about forward moves already made from Demchok that "the Chinese Government has been following with great anxiety the Indian troops" pressing forward on China’s borders in "gross violations of China’s territory and sovereignty," which would have serious consequences had it not been orders to avoid conflicts. India asserted that the Indian patrols were moving into their own territory and rejected the Chinese protest as unwarranted interference in their internal affairs, as they viewed that "according to our thinking our trouble at the border is not a dispute at all." The Goa incident further reinforced India’s readiness to take unilateral and forceful action in territorial question. Goa had been a Portuguese colony on the west coast since the beginning of the sixteenth century. The Portuguese stayed on after the British left the subcontinent in 1947, but never thought of giving the Goans independence. In 1955, India attempted to force Portugal to cede Goa through nonviolent demonstrations, but Portuguese police opened fire, killing several and wounding many. India severed diplomatic ties with Portugal, but the Portuguese stayed on in Goa. In the end of 1961, the Indian government decided to give its resolve military demonstration to China by invading Goa. With minimal resistance, India seized Goa, but it became more of a scandal and an irritant to India, especially to Nehru, in face of their persistent advocacy of the doctrine never to justify the use of force as a means of settling international disputes. India insisted that the military operation did not breach the prescription, and few came to criticize Indian action. President Kennedy wrote to Nehru: "All countries, including the USA, have a great capacity for convincing themselves of the full righteousness of their particular cause." The Indian press supported: "Why is it that something that thrills our people should be condemned in the strongest language?" A political journal summed up the Indian view of the seizure of Goa: "No aggression has been committed, because we have regarded Goa ever since 1947 as our rightful territory … To drive out an intruder who is in illegal occupation of part of our territory is not aggression."

The Goa incident reflected the amorphous and subjective processes within which the Indian Government operated. Neither the seizure of Goa nor the forward policy was decided upon in Cabinet. It showed the dualities of India’s attitude toward the use of force: reprehensible in the abstract and in the service of others, but justifiable both politically and morally when employed by India in disputes. Some politicians were intoxicated by the Goa victory as talks began of driving Pakistan out of Kashmir and forcing China out of Aksai Chin. The Home Minister, Shastri, paralleled the Goa incident with China: "If the Chinese will not vacate the areas … India will have to repeat what she did in Goa." The president of the Congress Party announced that India was "determined to get Pakistani and Chinese aggression on its soil vacated before long" and that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir must be "liberated." However, the military operation in Goa did not test the capabilities of the troops or their commanders, as the Portuguese put up no organized resistance against the overwhelmingly superior Indian forces. The Army had been experiencing chronic shortage of boots, and half of one battalion went through the operation in canvas gym shoes. Although this was discussed widely in the Army, little came out in India, which called the operation "our finest hour."

The easy victory over the Portuguese encouraged the hope of similar success against the Chinese. Nehru had repeatedly assured Parliament and public that the Army and other services were stronger than they have been, and were ready to defeat any challenges to the integrity of India. The Indian army would quickly teach the Chinese a lesson in the event of a conflict. Nehru said that the boundary dispute with China was more important to India than a hundred Goas. Although India now had rejected the Chinese proposal for a joint twenty-kilometer withdrawal, China had unilaterally stopped patrolling within twenty-kilometers of the bounder. India refused to open negotiations, and steadily pushed forward, first in the middle and eastern sectors and now in the west. China warned that India’s action "is most dangerous and may lead to grave consequences," but "so far as the Chinese is concerned the door for negotiation is always open." India insisted that the Sino-Indian boundary had long been settled and justified the forward policy as "the legitimate right, indeed the duty, of the Government of India to take all necessary measures to safeguard the territorial integrity of India." The forward policy continued as small Indian posts were being established overlooking Chinese positions and sometimes astride the tracks or roads behind them. The theory was that interruption of the communication lines would ultimately force the Chinese to withdraw from their posts. Nehru dismissed the increasingly emphatic Chinese warnings of "grave consequences," and explained to Parliament that the Chinese became "rather annoyed" as the Indian posts were set up behind their own. Nehru reassured the doubtful members who though Chinese tone dangerous: "There is nothing to be alarmed at, although the (Chinese) note threatens all kinds of steps," and that "if they do take those steps we shall be ready for them."

As Nehru assured Parliament that the position in the western sector was "more advantageous to India," the forwarding Indians in the Ladakh were outnumbered by the Chinese by more than five to one. The strength disparity was beyond the numbers. The Chinese were concentrated where the Indians were scattered; the Chinese were able to move in trucks where the Indians trekked on foot; and the Chinese had all regular supports arms for the troops while the Indian Brigade had nothing beyond one platoon of medium machine-guns. The Chinese ranged heavy mortars and recoilless guns on the Indian posts, and infantry equipped with automatic rifles. The Indians had nothing heavier than three-inch mortars and most posts even lacked those, their troops equipped with rifles last seen in action before the First World War. In early 1961, the Chinese began to react vigorously on the ground. As the Indians set up a post overlooking a Chinese position, the Chinese promptly took up more positions around it. Since April 1959, the Chinese also resumed the suspended patrol in the western sectors and warned to resume patrolling everywhere if Indians continued the forward movement. China also warned that the continued Indian "pressing on the Chinese post and carrying out provocation" would compel the Chinese troops to defend themselves, and that India would be responsible for the consequences. The Indian Government dismissed the warnings as bluff and the threatening Chinese moves as bluster. In the Chip Chap valley, the Chinese formed in assault formation and gave every indication to wipe out the Indian post. Western Command requested permission to withdraw the post, but Nehru believed that the Chinese were making a show of force to test India’s resolution and ordered to reinforce the post. The Chinese later did not follow up on the threats, and the Indian Government and Army concluded the judgement and nerve of the Prime Minister, further confirming the basic premise of the forward policy, which was further validated by the subsequent Galwan incident.

The Indian Amy map showed Galwan valley as one of the best routes to move into Chinese-held territory, which was one of Kaul’s orders to establish a post in November 1961. The terrain in the valley was extremely difficult and the Chinese had already had a post there since at least 1959. After the winter pasted, Western Command decided that any move to threaten the well-established Chinese post would certainly evoke a violent reaction, and concluded that no Indian post could be established. But Kaul overruled the command. After over a month of trekking, the Indians emerged on the upper reaches of the Galwan River, and took positions, on July 5, 1962 to cut off a Chinese outpost and also hold up a small Chinese supply party. On July 8, the Chinese first made diplomatically "strongest protest" asking for immediate withdrawal of the Indian troops and warning that China would not "give up its right to self-defense when unwarrantedly attacked." India replied that India has "regularly been patrolling the Galwan valley" and has "never encountered any Chinese infiltrators" there, and lodged "an emphatic protest" against the Chinese "unwarranted aggressive activity" on the ground. India warned China to be entirely responsible for any untoward incident if China did not "stop the incessant intrusions deep inside Indian territory and ceaseless provocative activities against Indian border guards." The Chinese reacted on the ground advancing on the Indian post with a company in assault formation and quickly building up to battalion strength. In response, the External Affairs Ministry called the Chinese Ambassador and warned that the garrison would open fire if the Chinese troops pressed any closer to the Galwan post, and that India would retaliate against Chinese positions if the post were attacked. In a few days, the Chinese pulled back a little while continuing to surround the post in relatively great strength, cutting off the ground supply. Western Command requested for air supply since any land approach would provoke a clash. India decided that, since China blinked in the confrontation that now relaxed, the moral initiative must be maintained. A small force was dispatched to reinforce Galwan. It was turned back under the Chinese guns, which warned to fire if it advanced any farther. The Galwan post was supplied by air until it was wiped out on October 20.

The news of the Galwan incident appeared in India on July 11, as a new and provocative Chinese advance into Indian territory. When the Chinese did not follow up on their physical and diplomatic threats, a wave of triumph swept the press and the politicians. It was believed that the incident raised the morale of the whole nation, and the Chinese withdrew "in the face of the determined stand of the small Indian garrison." The orders given to the Indian garrison were extended to all Indian troops in the western sectors, and the "fire only if fired upon" changed to "fire if the Chinese press dangerously close to your positions." Nehru further decided that the military moves had to be coupled with diplomatic pressure. Nehru assured the Indian Parliament with a proposal that would withdraw very large Chinese and very small Indian withdrawal. It was hoped that, with the establishment of Indian posts in Chinese-claimed territory, China would accept what the Indians considered to be the best way of saving face, the complete withdrawal, and that the few Indian posts already established might have brought China to that position. China rejected the proposal as "unilaterally imposed submissive terms" and questioned: "Why should China need to ask India’s permission for using its own road on its own territory?" New Delhi concluded that the forward policy had not yet presented enough pressure and decided that it must be pursued until China accepted to withdraw.

The Indian troops pressed hard in the western sector, acting as if they were the vanguard of a powerful army rather than the stake in a wild political gamble. Meanwhile the domestic critics demanded stronger and quicker action against China. To defend itself, the Government drew lines to connect the new forward Indian posts on maps and calculated the enclosed area. One journalist praised the Prime Minister for "a general advance over a wide front of 2,500 square miles" and complimented Nehru as "a unique triumph for audacious Napoleonic planning." Only sporadic report was made on the real situation that the Chinese had a ten-to-one superiority in the western sector and also all the advantages of terrain and communications. Most reported on the superior strength and better equipment of the Indians over Chinese, the latter as garrison troops of poor fighting quality. The Opposition in India further pushed for yet stronger measures to expel the Chinese. It was claimed that "The bogey of Chinese superiority … should not worry our military experts" and that "two hundred Indian soldiers are equal to two thousand of the Chinese," and asked "Why should we be afraid of them? Why are we not able to hurl them back?" When the Indian Ambassador (Nehru’s cousin) in Washington expressed the truth that the Indian defense forces were so badly equipped that they could not ensure the security of the country, he was ignored. Nehru repeatedly assured Parliament that the Army was capable of defending the frontiers, and suggested disciplining the Ambassador for an indiscretion.

Saner voices in the Government suggested that India should give China the same pledge as it gave to Pakistan with respect to the Pakistan-held and Indian-claimed part of Kashmir, and a daily newspaper also urged the Government to negotiate. However, the overwhelmingly dominant attitudes in Parliament were not to negotiate. After Kongka Pass incident on July 21, 1962, China protested. "China is not willing to fight with India, and the Sino-Indian boundary question can be settled only through routine negotiations." China had exercised self-restraint, but could not stand idle while the "frontier guards are being encircled and annihilated by aggressors … If India should ignore the warning and persist in its own way India must bear full responsibility for all the consequences." India replied on July 26, reminding China that under certain conditions India was prepared to "enter into further discussions" on the boundary question. But India was firm in its position that before any negotiations, China must withdraw all personnel from the India-claimed territory, and when the evacuation was complete, India would meet China at the conference table to discuss minor modifications of the boundary India claimed. In response, China reciprocated the reasonable and positive tone, but rejected the condition of "one-sided withdrawal from large tracts of its own territory," while accepting the proposal for discussion. "The Chinese Government approves of the suggestion put forth by the Indian Government for further discussion … As a matter of fact, if only the Indian side stop advancing into Chinese territory, a relaxation of the border situation will be affected at once… The Chinese Government proposes that such discussions be held as soon as possible..." India considered the discussions with China served no purpose since China explicitly rejected the "one-sided withdrawal," which India considered as the only acceptable settlement.

India had all the advantages of world opinions, as the newsstands were packed with supporters. The press and governments of the Western world cheered India as it stood against what they believed to be the expansionist China. The historical and documentary arguments about the boundary were too obscure except for the specialists, to whom the archives that might show which side was nearer the truth were closed. Although the invasion of Goa injured India’s reputation, there was generally no hesitation in the West to take the Indian side. As Felix Green explained the American reaction: "So solidly built into our consciousness is the concept that China is conducting a rapacious and belligerent foreign policy that whenever a dispute arises in which China is involved, she is instantly assumed to have provoked it. All commentaries, ‘news reports,’ and scholarly interpretations are written on the basis of this assumption. The cumulative effect of this only further reinforces the original hypothesis so that it is used again next time with even greater effect." The Americans viewed the conflict as a race between China and India for the economic and political leadership in Asia. In 1959, then Senator JF Kennedy said: "We want India to win that race with China …if China succeeds and India fails the economic-development balance of power will shift against us." Kennedy’s estimation lowered sharply when the Prime Minister visited Washington in November 1961. The president later described it as "the worst head-of-state visit" ever, and his conversations with Nehru as "like trying to grab something in your hand only to have it turn out to be just fog." The British Government’s support for India was as solid as that of the US except for a division of opinion. Some officials in the Foreign Office pointed out that India’s account of the historical argument for the boundaries was inflated and recommended less than categorical British support for the Indian claims. But as British viewed that its interest was concerned, it gave wholehearted and unqualified support for India.

In contrast to the committed support of the Western world, the Afro-Asian countries clung to the question of negotiation as the ground to decide their position in the diplomatic-historical argument between China and India. It seemed that China wanted India to negotiate a settlement, while India was refusing. But India proclaimed that in fact it was the other way around. To avoid the risk of too blunt refusing the negotiation, Nehru made a statement on August 13, reaffirming that there could be no discussion without Chinese withdrawal. "The Government of India is prepared to discuss" not about the alignment of the boundaries, but about the steps by which Chinese withdrew from India-claimed territory. The surrender had to be unconditional, but the Chinese were welcome to discuss the details of the surrender ceremony. In the same speech, Nehru quoted Chen Yi’s statement in Geneva that "to wish that Chinese troops would withdraw from their own territory is impossible." Nehru accused China of "laying down preconditions which make it impossible for us to carry on discussions and negotiations." The Indian argument was that the discussions prior to Chinese withdrawal would be "pre-judging or acceptance of the Chinese claim," whereas the Chinese withdrawal before discussion would be "prejudging or acceptance of the Indian claim."

In the meantime, the new "great games" on the borders were reaching climax. At the beginning of September, in the Chip Chap valley, the Indians put into effect of the orders they had been given since the Galwan confrontation, firing into and killing several Chinese who advanced close to one of the Indian posts. By the end of August, the Indians had placed nearly forty posts in Chinese-claimed territory, most staffed between a dozen to thirty and fifty men. They were more than vulnerable, in fact helpless, as they were outnumbered and outgunned. The question was not how long they could resist, if they were attacked, but was how many Chinese they could kill before being wiped out. They were the hostages of the Indian conviction, civilian and military, that China would never attack, as Kaul reported: "I am convinced that the Chinese will not attack any of our positions even if they are relatively weaker than theirs." The Chinese protests became more threatening as August passed into September. "If the Indian side should insist on threatening by armed force the Chinese border defense forces…. and thereby rouse their resistance, it must bear the responsibility for all the consequences arising therefrom." Meanwhile, two Russian lumber freighters were among ships delivering arms to Cuba, of which significance was to be recognized later by the U.S. Government.

Part III: The View from Peking

Two distinct and divergent strains governed China’s attitude toward India. One placed India in historical and dialectical context of the Marxist-Leninist framework, and the other as a neighbor and fellow Asian power. In late 1940s, India appeared to be on the anti-revolutionary path as the US shifted support to India after the bitter ending of supporting Chiang Kai-shek. In 1949, a Shanghai journal accused Nehru and Indian Government’s pursuance of British policy as serving "the Anglo-American imperialist designs for the annexation of Tibet" and of nourishing imperialist intentions. In December 1949, India was second country to recognize the People’s Republic of China, only after Burma, and actively advocated presenting the new Peking Government as the representative of China in the United Nations. Subsequently, India played an important role in the ceasefire negotiations in Korea and also in prisoner-of-war repatriation. During the years of Hindee Chinee bhai-bhai in the middle 1950s, there was muted resentment. Chou En-lai commented in 1965 of Nehru’s "arrogance" and told some visiting Ceylonese politicians that "I have never met a more arrogant man than Nehru." However, the general attitudes toward India were genuinely friendly while a little patronizing. The Indian perception was that India and China were like twins in standing, with Indian seniority, and that it had been largely through India’s effort that "Communist China acquired a measure of respectability throughout Asia."

In 1958, as Nehru was constant in his support for China’s rightful seat in the UN, the People’s Daily summed Nehru as "a friend to China and an opponent to the imperialist policy of war and aggression." Thus far Nehru’s polices were consistent with Leninist scheme of a progressive nationalism, in which a temporary but valid alliance formed between the bourgeoisie and part o the exploited classes in the first stage of struggle against imperialism. In 1959, as the Dalai Lama fled to India, Chinese had no objections, as Chou En-lai said that it was normal international practice to grant the Dalai Lama sanctuary, although they complained of the impressive welcome extended to the Dalai Lama. Later Indian Government did not keep up its promise that the Dalai Lama would not be allowed to engage in political activities against China while he was in India. China also complained of the Kuomintang and American agents who were actively supporting the Tibetan émigrés in Kalimpong, channeling anti-Chinese propaganda, weapons and agents across the still very open border. China denounced the rebellion in Tibet as counter-revolution and an attempt to sustain the "dark, cruel and barbarous serf system" by the class that benefited from it. As the US started developing designs on India’s non-aligned virtue, especially the emergence of the Indian approach to the boundary questions, China began to watch Indian attitudes and policy for signs that India entered the imperialists’ camp. China regarded seriously India’s unilateral and unannounced modification of the McMahon Line and the establishment of posts. In the Longju incident, the Indians fired first. In Kongka Pass incident, a large Indian patrol attempted to move into Chinese-occupied territory and set up post there. This was more ominous as it concerned an area of thousands of square miles, with high strategic importance to China.

China viewed the Indian’s insistence for China to accept the unilateral Indian definition of boundary what "British imperialism had fabricated covertly but never dared to put forward." India claimed Aksai Chin in which it did not have any material interests, and China regarded this as "India’s … demand that China get out of her only traffic route to Western Tibet, a road India has no use for, was … seeking injury to China without benefit to India." India’s attempt for rough disdain for Chinese national sensibilities was nothing new to China. The Chinese history was replete with boundaries unilaterally imposed by stronger countries and with foreign arrogance and power. But now, "the days when the Chinese people could be bossed around are gone for ever." Chen Yi said mildly that by imposing the McMahon Line on China, India had not "given the slightest consideration to the sense of national pride and self-respect of the Chinese people." In spite of China’s reasonable approach, India took a path that led to an intractable dispute and "created tensions in relations" with China.

China submitted the Indian actions and attributed the root cause of the boundary dispute to the prisms of Marxist-Leninist analysis in the "ever-sharpening class contradictions and social contradictions and the deepening political crisis facing the Nehru Government." By the beginning of 1960, the Indian Government substituted reactionary nationalism for anti-imperialist and anti-feudal revolution, and inclined itself closer to the imperialist and feudal forces. China considered Nehru as a captive of the forces of reaction and that he may free himself to bring forth a progressive influence on Indian policy. The People’s Daily wrote that Nehru was "respected in China" and regretted that Nehru had "let himself be drawn into the whirlpool of anti-Chinese agitation in India." The Chinese attitude to Nehru changed after the summit talks of April 1960. Chou En-lai was shocked by Nehru’s intransigence and described Nehru as impossible to negotiate with, "being both unreliable and impenetrable." Chou resented that "he did not say it face to face, but as soon as we had left he attacked the Chinese Government as aggressors." China did not openly denounce Nehru until late in 1962, but from 1960 regarded Nehru as "the loyal representative of the big bourgeoisie and big landlords of India" and stooge of China’s international enemies.

The Indian Government also fulfilled China’s ideological expectations as the American assistance doubled in four years, as compared to previous twelve years, after Eisenhower’s visit in 1959. The conclusion was obvious: "The more anti-Chinese India is, the greater is the increase in US aid," which had increased "in direct proportion to the extent to which the Nehru Government has served United States imperialism and opposed China." In the Chinese analysis of the Indian politico-economic polices after independence, India continued as a colonial economy, with its foreign investment increasing 150 per cent by 1960, in which the British share doubled and American multiplied, as India became more dependent on foreign aid. A conservative Indian journal, Capital, pointed out in 1960 that "almost he entire third plan depends on (foreign aid): if the foreign aid does not come, the plan will have to be scrapped, since India’ sown foreign exchange reserves are already below the minimum." In 1962, an independent journal, United Asia, concluded on the pervasive and profound dependence of Indian economy, that "any drastic cuts in, or cessation, of foreign aid would immediately engender a major economic crisis in India, accompanied by the closing down of large numbers of companies, reduced productions, unemployment and uncontrollable inflation." China noted later: "Whenever imperialist ‘aid’ appears, genuine economic sovereignty and economic independence vanish for all practical purposes."

In the beginning of 1960s, China saw the frequent use of force by Indian Government as the armory of repressive measures inherited from the British. Chinese found another passage from Nehru’s own Marxist phase to describe the political processes in India: "So long as capitalism can use the machinery of democratic institutions to hold down and keep down labor, democracy is allowed to flourish, but when this is not possible than capitalism discards democracy and adopts the open fascist methods of violence and terror." China viewed that the Indian Government has made itself "the pawn of the international anti-China campaign," and concluded that "is the root cause and background of the Sino-Indian boundary dispute," which was created as a pretext for domestic and international propaganda. The Chinese policy toward other governments springs from how they act towards China, not from the political characters, as stated in a motto: "It’s not what you are, it’s the way that you act." This was illustrated in the Chinese attitudes towards Pakistan, which pursued an unfriendly policy towards China through the 1950s, but changed course at the end of 1959. The settlement of the Sino-Pakistani boundary lead to cordial and civil relations with China, and ultimately a tacit alliance against India. China did not make the full ideological denunciation of Nehru and his Government until very late in the border dispute, and anathematized Nehru in October 1962, while continuing to stress Sino-Indian friendship and that China would never close the door to a negotiated settlement. China repeatedly reiterated that "there is no conflict of fundamental interests between China and India," and that the boundary question was essentially one of small and temporary importance.

The Longju incident had a destructive impact for Sino-Soviet relations. The incident was reported without question in the Indian version that it was an instance of deliberate and unprovoked aggression by China. The Chinese account of the clash was ignored and subsequent Nehru’s admission that the boundary was "varied" by India "because it was not considered a good line" completely missed. Western observers were so convinced already that China was a bellicose and bullying power that the incident was interpreted accordingly, confirming their preconception. On September 6, Chinese informed the Soviet Union the background of the incident that it occurred on the Chinese side of the McMahon Line and the Indians fired at the Chinese frontier guards first. But the explanation carried no conviction with the Russians, who were to release a statement three days later. China handed a letter of Chou En-lai that was written to Nehru on September 8 in a sharply worded statement that the "trespassing and provocations by Indian troops" caused the armed clash at Longju. China urged Russia not to release the statement, but it was circulated that night, which indicated the agreement of the "leading circles" of Soviet Union regretting the incident. Soviet Union deplored that the two largest Asian countries discredited the idea of peaceful coexistence, and expressed confidence that "both Governments will settle the misunderstanding that has arisen." While Nehru viewed the position as "a more or less dispassionate view of the situation," China reacted violently to the Russian Government for "assuming a façade of neutrality" and "making no distinction between right and wrong," which by implication favored India and condemned China.

China was faced with double difficulty that was to beset and damage China in dealing with India. There was a credibility gap in which the universal tendency of people to accept the Indian version as the truth, and also the general readiness to conclude that Indians got the worst of the battle and they could not have possibly have provoked it. A conflict of doctrines emerged between China and India. Krushchev flatly denounced the war as an instrument of policy, for he believed that "force … must absolutely not be used against he capitalist world, no matter how strong the Communists might be." Krushchev placed his denunciation of the "Left revisionists" in Peking in handling the dispute with India. Krushchev rejected Chinese complaint that the Soviet Union had let them down by refusing to take side against India. In contrast he blamed China for having let down the cause of socialism and, by quarrelling with India, China failed to cooperate with the Soviet Union in encouraging India to move toward socialism. China was advised to take heart of Lenin’s denunciation of great-nation chauvinism, and accused China for having made Nehru a national hero in India, which was exactly what the imperialists wanted. The Soviet Union approached its boundary problems responsibly. Had it acted like China, it would have declared war on Iran more than once, after repeated clashes on the Russian-Iranian frontier and with casualties. The Russian position, ironically, was precisely the same as China’s, as Pravda put it: "We have always believed, and continue to believe, that there were no reasons for the border conflict between India and China … There is no doubt that had the two sides sat down at a conference table and discussed their mutual charges calmly, soberly and without bias, the conflict would have been settled long ago…" Although this was consistent with Chinese argument again and again urging India in an attempt to convince India that the boundaries must be settled by negotiation, the Soviet Union appeared to have concluded that the Chinese were lying in their accounts and hypocritical in their proposals of negotiation. They could not believe that as week a country as India would actually challenge China. The demonstrative neutrality of Soviet Union encouraged India to persist in its approach to the boundary questions, and the Russian aircraft enabled the Indians to implement the forward policy, thereby helping India on the way to disaster.

The Sino-Russian borders were the products of the Imperial Russian’s drive for territory and China’s weakness during the nineteenth century. In the middle of nineteenth century, Russians annexed all of China’s territory north of the Amur River, and was grinding into China in central Asia, pushing back the frontier of Chinese Tukestan (Sinkiang). In 1911, at the establishment of the Republic of China, the Chinese nationalists began demanding the abrogation of the "unequal treaties" and restoration of former frontiers. In 1917, Commissar for Foreign Affairs declared that the Soviet Government repudiated all unequal treaties. The Karakhan manifesto confirmed in 1920 that "The Government of the … Soviet Republic declares as void all the treaties concluded by the former Government of Russia with China, renounces all the annexations of Chinese territory, all the concessions in China and returns to China free of charge and forever all that was ravenously taken from her by the Tsar’s Government and by the Russian bourgeoisie." But the Soviet Government very soon came to the view that, unequal treaties or not, the Sino-Russian boundaries should stay where they were. The Chinese were prepared to accept the boundaries and to regard the lost territories as gone for good, despite of bitter resentment of the injustice over the "unequal treaties" and national humiliations. In 1960, the Chinese Government proposed to Moscow to negotiate the boundary settlements. In 1964, when the negotiations began, the Soviet Union adopted exactly the same approach to the boundary question as had India: "There is nothing to discuss except what we agree to discuss," and was as unacceptable as the Indian approach. Like Nehru, the Russian were willing, indeed eager, to settle with China on minor boundary rectifications, but refused to enter into general boundary negotiations. As the Chinese made explicitly clear that they were prepared to accept the old treaties, the Russians played deaf as did the Indians. It was probable that the Russian and Indian perceived the Chinese insistence on equality at the negotiation table as a challenge.

As the Sino-Soviet quarrel intensified through 1960, the Russian support of India became a key charge in China’s ideological denunciation of Krushchev’s "revisionism." China viewed the Tibetan revolt marked Nehru’s swerve to the Right. Now the national bourgeois Government of India entered second phase, in which the workers, peasants, and intellectuals began their struggle against the bourgeoisie, Nehru Government manufactured a frontier dispute with China in order to postpone the day of reckoning. In the autumn of 1960, Russia opened a new and deeply provocative chapter by providing a major military assistance to India, including Anthnov-12 heavy transport aircraft and then "Hound" helicopter suited to operate at 16-17,000 feet altitudes in Ladakh. Against vigorous protests of the British and American Governments, the Indians purchased MiG jet fighters from Russia. In the autumn of 1961, when the Indian military activity increased in the western sector as purposeful and coordinated, China recognized the Indian "attempt to realize territorial claims unilaterally and by force." In the middle of 1962, the People’s Daily warned that it would be "very erroneous and dangerous should the Indian Government take China’s attitude of restraint and tolerance as an expression of weakness." The Indians "mistook China’s long forbearance as a sign that China was weak and could be bullied. They thought that with the backing of the imperialists and support of the Soviet leaders they had nothing to fear, and that as soon as they took action China would be forced to retreat and their territorial claims would be realized." The alternative became clear. China could either agree to withdraw from the disputed territory and surrender to India’s diplomatic and military pressure at the cost of national pride and prestige as well as strategic position in the Tibet-Sinkiang region, or China could take up the Indian challenge and fight.

Like the Russians, China wished to avoid major, especially nuclear, wars, but they could not truckle to the imperialists. As Mao Tse-tung put it, the "US imperialism and the Chiang Kai-shek clique" must not be overestimated as they were "rotten to the core and had no future," and therefore can be slighted in the strategic context. "But in regard to any particular situation or specific struggle … we must never slight the enemy: on the contrary, we can win victory only when we take full account of him and devote all our energies to the fight." In 1929, after a dispute over the Chinese Eastern Railway, the Kuomintang Government of China attacked the Russian border. The Soviet Union invaded Manchuria, destroyed a Kuomintang army, and withdrew to its own territory. China now considered this, "compelled to act in self-defense," a perfectly right thing to do. The resolute Russian counterblow defended the national interests of the Soviet Union, and also "accorded with the interests of the Chinese people and of the revolutionary people of the world." With this thinking, China warned in September 1962, as the Indians determinedly pressed forward: "If the Indian side should insist on threatening by armed force the Chinese defense forces who are duty-bound to defend their territory, and thereby arouse their resistance, it must bear the responsibility for all the consequences arising therefrom."

Part IV: The Border War
(i) The Ridge and the River

In the summer of 1962, the public attention in India was focused on the western sector of the borders. The Indian Government reversed the actuality and propagated the belief that it was China that was deliberately pushing forward in order to expand. While pursuing a policy of utmost recklessness, the Government successfully obscured the facts to the outside world as well as to the Indian mass that increasingly complained of the inability to challenge China with boldness and determination. Nehru had deprived himself of all options, as suspending the forward policy would be construed as surrender and betrayal of the national cause. Since Nehru had misled the nation into the belief that the Indian Army was strong enough to handle the Chinese, he had no choice but to rely on the military force to counteract the Chinese. While the forward policy was being implemented in the western sector, the border war was triggered by a marginal Indian move forward in the eastern sector, where the Chinese observed the McMahon Line as the de facto boundary.

After the Longju incident in August 1959, the eastern sector had been quiet as Nehru and Chou En-lai agreed to suspend patrol along the McMahon Line on both sides. The forward policy reversed the orders and made the McMahon Line a live border again. In December 1961, Eastern Command was ordered to move forward to the closest practicable posts to the McMahon Line. To reach the Line, it took weeks of trekking, and supplying became an acute problem, often placing the remote garrisons in real danger of starvation. As the senior officers pointed out the impracticability of posting troops, unlike the western sector, their representations were brushed aside. In February 1962, General Kaul went to Assam to personally deal with the protests, and in the first half of 1962, the Army set up twenty-four posts along the McMahon Line. On the eastern sector, the Chinese did not counteract so long as the Indians kept to their own side of the McMahon Line. As the exact alignment of Longju was disputed, the Indians did not reoccupy it in 1962. However, the Indians set off the border war by establishing a new post at the disputed territory at the western extremity of the McMahon Line. The Line terminated on the boundary with Bhutan at the latitude of 27o44'30''N on the map signed by the British and the Tibetans in New Delhi on March 24, 1914. When the Line was transported to the coordinates to the ground, it did not lie along the highest ridge in the vicinity, which in fact lied three to four miles north of where McMahon drew the line, at Thag La ridge.

Since August of 1959, the Indians set up a post north of the McMahon Line at Khinzemane, by which Indians claimed to and moved into an area of about twenty-five square miles north of the map-marked McMahon Line. This brought instant Chinese reaction. About two hundred Chinese came, as Nehru said later, "physically pushing back" the ten or twelve men of the Assam Rifles a couple of miles in the direction where they came from. But two days later, the Indians returned to Khinzemane and said they would resist to the Chinese who tried to push they back again. The Chinese acquiesced. New Delhi protested to Peking on August 11, claiming that Khinzemane was in Indian territory and that Thag La ridge was the boundary "traditionally as well as by treaty map." India referred "tradition" to the seasonal grazing practiced by the herdsmen from a southern village, but the villagers from the north used the area the same way. The claim of the treaty map was false as neither Thag La ridge nor Khinzemane was identified on the map. China protested too, claiming that Khinzemane was "undoubtedly part of Chinese territory" and that India made "serious encroachments upon China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity," warning India of serious consequences if the Indians post were not withdrawn. India modified a proposal requesting China to leave the status quo at Khinzemane undisturbed, while India would undertake no further change, "pending further discussions." China did not follow up the threat of "serious consequences," and the Indian post at Khinzemane was unmolested for the next three years, until India broke its implicit undertaking by setting up another post in the area.

In May 1962, the ban on patrolling to the west of Khinzemane was lifted and XXXIII Corps was ordered to set up several posts, including one at the trijunction of India, China and Bhutan. The platoon patrol of Assam Rifles, which were under control of the civilian arm through the governor of Assam, disregarded the McMahon Line and treated the Thag La ridge as the boundary. They set up a post there on June 4, overlooking the sizeable Tibetan village of Le, but there was no sign of the Chinese who still observed the 1959 no patrol agreement. Then the Corps recommended to establish Dhola Post in the Khinzemane area, which the Ministry of External Affairs approved and marked the point of no return. The eastern sector remained quiet until September 8, when the Chinese treated Dhola Post the same as they did to the Indian forward posts in the west. About sixty Chinese suddenly appeared down Thag La ridge and pressed close to the post. The Indian commander in the post exaggerated the number to six hundred, with the hope of bringing the Army to his assistance, calculating that if he reported a realistic figure, his own small force would be left to handle the situation. But the Chinese did not surround or attack Dhola Post. They settled into nearby positions and dominated the post. On September 16, China followed diplomatic protest that Indians were intruding further and "reveal how ambitious the Indian side’s aggressive designs are … also show that the Indian side is actively extending the tension to the entire Sino-Indian boundary," warning that India would be responsible for all the consequences.

In the Anglo-Tibetan agreement of March 1914, there were no verbal descriptions of the boundary and the location of the line, which was to be determined only by reading off and transposing the longitude and latitude from the original treaty map to the ground. This would plainly leave Dhola Post and Thag La ridge, like Khinzemane, north of the McMahon Line and in Chinese territory. However, the Indian Government insisted that McMahon intended to run the boundary along the lines of high ridges and, since Thag La ridge was the dominant feature, the boundary must lie along Thag La ridge. In Indian views, Thag La ridge had become a definitive and absolute boundary, and Dhola Post belonged to India as indisputably as New Delhi to itself. Based on its clear logic, India pushed the forward policy one explosive stage further. It was first thought that Indian patrols would infiltrate into Chinese-occupied territory and China would not retaliate. Then the Indian posts would cut off Chinese posts and force them to withdraw, and China would not retaliate. And now Indians would attack and force the Chinese back and China would not attack. The Indian Government built up the public confidence and expectation such that any marginal incursions by the Chinese on the McMahon Line, which was clearly and absolutely the boundary, would not be tolerated. It was further believed that the disadvantages were all on China’s side and the Indian Army was well placed to defend the border, while the truth was reverse. The road construction made movement relatively easy for the Chinese, whose troops had been stationed in Tibet for years, physically attuned and acclimatized to the high altitude as well as suitably clothed and equipped. On the Indian side, lateral movement was extremely difficult as the valleys lay north to south and the constant landslides and washouts during the monsoon made it unaffordable to cut roads. The Indians were disadvantaged throughout NEFA. As the Chinese road led to a point three hours, it took six days’ march for the Indians to reach Tawang. By the time Indian troops reached Tawang, they were exhausted and often sick with pulmonary edema, due to lack of acclimatization to and sudden exertion at high altitude. By as late as October 1962, Nehru still informed the journalists that the advantage lay with India in NEFA, and by September 1962, the belief had become an accepted truth in India.

Despite of public pressure, the Indian Government did not have to be pushed into actions. On September 9, a meeting was held in the Defense Ministry, which decided that the Chinese must be evicted immediately. As Nehru left for a Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ conference in London the day before, the meeting was conducted by Menon, who like other ministers, followed Nehru’s style of decision making without consulting the Cabinet. Although Menon initially did not favor the forward policy and inclined towards a negotiated boundary settlement with China, after failing to convince Nehru, now he took a strong and public line to eject the Chinese from Thag La ridge. The officers at the Defense Ministry meeting raised the issue that Dhola Post was in Chinese territory in their own maps, but they were told to disregard the maps and treat the crest of Thag La ridge as the boundary. General Thapar accepted the eviction order, which was code-named Leghorn, and XXXIII Corps was to move to Dhola Post immediately, without considering the difficulties in supplying the troops in an extremely difficult and little-known country. The military and civilian leadership, the latter with overriding command over the former, took unprofessional, overoptimistic and even irrational view of the military possibilities. On September 12, General Singh, of XXXIII Corps assured his superior officers of his determination to take actions, but suggested that Dhola Post should simply be withdrawn because of the limitations of his troops. The Chinese could quickly build up to divisional strength north of Tawang, and would outbid any Indian reinforcements in Thag La ridge. The Indian troops would have to rely on air supply, and also need heavy winter clothing and tents. General Sen of the Eastern Command personally went to Singh and other officers repeating the order to throw back the Chinese over Thag La ridge. On September 14, 9 Punjab battalion marched out for Dhola Post, with about four hundred rifles, half of the full complement of eight hundred. The second battalion of the brigade was ordered to move within forty-eight hours to Dhola Post, which was also at half strength.

By September 14, Army Head Quarter (H.Q.) learned the actual number of Chinese below Thag La ridge was only fifty or sixty, the true information that would unlikely have brought forth so drastic of reaction. But Army H.Q. did not call off the eviction move, but ordered the Punjabis to capture Thag La by September 19, but the order did not reached the Punjabis until September 19 itself. The Punjabis reached the Namka Chu early on September 15, still two full days of march away from Dhola Post, moving on hard scale rations and pouch ammunitions aside from heavy weapons and mortar ammunition. The Punjabis encountered the Chinese in company strength on both sides of the river that was forced by the monsoon rains. The Chinese reportedly "shouted in Hindi that the Indians should withdraw from the Namka Chu area as it was Chinese territory. They said that the Indian and Chinese peoples had an unbreakable friendship and this friendship should not be marred by petty border incidents. … They asked (the Indians) to send (their) local civil officers to discuss the exact location of the border." In response, the Indian political officer was ordered not to have discussions with the Chinese. The commanding officer of the Punjabis spread the battalion out along the Namka Chu in order to relieve Dhola Post, reopen the supply route and prevent Chinese incursion. Since September 13, Brigadier Dalvi, who was a forty-two-year-old graduate of the Indian Military Academy, had been ordered to move from Tawang to the Namka Chu. As the Indians laboriously built up force on the Namka Chu, the Chinese on the other side of the river kept pace with them effortlessly.

The Indian military intelligence (M.I.) declined during the last days of the British. There were no Indians in M.I. after 1947, and the civilian Intelligence Bureau (I.B.) replaced its role. Policy officers staffed the I.B., and a former officer Malik headed the Bureau and had an important place in the innermost counsels of the government. By 1960s Malik was widely accepted in domestic politics, especially his predictions about Chinese behavior. The forward policy was based on the rock solid faith established upon his appreciation, or rather divination, that the Chinese would not retaliate, even if India used force against the Chinese. Malik relied on extra-sensory perceptions, and helped to close the ears of Nehru and his official advisers, despite of mounting reports of increasing Chinese troops behind the McMahon Line. Nehru and his colleagues wished to believe that Chinese could be forced back without trouble. When a news agency reported of this on September 10, the Government tried to persuade the agency to withdraw it and then report that it was unfounded. When spokesman confirmed on September 13 that "some Chinese forces have appeared in the area of the Bhutan trijunction…" there was unwillingness to say squarely that Chinese troops deliberately crossed the McMahon Line. The spokesman simply said on September 14, "A Chinese group appears to be on our side." The Government leaked news constantly and most secret decisions appear in the press at extraordinary speed. The official attempt to suppress reports of Thag La ridge was thus unsuccessful, and the domestic critics obliged the Government to expel the Chinese instantly even if single Chinese crossed the McMahon Line, let alone Chinese forced across the line. The public, including the Congress, was outraged at the universally believed new Chinese aggression, unprovoked and insolent. The Swatantra Party called for Nehru’s resignation for the "utter failure to protect India’s borders," and the demands increased over the Government to issue an ultimatum to China, as impatience grew with the Government’s countermeasures.

General Singh at XXXIII Corps were reluctant to put troops where they could not be supplied and to launch an operation that was militarily impossible. The Chief of General Staff, General Thapar, expressed in a meeting in the Defense Ministry on September 22 that China would retaliate in the western sector and perhaps against all forward Indians posts east of the Chinese claim line. But a stock civilian reassurance overrode the concern. The Defense Ministry and External Affairs calculated to give a hard and demonstrative blow at the Chinese beneath Thag La ridge so that Chinese would retreat there but also would take a much more acquiescent line elsewhere. This was derived from reading the mood and character of the Chinese Government and confirmed by Malik’s estimations that no one would risk to assault a country as identified as India with the cause of peace. General Thapar’s warning was thus rejected in the Defense Ministry and the order for the Army was confirmed to evict the Chinese. General Thapar requested the order be put in writing, which came from a junior official who consulted through telephone call to the Defense Minister Menon in New York without consulting the Cabinet Defense Committee. The order overruled General Thapar’s professional judgment that his force was incapable of handling the Chinese reaction to the eviction operation. Three years before, Thapar’s predecessor Thimayya submitted resignation after having had a clash with Menon, and was humiliated and humbled under the name of "civil supremacy." This marked a point of no return in the Indian Army, and Thapar failed to offer his resignation. Brigadier Dalvi, much lower in rank, finally submitted resignation in protest and wrote later: "Resignation is the last constitutional resort of a service chief in a democratic set up … this is the only safeguard against incompetent, unscrupulous or ambitious politicians."

With the confirmation and passing down of the order, implementation was faced with daunting problems. The Indians were under far more strongly armed Chinese troops who outnumbered them by five or ten to one. The Namka Chu was still difficult to access and supply the troops. Rations of thirty days had to be air-dropped and stocked as well as field guns and ammunition. By the end of September, the politicians in New Delhi, including those in the Government, Congress Party and Opposition, were getting impatient with the Army "to take the steps necessary to clear the Chinese from Indian territory across Thag la ridge." The news media and official comments expressed confidence and optimism to achieve the Indian objectives without difficulty. In contrast to the impatience, the Namka Chu was quiet in the first part of September, as the Chinese offered cigarettes to the tobacco-less Indians and even handled over parachuted Indian supplies that landed on their side. On September 17, the Chinese reported that: "While two Chinese frontier guards were on sentry duty … more than sixty Indian soldiers closed in on them from three direction. The two Chinese soldiers immediately shouted to the Indian soldiers to halt. But the Indian troops pressed forward even faster. Several of the Indian troops gathered round them at a distance of about ten meters and some came as close as three meters to one of the guards, aiming their British-made rifles and Canadian-made sub-machine-guns and howling out at the top of their voices in wanton provocation." On September 20, the first shooting occurred, leaving two Chinese dead and five Indians wounded. Peking protested and demanded that "the Indian side immediately stop its attack and withdraw," warning that the Chinese would fire back in defense. The People’s Daily wrote: "the situation is most critical and the consequences will be serious. Let the Indian authorities not say that warning has not been served in advance." The Indians counter protested in almost the same language, calling China to "cease aggressive activities on Indian territory" and withdraw or "be responsible for all the consequences." Both sides were saber-rattling, but India’s scabbard was empty.

The official Indian accounts of exchanges of fire below Thag La ridge blamed the Chinese for having provoked them. This pressed the journalists and politicians to blame the field commanders as sluggish, and specifically pointed the blame on General Singh. When General Singh went to Eastern Command on September 29, General Sen refused to accept Singh’s requirement as impossible to meet. Singh wrote to protest both the impracticability of the operation that he was ordered to launch and the impropriety of Sen’s handling of the situation. Sen presented the written protest as an example of uncooperativeness and on October 2, both Thapar and Sen asked Menon to remove Singh from commanding XXXIII Corps, to which Menon agreed. The difficulties in finding a replacement made them decide to not simply remove Singh but to form XXXIII Corps into another corps to take over operations on the northwestern border. On October 3, it was decided that the new IV Corps should be headed by Kaul and would be made responsible for immediate launching of Operation Leghorn. Despite that Kaul had never commanded troops in combat, Nehru and Menon regarded Kaul as savior and were convinced that China would not strike back and the operation would be a straightforward one. The delusion was fused such that the operation would speedily succeed only if the right man commanded the troops. When Thapar repeated the possibility of Chinese counterblows, according to Kaul, Nehru replied that he had "good reason to believe that the Chinese would not take any strong action against us." As Kaul went to see Nehru prior to his appointment to command IV Corps, Nehru expressed that "the Chinese would see reason and withdraw from Dhola but in case they did not, we would have no option but to expel them from our territory. If we failed to take such action, Government would forfeit public confidence completely."

While the tension was building up on the border, the last rally of diplomatic exchanges was played out. In August the Indians expressed to China that they would be glad to discuss joint withdrawal from the disputed territory in the western sector. By "joint withdrawal", the Indians meant that China withdrew from all of the territory India claimed and India withdrew only the forward posts recently established in the western sector. After the completion of those withdrawals, India would proceed to talks with only minor adjustments of the "international boundaries," i.e., the Indian claimed lines. China replied on September 13, and accused India of seeking "excuses for rejecting discussions," pointing to the continuing Indians military activities in the western sector as "sham negotiations and real fighting." China would welcome seriously intended negotiations, but would "resist whenever attacked." China then reiterated the proposal put forward by Chou En-lai in November 1959 that the armed forces each withdraw twenty kilometers and urged further discussions first in Peking on October 15 and then in Delhi alternatively. On September 19, New Delhi agreed to talks in Peking as proposed but only based on Indian demands. "The Government of India are prepared to hold further discussions at the appropriate level to define measures to restore the status quo in the Western Sector which has been altered by force in the last few years and to remove the current tensions in that area." India would arrange talks with Peking on October 15 when China had indicated acceptance of that Indian formulation. By this time India refused to discuss the eastern sector at all, having the Punjabis set up along the Namka Chu. China replied on October 3, when the situation along the Namka Chu had become as tense as that in the western sector. Peking dismissed the Indian demand as absolutely unacceptable that "China must withdraw from vast tracts of her territory before discussions on the Sino-Indian boundary question can start." The Chinese expressed that they were against any preconditions set up to talks, and proposed that the October 15 talk proceed in Peking to discuss any aspect of the boundary question. But India replied on October 6, explicitly and categorically refusing to discuss while blaming China for preventing the talks. India retracted its earlier agreement to open discussions, and declared that it would "not enter into any talks and discussion under duress or continued threat of force." India insisted that it would talk only after China withdraw from Thag La and explicitly acknowledged that the talks concern only mutual withdraw in the western sector. China described this as "finally categorically shut(ting) the door to negotiations." As usual, most onlookers accepted the Indian accusation of China that "it is the Government of China who are not only refusing to undertake talks and discussions… but are creating further tension and conflict… in the eastern sector." Nehru had also to the last maintained that "I shall always be prepared for talks, whatever may happen, provided that the other side is decent, and it is self-respecting for us. I have never refused to talk to anyone."

As Kaul left, the newspapers in New Delhi reported with headlines "special task force created to oust Chinese" and "Gen. Kaul leaves for NEFA to assume command" as the "Indian Army poised for all-out effort." The Times of India described Kaul as "a soldier of extraordinary courage and drive" to lead the "task force," ignoring that the news of his appointment and the formation of new corps should be of highest military secret. The Defense Ministry did nothing to diminish the optimistic expectations that the Army would soon drive the Chinese out of NEFA. On October 4, General Sen met Kaul and his handpicked officers at Tezpur airport. Although Sen was formally superior, but since Nehru charged Kaul himself, Kaul was the Supreme and he notified the Army H.Q. that he was taking command. Kaul’s task was to command 7 Brigade, complete the operation, and return to his job in New Delhi. After flying to visit military stations, Kaul reported on October 6 to Army H.Q. of heavy Chinese build-up below Thag La ridge, with artillery, heavy mortars, and medium machine-guns, "apart from other dangerous weapons they possess such as recoilless guns and automatic rifles." The Operation Leghorn was to be launched on October 10, and Kaul was "taking every possible step to outwit the enemy and capture our objective." After warning the possibility that the Chinese might overrun the Indian forces, Kaul proposed that Air Force should be alerted to be quickly deployed and to retrieve the situation.

Kaul reached Dhola Post on the afternoon of October 7, and spent the rest of the day studying the ground, which presented discouraging difficulties on the Indians side with deep and fast-flowing Namka Chu. The Chinese dominated the Indian positions and lines of communications, and had prepared strong bunks and cleared timbers with infantry and equipment, taunting the Indian troops who tried to cut logs with entrenching tools and shovels. On the evening, Kaul sent another message to New Delhi, bypassing the regular channel through Army H.Q., in an immensely lengthy report, which were chatty and descriptive, more like a letter to a fond uncle at home than military signals. It took eight hours to transmit the lengthy message which described the difficulties confronting the Indian forces, including the strength of the Chinese, desperate supply position, lack of ammunition and rations, and lack of winter clothing as two of the three battalions were still in summer uniforms. "I must point out … the Chinese are bound to put in a strong counterattack … to dislodge us from the positions we capture. I have no resources with which to meet this threat and therefore recommend … all military and air resources are marshaled now for restoration of position in our favor." Kaul’s faith that the Chinese would fight back came under great strain and could no longer take the strength of the Chinese positions, the power of their weapons, and their easy reinforcements as exaggerated report by officers who did not have stomach for battle. "Despite all these difficulties," Kaul decided to proceed with Operation Leghorn and to order the more heavily armed 7 Brigade into an attack.

On October 7, Kaul received a report from Army H.Q. that was sent from the Indian Consul General in Lhasa. The report informed, without comment, that heavy mortars and artillery in divisional strength were concentrating on the Chinese side of the McMahon Line behind Thag La, and that the troops talked of an attack on Tawang. On October 8, Kaul began the opening moves in Operation Leghorn, and on October 9, he disclosed his intentions to officers that there was no option but to carryout the operation on October 10 as it was the last acceptable date to the Cabinet. He then ordered the Rajputs to move next day to Yumtso La pass at 16,000 feet on the west of Thag La, who were to take up positions behind and dominate the Chinese. This order came as unbelievable to the officers as they all knew the conditions of the Indian troops and the great strength of the Chinese positions. The Chinese were bound to respond violently to the move as they have warned repeatedly that they would not allow any Indians across the river. Kaul dismissed the demurrals of Brigadier Dalvi and General Prasad who pointed out that the Indian troops could not survive at 16,000 feet without winter clothing and could not be supplied, and that they could be slaughtered on the way without covering artillery. Instead, he ordered a patrol of some fifty Punjabis who crossed the river on October 9 and reached Tseng-jong before dusk, without being interfered or attacked by the Chinese. This put Kaul on high spirit, who had just received a signal from Thapar affirming the Government’s faith in him and those who warned of the Chinese reaction felt like "bloody fools" as Prasad put it. Kaul sent another long signal describing the manifold disadvantages of his forces and reporting that his "bold and speedy tactics" took the enemy by surprise and had in fact already occupied the crest.

As the Rajputs grouped and moved towards the Yumtso La pass on October 10, Kaul kept to deadline. But the Chinese reacted, shattering the eviction plan and the premise upon which the forward policy was constructed and border dispute was handled. Kaul described "when I was getting ready and my batman was boiling water for tea…. I heard considerable fire from across the river." A full battalion of Chinese quickly moved down the ridge and formed up for an attack on Tseng-jong, where the Indian position came under heavy mortar fire. The Chinese troops outnumbered the Indians by nearly twenty to one, with the smashing mortar barrage, Dalvi exclaimed to Kaul: "Oh my God, you’re right, they mean business." Kaul handed control over to Dalvi and decided to personally apprise Nehru of the situation and set off down the Namka Chu for New Delhi. Meanwhile he ordered that the eviction operation should be suspended and the brigade should hold its positions along the Namka Chu and at Tsangle. The first Chinese assault on the Indians at Tseng-jong were beaten off. The Chinese came under enfilade fire and suffered heavy casualties, being unaware of the section covering the Tseng-jong position from the flank. The Punjabis commander asked for covering fire from the mortars and machine-guns. Dalvi refused, unable to risk the whole force to be wiped out. Dalvi ordered the Punjabis to disengage and retreat to the river. The Chinese held their fires and let the Indian survivors to cross the bridge to the south bank. Indian casualties were seven killed, seven missing, and eleven wounded, whereas the Chinese reported thirty-three killed and wounded. The Chinese buried the Indian dead with full military honors as watched by their comrades across the river line.

Kaul reported to New Delhi of the grave situation and requested permission to return to give firsthand account of the "new and sudden development" before Nehru left for Ceylon on October 12. The little battle of Tseng-jong, in which the Chinese fought with massive force and determination, was grave for the Indians as it belied the conviction that was at the heart of the forward policy, that the Chinese would never deliberately and determinedly attack Indians. Kaul was now, like many of the troops, suffering from a pulmonary disorder as a result of lack of acclimatization to high altitude. As he return to New Delhi on October 11, a fullest conference on the border crisis was held. But despite of the dangerous crisis that India faced, Nehru still did not bring the Cabinet or the Cabinet Defense Committee for consultation. Kaul opened the meeting, reporting the battle in all graphic and subjective accounts. When asked for recommendation, Kaul did not urge to withdraw 7 Brigade, but proposed to seek speedy and copious military assistance from the United States, which Nehru dismissed with some irritation. Kaul then suggested postponing the eviction operation and then pulling 7 Brigade back to better tactical positions, but other participants contradicted. A consensus appeared that eviction operation had to be postponed, but no clear instructions were issued. Thapar and Sen intended to keep their troops at the present position, while Kaul planned to cancel the attack order but keeping the brigade on the river line. Operation Leghorn committed too many reputations in civilian and service sides now to be demonstratively abandoned. Nehru announced that it was a decision that soldiers need to make and asked that their views and advice be given to the Government. Nehru’s military advisers gave him what he wished to hear, with assurance, that China would not "do anything big". The mutual delusion led the October 11 meeting to decide that 7 Brigade should stay at its present location.

The next morning, as Nehru left for the three-day visit to Ceylon, he gave his usually accessible briefing to the press prior to boarding the plane. During the past month, as the Government gave orders to force the Chinese out of the McMahon Line, there were always suggestions that Indian troops were beating off Chinese attacks. When asked what orders were given to the troops in NEFA, Nehru replied that "our instructions are to free our territory" and, when asked for a timeline, "I cannot fix a date, that is entirely for the Army." He then "pointed out that wintry conditions had set in already in the (Thag La) region, and the Chinese were strongly positioned because they were in large numbers and were situated on higher ground." When the correspondents sought assurances that the Government had no intention of having talks, Nehru said: "As long as this particular aggression lasts, there appears to be no chance of talks." After the debacle, Nehru was criticized for deliberately misleading the country with this public confirmation of the eviction order, which had been suspended because the operation was beyond the capability of the Indian troops. Nehru later defended himself: "It was the viewpoint of the military people too, they wanted to do it, otherwise I would not have dared to say anything like that." Nehru emphasized that he tried to give warnings about wintry conditions and the Chinese advantages. However, if Nehru intended to warn the public, the public was not listening. Official spokesmen had long been giving assurances that everything in NEFA was under control, and even Nehru himself was convinced that the physical advantages were all on India’s side in NEFA. The press was enthusiastic of Nehru’s statement in the airport. "Mr. Nehru has told the country, clearly and firmly, what it has been waiting to hear, that the armed forces have been ordered to throw the Chinese aggressors out of NEFA and that until Indian territory in that area is cleared of them there can be no talks with China."

Encouraged by the Goa operation, the public was so confident in the prowess and invincibility of the Army that it demanded for hasty actions. A New Delhi editor with good official contacts revealed that the Chinese below Thag La ridge were "third-rate garrison troops" who would present no problems once the attack began. This information was presumed to originate in Malik’s crystal ball in the Intelligence Bureau. Dalvi said of his first contact with the Chinese: "I must admit I was impressed with the Chinese soldiers. Those were no scruffy Frontier Guards; they appeared to be healthy, well-clad, well-armed and determined troops." However, the universal impression in India was that the Indian troops were strong, properly equipped and confident task force who was held back from surging over the inferior Chinese force only by the excessive forbearance or timidity of the Indian Government. Nehru’s airport statement slipped the least leash and the Indian public began to await victorious news from their troops in Thag La. China also draw a similar conclusion, as the People’s Daily wrote: "Prime Minister Nehru has openly and formally authorized the Indian military to attack China’s Tibet region at any time," and "a massive invasion of Chinese territory by Indian troops in the eastern sector of the Chinese boundary seems imminent." The Chinese then advised Nehru: "Pull back from the brink of the precipice, and don’t use the lives of Indian troops as stakes in your gamble."

The Chinese looked down from strong bunkers on Thag La ridge, in their comfortable thick padded uniforms and confidence in their numbers and weapons, at the unfortunate hungry and cold Indian troops on the river line. China had no reason whatsoever to fear an Indian attack, but had every reason to expect it. Chinese intelligence learned of October 10 Operation Leghorn, and on October 8 the Soviet informed the Foreign Ministry in Peking that India was on the point of launching a major attack. Krushchev told the Chinese Ambassador in Moscow later that it was natural for China to fight back if it were attacked. The Chinese remarked that the Russian helicopters and transport aircraft that helped India to prepare the offensive did not help the Sino-Russian goodwill among the Chinese frontier guards. For months, India ignored all China’s warnings of retaliation, but probed forward in the western sector and applied exactly the same tactics to take over territory north of the McMahon Line. After heavy Chinese casualties on the first Indian attempt at Tseng-jong on October 10, the Indians had learned no lesson but intended to mount further attacks as soon as they were ready. Nehru’s words were not bluff and confirmed that Indian troops at Namka Chu were deployed for assault and indeed were being reinforced. China did not have many options. China could continue trying to persuade India to settle the boundary through negotiation and to convince other governments that the Chinese position was reasonable and that if conflict broke out on the boundaries, it was the result of India’s behavior. But by now this policy did not seem worth while. Enjoying its higher credibility, India continued skirmishing along the Sino-Indian boundaries while accusing China of provoking clashes and committing aggression. The Western countries were solidly with India, the Soviet Union was in sympathy with India as were most of the fraternal parties, and many afro-Asian countries also leaned toward India’s side. Prolongation of the situation on the boundary was militarily injurious to China as well. It would require troops to be in a state of readiness for battle, and also complicating the problem of pacifying Tibet. By October 1962, the alternative was clear: meet the Indian challenge with a counterblow so powerful and resolute as to end it.

The political objective of the Chinese military action was to bring India to the negotiating table, and to demonstrate to India and to the world the fallacy of their assumptions. The western formulations, especially popular in the U.S. was that China was going to "humble India and to seize the leadership of Asia," or to "put a brake on India’s development by forcing her to build up militarily." These assumptions were uncharacteristic and unlikely, as the Chinese leaders would never for a moment have supposed that any country but China could ever aspire to the leadership of Asia, and that India, with its capitalist system and national bourgeois government, could challenge China in a race to development. This idea must have been absurd to Peking’s Communist purists even in 1962 when China had economic difficulties after the Great Leap Forward failed. But Indians, especially Nehru, who thought of China as equal of China or superior, suggested that war between India and China would shake the world, but neither would "knock the other flat." Furthermore, the Sino-Indian dispute contributed much to China’s great falling-out with the Soviet Union. A blow at India would expose the covert Indian alliance with the Americans and the ideological error of Moscow’s support for India. Such a blow must be on a grand scale, as wiping out the forty or some small Indian posts might achieve nothing but bringing in continued disturbances from the Indians when they felt able and start moving forward again. The real provocation for China was in the west, but the military and political opportunity for demonstrative and destructive retaliation was in the east in a strong move into the disputed territory beneath the McMahon Line. From the beginning of October, the Chinese Army was concentrating behind the McMahon Line, and by October 17, the Chinese troops on Thag La ridge began active preparations for the actual assault.

The meeting on October 11 left no definite decision and created confusions and contradictions that followed. Kaul returned to his headquarters on October 13 and informed his subordinates that he failed to persuade the Government and that the eviction order must be carried out. General Thapar though appeared to have understood that Leghorn was to be postponed. Argument and uncertainty followed the next nine days. Menon, Kaul, and the General Staff still hoped that the Chinese could be thrown back and were determined not to withdraw from the Namka Chu. On October 14, Menon made his commitment to evict the Chinese more clearer than Nehru, by declaring that it was "the policy of the Government of India to eject the Chinese from NEFA, whether it takes one day, a hundred days or a thousand days," and to fight it out in Ladakh "to the last man, the last gun." All were aware that withdrawal from the Namka Chu would instantly become public knowledge and Menon would be the first to take the public disappointment. Thus those in the back were crying "Forward!" and those in the front were crying "Back!" Brigadier Dalvi and General Prasad were reinforced on the Namka Chu with another battalion between October 12 and 14, who were as unacclimatized and exhausted and with poor equipment as the others battalions. The Indians had about 3,000 men, about 2,500 of them troops. As the first snow fell on October 17, winter clothing and tends were only available to two or three hundred, and the rest still wore cotton summer uniforms and made shelters with branches or parachute material. The gunners who were brought over to march on 16,000-foot route suffered fatal casualties due to lack of acclimatization and cold. Since October 9, the troops had been on hard rations, of which reserve now was down to two days, with no sugar, salt or matches. Many airdrops were lost or smashed as the parachutes failed to open. To conserve foreign exchange, the Army had for years been returning used parachutes for repair and repacking in India. Only thirty percent of the loads dropped were being retrieved.

It has become a political ploy, not a war. It was absurd or criminal to pit troops in such circumstances against an enemy superior in every aspect of military strength. To leave them through a winter of heavy snow would lead them to illness and starvation. On October 12, 7 Brigade received a signal from Kaul confirming the troops to stay where they were. On the same day Nehru confirmed on a radio broadcast that they were to clear the Chinese off Thag La ridge. On October 16, the Defense Minister told Dalvi that November 1 was the last date acceptable to the Cabinet to complete the operation. The key staff officers at IV Corps extended emphatic support for the field officers to pull back the bulk of the brigade. Brigadier Singh suggested that the force on the Namka Chu should be formed to one battalion and should concentrate in tactical positions to support Dhola Post, a suggestion almost exactly the same as what General Singh recommended six weeks before. In the debate, Tsangle became a central question, which was marked by a herdsman’s hut at the source of Namka Chu in a small lake. The Army map marked it as two to three miles from Dhola Post but in fact it was two days’ march away. Survey maps placed it within Bhutan, but the Indian Army was ordered to disregard that boundary, as it did to the McMahon Line. Tsangle provided a tactical position from which a flank attack can be made against the Chinese position beneath Thag La, and Brigadier Dalvi had planned to advance to Tseng-jong through Tsangle. General Singh backed Dalvi and urged not to move to Tsangle before the operation actually began in order to take advantage of surprise attack. General Sen overruled their suggestion and ordered a company to occupy the position at the beginning of October, and the Chinese promptly dispatched troops to cover that approach.

Before leaving the Namka Chu to report to Nehru, Kaul ordered that the Tsangle position must be held unless pressured by the Chinese, in which case General Prasad could withdraw it. But a few days later, Kaul ordered that Tsangle be held at all costs. As Dalvi, Brigadier Singh, and Prasad all urged that it should be evacuated because of the difficulties in maintaining and supplying "due to impassable bluffs," Kaul was adamant. Menon, the officials and Army H.Q. all came to attach high political and strategic importance to holding the Tsangle position, an order reaffirmed in a conference on October 17. Another company was ordered to reinforce the company already there, thus stretching the supply effort of 7 Brigadier to breaking point and the force on the river line depleted in a hopelessly vulnerable situation. Meanwhile, Kaul’s pulmonary trouble worsened on October 17 with difficulty breathing and discomfort. The medical officer at IV Corps diagnosed him as bronchial allergy exacerbated by respiratory infection, stress and exertion. On October 18, the officer judged his condition so serious that he was flown to New Delhi immediately for treatment. Kaul returned to New Delhi but went straight to his house, indicating that his condition was not as serious as suggested. Spreading the map on his bed and telephone at hand, Kaul continued to issue detailed orders for the movements of troops on the Namka Chu. On the night of October 18, two more companies were ordered to strengthen Tsangle, to which Dalvi angrily protested. General Prasad passed on the protest to Kaul, who repeated that the build-up at Tsangle must be carried out and that commanding officers who defaulted in executing the order would be removed.

On October 18, the Chinese activity intensified on the southern face of Thag La ridge. On October 19, a force of two thousand moved at Tseng-jong, who prepared for a night advance with no effort to conceal their intentions. Dalvi suggested that the brigade was not able to hold off a Chinese assault and requested to pull in the Tsangle force for support. General Prasad passed on the categorical order from Kaul that Tsangle must be held at all costs. Dalvi told Prasad that "rather than stand by and see the troops massacred," he would put in his resignation, saying, "it was time someone took a firm stand." Dalvi’s words were noted and he was promised that Kaul would be contacted in New Delhi. On the night of October 19-20, the Chinese troops deployed for assault. They lit fires to keep warn while waiting and were confident that the Indians would not open fire. At 05.00 on October 20, on the signal of two Very lights, Chinese heavy mortars and artillery opened heavy barrage on the central Indian position of Thag La ridge. Dalvi recalled: "As the first salvoes crashed overhead there were a few minutes of petrifying shock," in impressive contrast to "the tranquillity that had obtained hitherto." The weight of the Chinese attack was thrown in the center of the river line against the Gorkhas and the Rajputs, whose positions were overrun one after another and met the final Chinese assault with the bayonet. By 09.00, the Gorkhas and Rajputs were finished, and the Chinese then brought Tsangdhar under attack, who fought on until the crews were wiped out. The Chinese plan of breaking through in the center and seizing Tsangdhar and Hathung La worked out perfectly. 7 Brigade ceased to exist. On October 22, Brigadier Dalvi was taken prisoner. General Prasad trekked back to Tawang reaching there on the evening of October 22. The Chinese ignored Tsangle, which was given high political and strategic importance by the Indians, as it probably showed in Bhutan on the Chinese maps as it did on the Indian maps. The Chinese attacked simultaneously in the western sector, in the Chip Chap River valley, on the Galwan, and in the Pangong Lake area. After reporting that the Chinese began to shell, the Galwan post was not heard again. The posts fought their bests, but were soon overwhelmed and the little garrisons were either killed or captured. Western Command withdrew some of the smallest and most isolated posts. The fate of the forward policy and Operation Leghorn ended just as real soldiers foresaw from the beginning.

(ii) Between Two Passes

When the Chinese began preparing for the assault on the night of October 18, there was a riot outside the Prime Minister’s residence in New Delhi, not related to the border, but a protest against the Government’s "apathy towards the grievances and demands of the poor." As late as October 1962, the mounting tensions on the border was not the subject of extensive reporting in the Indian press, which often mentioned nothing of the border other than occasional front-page news or inside the papers. As the demonstrators attempted to break through the police, about twenty people were injured including women and police. In mid-October, a headline in the Hindu read "Unprovoked Attack on India" referring to an incident in Nepal in which Nehru had been burned in effigy. As for the borders the political public in India expected a victorious Indian attack on Thag La until the very last. On October 19, a published interview reported Menon’s reaffirmation that the Government was determined to "throw the Chinese back until Indian territory is cleared of all aggression." He admitted that in Namka Chu the Chinese outnumbered the Indians and their supply base was closer, but the Indians had beaten back again and again the Chinese attempts to develop a bridgehead on the river. On the same day, another paper carried the headline "Unconfirmed Report of Big Indian Push" reporting a leak form the Defense Ministry that Indians advanced two miles below Thag La. The next day the paper issued an official denial, and a few hours later, the news of the disasters on the Namka Chu began to reach New Delhi.

A shaken Menon told the reporter when asked where the advancing Chinese could be stopped: "The way they are going there is not any limit to where they will go." All the past assurances of the Indian advantages were reversed to become the excuses for defeat. In the evening, Menon explained that India "had not conditioned her reserves for war purposes." The Indian soldiers were fighting at high altitudes and had to be air supplied, whereas the Chinese could be easily supplied from the Tibetan tableland. The Prime Minister was for once inaccessible to the press. In the first shock, Nehru was not blamed for the defeat, but had received instinctive sympathy and trust as the embodiment of an injured and resolute India. Menon served as a surrogate target, and was to be brought down three days after the Chinese attack. On October 23, the Congress charged Menon for having misled Nehru, Parliament and the country. On October 31, Nehru took over the Defense portfolio as Menon continued in a new post in the Cabinet as a Minister for Defense Production. This change was mooted years before and dismissed, but it was a typical political style of Nehru to flout Menon’s critics by having Menon relinquishing the Defense portfolio. Suspicious that the change meant nothing but a title, the following day the political correspondents quoted Menon as saying "nothing has changed" in the working of the Defense Ministry. On November 7, Nehru played his last card to defend Menon in front of the Congress Parliamentary Party. He suggested that complaint against Menon should be leveled at the entire Government and that if resignations were wanted he might have to proffer his own. A leading Congressman replied: "Yes, if you continue to follow Menon’s policies we may have to live without you too." Next day Menon’s resignation was announced. For the first time the Congress Party openly defied Nehru, and Nehru’s threat of resignation was exposed as a bluff. Menon’s resignation became a necessary sacrifice for his own survival. Nehru chose Chavan, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, to replace Menon. Chavan accepted with great reluctance and arrived in the capital the day the border war ended. Profound changes took place in the political balance in New Delhi. Nehru’s nearly absolute moral authority waned fast, as the Congress Parliamentary Party began to assert itself.

The world outside also underwent marked shifts. In the West, the Chinese attack was seen as an assault on the chief Asian democracy. The Daily Telegraph called it "the first round of struggle for the Asian mind between the Communist and non-Communist giants of the continent." UN intervention, as in Korea, was called. The Times printed an apologetic of Nehru’s: "We were getting out of touch with reality in the modern world and living in an artificial atmosphere of our own creation." But under the leadership of the British and American Governments, the Western world extended quick and unquestioning sympathy and support for India. President Kennedy wrote to Nehru: "Our sympathy in the situation is wholeheartedly with you. You have displayed an impressive degree of forbearance and patience in dealing with the Chinese. You have put into practice what all great religious leaders have urged, and so few of their followers have been able to do." Then he appraised the spirituality of Indian policies with an offer of material assistance. Professor Galbraith, the American Ambassador, took great satisfaction from and encouraged the emotional gratification of the Indian opinion towards the U.S. He issued a statement that his Government recognized the McMahon Line as the international border "sanctioned by modern usage." He overcame the previous reluctance and lack of commitment of the American Government to endorse the McMahon Line, and immediately received approval from the State Department, which at once brought forth "frantic protest" from the Nationalists. The British Government promptly extended expressions of sympathy and condemnation of China, while offering help.

As the Western world was solidly with India, the non-alignment countries whose leadership India aspired were reserved and wary. An Indian correspondent in the Middle East reported: "Not a single expression of sympathy for India has come from any Arab Government, any political party or newspaper, or public personality even a week after the invasion." Another in Africa reported that Kenyatta and other leaders were non-committal while Nkrumah of Ghana went farther by rebuking Britain for its offers of military assistance to India. He wrote to the British Prime Minister, Macmillan: "Whatever the rights and wrongs of the present struggle between India and China, I am sure that we can all serve the cause of peace best by refraining from any action that may aggravate the situation." Since Nehru just visited Ghana, Nkrumah’s attitude was more offensive to India. Ethiopia and Cyprus were the only countries among those that attended the 1961 Belgrade Conference of Non-aligned governments to openly support India. Others showed more interests in urging restraint and patience on both sides while volunteering to act as mediators, the role often played by India so far. When Parliament reassembled, Nehru expressed his resentment at India’s friends, the "well-intentioned countries" who tried to bring about a ceasefire. "People advise us to be good and peaceful as if we are inclined to war. In fact, if we are anything, as the House well knows, we do not possess the war-like mentality and that is why for the purpose of war there is weakness … So, people talking to us to be good boys and make it up has no particular meaning, unless they come to grips with the issues involved." Nehru said that the "so-called non-aligned countries" (unexpected phrasing from Nehru) were confused and a little frightened of China, so "it is no good our getting angry with them (because) they do not stand forthright in our defense, in support of our position."

The non-aligned countries did less damaging to India’s interests when compared with the position of Moscow, which now clearly sided to China. The first intimation of the shift came to New Delhi on October 20, a few hours after the Chinese attack, in a letter from Krushchev to Nehru warning India that to take up arms to settle boundary dispute with China was "very dangerous path." The Indians had made no secret of their intention to use force against China, as Menon met the Russian Ambassador twice while preparing for Operation Leghorn. Menon told him about the plan and hoped that Moscow may pass Peking the word that India meant business and persuade the Chinese that discretion was better part of diplomacy. In the letter Krushchev urged Nehru to accept the Chinese proposal for talks. On October 24, Peking renewed the proposal for disengagement and talks. The next day Pravda commended the Chinese move as sincere and constructive, providing an acceptable basis for the talks. The editorial said: "The question of the China-India frontier is a heritage from those days when British colonialists – who drew and re-drew the map of Asia at their own will – ruled on the territory of India. The notorious "McMahon Line," which was never recognized by China, was foisted on the Chinese and Indian peoples. Imperialist circles have done everything in their power to provoke an armed clash by speculating on the border conflicts connected with this Line. The imperialists are dreaming day and night of setting these great powers at loggerheads, as well as undermining the Soviet Union’s friendship with fraternal China and friendly India." Pravda went on to note that "reactionary circles inside India" were fanning the conflict, and warned that "even some progressively-minded people" might yield to chauvinistic influences in the heart of the moment.

The critical implications and pro-China attitude of the Russians came as a blow to the Indian Government. A political correspondent of the Hindu put it: "It was thought that at best the Russians would continue to adopt a neutralist attitude. All these hopes were dashed to the ground when Pravda came out with an editorial wholeheartedly endorsing the Chinese stand … Mr. Krushchev’s letter to Mr. Nehru runs on exactly the same lines… The reaction in the capital, not only in official and non-official circles but also among a section of the Indian Communists, is one of dismay, and the Soviet attitude is regarded not only as unkind but even as offensive." The Russians further intimated to the Indian Embassy in Moscow that they would not be able to supply India with MiG fighters. At the same moment, Washington detected the first evidence of Russian missiles in Cuba on October 14. After keeping the discovery secret for a week, on October 22, President Kennedy announced that America would put the island under a selective blockade, and next day the American Ambassador in India left a copy of the statement to the Indian Government. In the confrontation with the U.S., it was plainly of high importance for Krushchev to repair the rift between Moscow and Peking, and to come out on China’s side in the dispute with India. As disappointed as he was, Nehru quickly saw the point and said to an American television interviewer at the end of October: "I should imagine that developments (in) Cuba, et cetera, probably made it necessary for them not to fall out with China." He said that he hoped that the missile problem was "out of the way" and that the Soviet Union would return to its former position. Krushchev agreed on October 28 to withdraw the missiles, and Russia soon did just what Nehru hoped for.

For the retreating forces, the most important decision was where to make a stand. General Thapar and General Sen intended to hold Tawang, where two infantry battalions and some artillery were stationed. Sen flew to Tawang on a helicopter on October 22 and ordered the troops to hold Tawang at all cots, and said that two more brigades were to reinforce them. Next Morning Sen held meeting with General Prasad, during which each implied the other lost nerve. But both in Army H.Q. and at IV Corps, the cooler heads argued strongly that it would be disastrous to hold Tawang. Meanwhile, the Chinese had developed a three-pronged attack and on October 23 were advancing toward Tawang, which had no natural defense and the troops standing there were as easily overcome as on the Namka Chu. In New Delhi, the Director of Military Operations, Brigadier Palit, strongly urged on Thapar that Tawang must be evacuated. Thapar consulted Nehru, who told him to make the military decisions themselves. Kaul was out of picture again. He was persuaded to hang up his telephones and relinquish command of IV Corps on the morning that the Chinese attacked. On October 23, IV Corps ordered the force at Tawang to withdraw sixty miles back to Bomdi La, calculating that it was the farthest point to the north where the Indians could build up more quickly than the Chinese. But at Army H.Q. Brigadier Palit urged strongly that the troops should be ordered to hold at Se La, a high pass only about fifteen miles behind Tawang, believing Se La an impregnable natural position that had to be held. Later on October 23, Sen countermanded the order to pull back to Bomdi La and ordered that Se La must be held. Brigadier Singh urged to inform New Delhi that it was logistically impossible to build sufficient defense at Se La. Sen replied that the Cabinet had decided that Se La should be held and the Government’s orders must be implemented.

The decision was crucial and disastrous. Se La was 14,600 feet high, flanked by peaks a thousand feet higher. The 5,000-foot climb from Tawang valley was very steep and was a strong defensive position, but it was a trap for the Indians. It was too far away from the plains, and the road could take only one-ton vehicles on a grueling trip of several days from the foothills to Se La. It was also too high for the defense force who lacked acclimatization. Air supply was possible but the terrain and weather made it wholly unreliable. Se La was also too close to Tawang and the Chinese could mount assault with minimum regrouping and without having to move their bases forward. The decision to hold Se La committed the Indians to holding a very deep area from Se La to Bomdi La separated by difficult and unreliable road through broken country. The Government ruled out the tactical air support with bombers or ground-attack aircraft for fear of Chinese retaliation against Indian cities, especially Calcutta. During the Second World War, some random Japanese bombs fell there and swept the city with so huge panic that the Government resolved not to risk a repetition. Considering the terrain in NEFA and the limitations of the Indian Air Force, it was doubtful that it could have played an effective tactical role. Tawang was evacuated on October 23, with hundreds of civilians, including lamas from monastery, going with the troops. On October 25, the Chinese occupied Tawang without opposition. On the night of October 24, one battalion, 4 Garhwal, panicked and broke to trickle back. They were intercepted and braced back in the line. Later this battalion cleared its record by beating off repeated Chinese attacks from its positions flanking Se La.

Meanwhile in the western sector, the Chinese moved south and concentrated on the Indian forward posts. On October 21, they overran the posts on the north side of Pangong Lake after severe fighting, the Gorkha garrison fighting almost to the last man. On October 27, they attacked the posts around Demchok with similar results. Western Command ordered to evacuate some posts before the Chinese assault. General Singh of Western Command methodically and rapidly pulled out troops out of Kashmir to build up strength. By the first week of November, a Divisional H.Q. was established at Leh, with an additional brigade of four infantry battalions, and was reinforced by another brigade by November 17. On the eastern side, there was no such decisive dispatch. IV Corps got a new commander on October 24, Lieutenant-General Harvaksh Singh, who was stationed in Simla. Sen removed General Prasad from the command of 4 Division, replacing him with a soldier with a good combat record. These kinds of command changes occupied much of Eastern Command’s energies.

This time Peking used verbal smoke screen to obscure the reality on the ground. On October 20, the Chinese Defense Ministry issued a statement that at 07.00 hours that morning the Indian troops had launched large-scale attacks on the Namka Chu and in the Chip Chap and Galwan valleys in the western sector. "In self-defense, the Chinese frontier guards were compelled to strike back resolutely, and cleared away some aggressive strong points set up by the Indian troops in China’s territory." The Chinese took the tactic of "turning truth on his head" so often used by Indians and accused India. The Chinese played into New Delhi’s hands by obscuring the truth. The Indian intention of attacking the Chinese below Thag La ridge was by then known everywhere, and Nehru’s airport statement on October 12 confirmed of Operation Leghorn. However, the Chinese charge that the Indians had "launched massive attacks" rebounded from the general skepticism about Indian strength, and was almost immediately belied by Peking’s own announcement that the Chinese "frontier guards" were carrying out the defensive actions. It appeared that Chou En-lai did not at first subscribe to the false statement that the Indians had attacked on October 20. In his letter to Nehru on November 4, Chou said only that the Indian troops on the Namka Chu had "made active dispositions for a massive military attack," which was precisely true as a brigade attack with four battalions could be described as massive. However, in a letter to the Afro-Asian Governments ten days later, Chou wrote that India had "launched massive attacks all along the line." Following the military and diplomatic measures, China made another diplomatic move adroit in both timing and content. On October 24, Peking released a statement precisely recapitulating the course of the dispute with India, and reminding that three times in the past three months India had rejected China’s proposals for talks without preconditions, and that Nehru had then publicly ordered the Indian army to "free Indian territory." The statement pointed to the impossibility of settling the boundary question by force, and the need to reopen peaceful negotiations. Three proposals were set forth: 1) That both sides affirm that the dispute must be settled peacefully; agree to respect the line of actual control; and withdraw their armed forces twenty kilometers from that line. 2) If India agreed to that, Chinese forces would be withdrawn to the north of the McMahon Line. 3) The Prime Ministers should meet again, In Peking or New Delhi, to seek friendly settlement. Chou wrote Nehru the same day urging that "we should look ahead" and appealing to Nehru to respond positively.

The Chinese proposal had nothing new in detail, and was the same as Chou put forward originally in his letter to Nehru of November 7, 1959. The proposal would have created a ceasefire line along the "line of actual control," the term that Peking had used to describe the situation from the beginning in 1959. The Chinese would pull back over the McMahon Line, and Indian troops in the remaining forward posts in the western sector would withdraw to the line before the forward policy of 1961. Pulling the armed forces twenty kilometers back on both sides would create a demilitarized zone, while leaving civil personnel alone. The proposal had no ambiguities, but did not state in precise locational detail. The phrase "the line of actual control" had throughout been used by Peking to describe the situation in November 1959, when the Chinese were nowhere south of the McMahon Line or even south of Thag La ridge. The Chinese described the proposal as equal, mutually accommodatory and based on mutual respect, which objectively merit the description, but India could not see them objectively. The Indians viewed that the Chinese had simply added a new and more violent aggression and now seeking to confirm their criminal gains through diplomacy. New Delhi rejected instantly the Chinese proposal, in fact without waiting to receive them officially; they would get the contents from the news agencies’ account. In its reply, the Indian Government released a statement on October 24, first claiming that it was "wedded to peace and peaceful methods (and had) always sought to resolve differences by talks and discussions … with China," but "India cannot and will not accept a position under which Chinese forces continue to commit aggression into Indian territory, occupy substantial Indian territories and use these as a bargaining counter to force a settlement on their own terms." The statement proceeded to confuse the Chinese proposal: "There is no sense or meaning in the Chinese offer to withdraw twenty kilometers from what they call ‘line of actual control’. What is this ‘line of control’? Is this the line they have created by aggression since the beginning of September? Advancing forty or sixty kilometers by blatant military aggression and offering to withdraw twenty kilometers provided both sides do this is a deceptive device which can fool nobody."

It was most improbable that the officials in the External Affairs Ministry in New Delhi were really uncertain about the meaning of the Chinese proposal. Peking had used "the line of actual control" in clear and consistent meaning. But the Chinese left an opening by not going into more detail, and the Indians exploited it. Asking for clarification is a classic diplomatic way of playing for time. A counter-proposal followed: "If the Chinese professions of peace and peaceful settlement of differences are really genuine, let them go back at least to the position where they were all along the boundary prior to 8th September, 1962. India will then be prepared to undertake talks and discussions, at any level mutually agreed, to arrive at agreed measures which should be taken for the easing of tension and correction of the situation created by unilateral forcible alteration of the status quo along the India-China boundary." The proposal concluded that if China accepted it, India would welcome Chou En-lai in New Delhi. The Indian proposal was as consistent as that of China. It was precisely the same as New Delhi put forward on October 6, which would have the Chinese drawing back over Thag La ridge and relinquishing the posts in the western sector so that the Indians could return to the positions at Dhola Post, on the Namka Chu, and at Khinzemane. Once China accepted and implemented that, India would be prepared to talk, but only about Chinese withdrawal from Aksai Chin. Nehru sent the statement with proposal to Chou En-lai on October 27, in a letter with civil tone, which was remarkable since Nehru called "a Chinese invasion of India."

On November 4, Chou En-lai replied that the "line of actual control" was referred to the same line that he had proposed in 1959. He explained: "The fact that the Chinese Government’s proposal has taken as its basis the 1959 line of actual control and not the present line of actual contact between the armed forces of the two sides is full proof that the Chinese side has not tried to force any unilateral demand on the Indian side on account of the advances gained in the recent counterattack in self-defense." The Indian counter-proposal would have Indian troops return to their dispositions for attack on the Namka Chu and to the forward posts in the western sector. Chou asked: "How can the Chinese Government agree to revert to such a position?" Chou appealed to Nehru to reconsider the Chinese proposal. Nehru’s next letter sharply changed the tone. He described the Chinese attacks as "cold-blood(ed) … massive aggression" and declared that for India to accept the Chinese proposal "would mean mere existence at the mercy of an aggressive, arrogant and expansionist neighbor." He reiterated that the Indian troops must go back to the positions they had occupied all along the boundaries on September 8, and suggested that China could demonstrate its bona fides by withdrawing its forces to the 1959 positions. The effect of that was that the Indians would reestablish in all their forward posts, while the Chinese would stay well back from their positions set up to counter India’s forward policy.

The diplomatic exchange during the Chinese occupation of Tawang showed that New Delhi’s approach to the boundary dispute only hardened. The Indians were as adamant as ever that they would not negotiate a boundary settlement, and their insistence on return to their forward posts showed that the assumptions of forward policy remained unchanged. Peking gained nothing after smashing the puny threats that India built up below Thag La and wiping out half the forward Indian posts in the western sector. The Indians were more confident than ever and the political atmosphere in India had now become almost unanimously bellicose. But the Chinese conception had only begun to be put into effect. Before the attacks on October 20, a senior minister in Peking said that China was going to have to advance well to the south of the points and then withdraw. Like a jab of a boxer that seemingly jolts the opponent, the first attacks only set up for the knockout. The political side was also working out as planned. The defeat on the Namka Chu and belief that India was at war with China swept away Nehru’s resistance to accepting military aid. Only a few weeks before, he had rejected the suggestion that India might seek arms aid, saying it meant becoming "somebody else’s dependent" by "joining some military bloc," and declared that he would never agree to this, "even if disaster comes to us on the frontier." But on October 29, when the American Ambassador called, Nehru instantly accepted the offer of military equipment. The writer reported to The Times: "The decision to accept American military assistance, reversing policies that India had cherished since she became a nation, was taken formally at a Cabinet meeting today." Lists of India’s military needs were prepared and handed to the Americans, with the Embassy in New Delhi expressing dismay at the scope of the Indian requests and the disorganization and confusions. The Pentagon used its new computerized stock-keeping record and quickly flew first supplies from West Germany in jet freighters, which began landing in India five days later.

Chou En-lai wrote to the heads of the Afro-Asian Governments: "The Indian Government has openly begged military aid from the United States." The People’s Daily described the "development of historic significance:" India’s acceptance of American military aid "points to the fact that Nehru Government has finally shed its cloak of non-alignment policy … The more Nehru depends on U.S. imperialism, the greater the need is there for him to meet the needs of U.S. imperialism and persist in opposing China. And the more he persists in opposing China, the greater the need for him to depend on U.S. imperialism. Thus he is caught in a vicious circle. His gradual shedding of his policy of ‘non-alignment’ is precisely the inevitable result of his sell-out to U.S. imperialism." This statement confirmed Peking’s analysis of the nature of Nehru government, making a key point in the argument with Moscow, and also underlined to Peking the importance of not letting the fighting drag on. A Chinese official "disgustedly" told a Western correspondent early in November that "as long as the Indians go on attacking us they will get anything they want out of the United States. They’re making millions of dollars out of these skirmishes, they’ll probably go on for ever." As the Afro-Asian Governments declined to come out clearly on Indian side, it may have indicated to the Chinese that India’s version of events now at last being met with skepticism. In mid-November, Chou En-lai wrote the heads of Asian and African governments thanking them for their "fair-minded endeavors to promote direct negotiations between China and India" and affirming that China wanted only a peaceful settlement with India. As the Cuba crisis relaxed, Moscow’s sudden objectivity about the dispute died, as Nehru expected. Early in November, Moscow called on both sides for a ceasefire and negotiations, ignoring the fact that India had just refused negotiations once more. In Peking’s view, the Cuba confrontation was brought on by Krushchev’s "adventurism" in deploying Russian missiles, and compounded by his "capitulationism" in backing down and removing them under American pressure. The completion of the Chinese operation against India would show the world that threats and vaunts of the imperialists and their creatures could be ignored with impunity, thus underlining the pusillanimity and incompetence of Krushchev and his "revisionist clique."

The first defeat sent shock waves into India’s resolution to war, which grew into optimism, and then was seen and enjoyed as India’s hour of greatness, of which fruit was national unity and ultimate triumph. After the initial unfeigned astonishment and outrage over Chinese attack, it was almost forgotten that Indian Army had been about to take offensive action, and that the Government had refused to meet with the Chinese for talks. Nehru now complained that if the Chinese "had any claim they could have discussed it and talked about it and adopted various means of peaceful settlement." Asok Mehta asked later: "Why, in the face of our patience, goodwill and obvious anxiety for settlement, have the Chinese persisted in this aggression?" Menon commented: "We never went into Chinese territory. And even if it was ‘disputed’ territory in Chinese eyes, did that justify them starting a war? for us, it was not disputed territory. It was ours." The Lok Sabha put formally a resolution, in which it affirmed the "resolve of the Indian people to drive out the aggressor from the sacred soil of India": "This House notes with deep regret that in spite of the uniform gestures of goodwill and fellowship by India towards China … China has betrayed that good-will and friendship … and has committed aggression and initiated a massive invasion of India." It was entirely forgotten in disapproval of China’s use of force that India had intended the same, as Nehru pointed out: "We are perfectly justified in pushing them and attacking them." The reaction of the Indian political classes and urban masses was vigorous. The Chinese were condemned in public meetings, army-recruiting stations were rushed, and students burned effigies of Mao Tse-tung and Chou En-lai. The shops of Chinese in New Delhi and Calcutta, shoemakers and curio dealers, were mobbed and their owners beaten up. Japanese diplomats plastered their cars with "rising sun" emblems to avoid mistaken identification for Chinese. The Government introduced an ordinance that treated even Indian citizens of Chinese descent as enemy aliens, and several thousand were interned in camps in Rajasthan and were later expelled to China.

The popular commitment to the struggle with China deemed the signs of disunity as "fissiparousness" as superficial, underneath that lay an emotionally integrated nation. The Lok Sabha praised "the wonderful and spontaneous response of the people of India to the emergency … this mighty upsurge amongst all sections of our people." Nehru thanked China more poetically for having "suddenly lifted a veil from the face of India, (giving) a glimpse of the serene face of India, strong and yet calm and determined, an ancient face which is ever young and vibrant." An Opposition Socialist invoked "the blood of our martyred jawans, (which) is becoming the seed of a new, virile nation that is being born in our country." Ignoring the obvious gusto of the response toward war, Nehru insisted on the inherent and unshakable pacifism of Indians. He said, in contrast to the Chinese who were conditioned to war and seemed to "think that war was a natural state of affairs," the Indians were "disliking it, excessively disliking the idea of war – emotionally disliking it, apart from not liking its consequences." He invoked Gandhi and reminded parliament that "basically we are a gentle people" and expressed fear that war would change it. "It alarms me that we should become, because of the exigencies of war, brutalized, a brutal nation. I think that would mean the whole soul and spirit of India being demoralized, and that is a terribly harmful thing. Certainly I hope that all of us will remember this." Nehru had made central the belief in the inherent and peculiar pacifism and gentleness of the Indian people in the course of the dispute with China, in domestic utterances, letters to Chou En-lai, and diplomatic notes to Peking. Nehru’s belief in this myth derived perhaps from his closeness to Gandhi. But the truth lies somewhere between Nehru’s view of "a gentle people" and Nirad Chaudhur’s, that "few human communities have been more warlike and fond of bloodshed (than the Indians)."

A cartoon in the Time of India epitomized the intense gratification with public response heard in almost every comment. Captioned as "War with China," Nehru and his Cabinet colleagues labeled a wall of graphs with "Emotional Integration, Industrial Peace, People’s Faith in Government." Nehru commented: "We never had it so good," and pointed out elegantly: "This challenge may be converted into opportunity for us to grow and to change the dark cloud that envelops our frontiers into the bright sun not only of freedom but of welfare in this country." For the Indian political classes, war was remote, romantic and therapeutic. For the urban masses it was circus, an open opportunity to join a parade and shout slogans. For the villagers, it was remote but vaguely alarming threat to the village, rather than the nation, which was a concept beyond the interest of the village mass in India. In contrast to the excitement and commitment in India, in China the fighting was consistently played down and the conflict minimized. A Western correspondent in Peking reported that "newspaper coverage is more political than military and even Chinese successes have constantly been played down. There has been no attempt to make the reader keenly war-conscious. Rare and laconic situation reports are printed in the guarded words of the New China News Agency." On the other hand, the Indian government treated the border fighting as an undeclared war. Nehru explained: "We may not be technically at war, but the fact is that we are at war, though we have not made any declaration to that effect – it is not necessary at the present moment to do so, I do not know about the future." However, Nehru resisted strong pressure throughout to break off diplomatic relations with Peking and in the UN, India maintained its support for Peking, although no longer taking the lead to press the issue of China’s representation.

The Indian Government declared statement of emergency, overriding powers and suspending civil liberties. The shock of the Namka Chu debacle was worn off, and replaced by euphoria of "mafficking in defeat," as it was called. At the end of October, The Times reported: "There has been a palpable growth of confidence in New Delhi that, whatever the Chinese intentions, they can be held and in due course beaten." The newspapers reported "heartening indications that after the initial reverses the Indian troops in NEFA were beginning to consolidate themselves into effective defensive positions, and were even initiating attempts to dislodge the Chinese from Indian territory." As Parliament was called into session ten days early on November 8, Menon took the edge off Parliament’s anger. Nehru still had a lot of explaining to do, but he was confident and not at all apologetic. Nehru gave the basic reason for the Indian reverse as they were outnumbered. The only hint of whether 7 Brigade should be pulled back from Namka Chu was: "The only fault we made … if it is a fault, was even to stick (it) out where the military situation was not very favorable. It was not that we told them to stick it out – it is folly for any politician to say so. But our soldiers themselves have a reluctance to go back, and they stuck on at considerable cost to them." The statement implied that Nehru was never informed about the urgent representations made by the field commanders to speedily withdraw the troops. Kaul, Sen and Thapar must have impressed him that the troops had "a reluctance to go back." Nehru made his long and familiar argument to Parliament in response to the rumors of inadequate equipment and supplies of the troops, which were circulating in the capital by now. Nehru assumed the role of the country’s war leader, and snapped at other politicians who questioned him: "It is really extraordinary that many persons here who know nothing about arms talk about arms." Since 1954, when Pakistan began receiving American military aid, and especially after the first boundary clashes with China in 1959, the Indian Government had been urging to accept whatever assistance available and strengthen the armed services. Now Nehru was bitterly criticized for his refusal to follow the suit. In a previous Parliament session, Nehru said, "taking military help is basically and fundamentally aligned to that country." But now American jet transports were landing in India with eight flights per day, each carrying about twenty tons of equipment including automatic rifles, heavy mortars, recoilless guns, et cetera. The British had been quicker as their first loads of arms aid landed the day Nehru accepted Kennedy’s offer of help. It was plain that only the U.S. had the means and the motive to provide the massive assistance India required. The British made their first contributions an outright gift, and the Americans left terms to be negotiated later. The French and others saw no reason to waive the usual commercial requirements, earning certain amount of ill will in New Delhi as a result. India also turned to Israel, which India had refused to open diplomatic relations for fear of losing Arab support for its position about Kashmir. Now India asked if the weapons Israel agreed to provide could be delivered in ships that did not fly the Israeli flag, thereby allowing India to avail itself of Israel’s help without incurring Arab displeasure. But Ben Gurion reportedly replied that "no flag, no weapons," and a shipment of heavy mortars arrived in Bombay in an Israeli ship.

As American weapons were unloaded a few miles away, an independent politician suggested that India should point out to the west that it was fighting a world war on behalf of democracy, echoing Churchill’s words: "Give us the tools and we will finish the job." Nehru maintained that because the supplies of armaments were "unconditional and without any strings" they did not affect non-alignment. It was soon to be seen that Britain and the U.S. used their supply of armaments to lever Nehru into reopening negotiations with Pakistan over Kashmir, with the implicit threat to cut the supply. The six days of debate, in which one hundred and sixty-five members spoke, a generalized critique of the Government’s policy was mounted, with strong feeling that India had been let down by many countries. One party questioned: "How is it that so large a number of these countries (for whom) we did so much in the many spheres of world politics" were not sympathizing with and supporting India? The resentment over the failure of the non-aligned and Afro-Asian countries not to repay India’s past generosity gave rise to a wave of enthusiasm for the U.S. and the Commonwealth. The Hindustan Times described that "a great fellowship of nations suddenly stirred to a sense of responsibility for the security and freedom of one of its members." In reconsidering its foreign policy, New Delhi changed even its approach to the Nationalist Government on Formosa. As one newspaper put it: "India should maneuver to spring a second front on the Chinese … This means that we must do everything to activate Formosa’s invasion threat on the south China coast … and "to this end liaison with Taipeh and even more so with the Pentagon is called for." The following March, a Nationalist representative came to New Delhi for talks with the Ministry of External Affairs. The Chinese Nationalists were ready to join India in all expressions of hostility towards the Peking Government, but were careful to point out that there were no differences with the Chinese Communists in their approach to the boundary dispute. The Formosa Government released a formal statement at the end of October: "The so-called McMahon Line is a line unilaterally claimed by the British during their rule over India. The Government of the Republic of China has never accepted this line of demarcation, and is strongly opposed to the British claim."

Parliament also criticized Nehru’s harping on the special peaceableness of Indians and the national commitment to non-violence. Now war had come, taking up arms was more meaningful to Indians than that of Gandhi and his non-violence. From the end of October, the general optimism that the worst was over and victories were at hand grew steadily, encouraged by official accounts of what was happening in NEFA. The press proclaimed: "Indians attack under cover of artillery – heartening forward thrust in NEFA." A Congress M.P. who went to the front reported that the morale of the troops was exuberant: "They are simply shouting our Mahatma Gandhi’s name and the Prime Minister’s name to enthuse themselves." Another told a public meeting on November 12 that "India was now strong enough to repulse the Chinese attackers and was building its military might to drive the invaders from Indian soil." Meanwhile, the Chinese in October and beginning of November continued their methodical elimination of the Indian forward posts in the western sector, softening the Indian positions with intense barrages before overrunning them with infantry. But the continuing defeat in the western sector did not shadow the Indian optimism, of which attention was focused on the Walong front. A big Indian victory was expected, as the headlines read on November 16: "Jawans swing into attack."

The Army H.Q. and down the line of command also shared the belief that the Chinese would not launch further attacks in NEFA and that the worst was over with the debacle on the Namka Chu. The orders to move the troops to NEFA were countermanded when the Chinese stopped their advance, and for three weeks there was little urgency in the Indian build-up around Se La. The contingency plan was based on the assumption that Pakistan would not take advantage of a Chinese attack, but in October 1962 intelligence report of President Ayub’s attitude led to second thought in New Delhi. Although American representation to Pakistan and reassurance relieved the Indian anxiety, moving troops to the northeast was delayed. The Chinese were working twenty-four hours a day, and steadily getting nearer to Se La ridge, from which the blasting of explosives could be heard. The road was through by early November and the Chinese trucks moved in Tawang towards Se La. Meanwhile, they patrolled forward towards and around the Indian positions, without the knowledge of Indians, penetrating into NEFA by passes and trails. General Harbaksh Singh at IV Corps expressed his pride "with abiding faith in our nation and our leaders and in the sacred cause of our motherland," but he was soon replaced by Kaul, who resumed command after having recovered from the "chill and severe attack of bronchitis." General Sen protested to General Thapar against this change, and the latter replied that Kaul was returning to be rehabilitated. Nehru stated in front of Parliament about the rehabilitation of his protege: "I want to mention his name especially because quite extraordinarily unjust things have been said about him." He went on: "Some people say he had not had any experience of fighting. That is not correct. He had the experience of fighting in Burma … I doubt … in sheer courage and initiative and hard work, if we can find anybody to beat him." The truth was as General Thimayya put it: "Every sepoy in the Army knows that Kaul has never been a combat soldier, you can’t hide that sort of thing in the Army. The officers don’t respect Kaul." The troops reacted in tune with Thimayya’s view to Kaul’s resumed command.

On October 26, just before Kaul resumed command, he described that his tactics had been deliberately "a policy of cheek." The Tseng-jong battle was only the result of his move to feel out Chinese intentions. He was confident that the Chinese could be held at Se La, and in due course beaten back. On October 29, Kaul returned and resumed control of IV Corps, as the Indians forces were being built up in NEFA. The troops were inducted to NEFA and distributed wildly, not as part of an overall defense plan but according to the Intelligence Bureau’s estimates of where the Chinese were likely to move. The troops trekked into the hills with the weapons and ammunitions they could carry to take up positions picked out on maps at headquarters in New Delhi. These deployments were made to engage the Chinese on the McMahon Line and were rationalized with the expectation of no strong Chinese attack. Nehru explained in Parliament why the Army tried to fight below Thag La ridge, "partly because to the last moment we did not expect this invasion in overwhelming numbers, partly from the fact that we disliked … the idea of walking back in our own territory." Five years later Menon conceded that it would be strategically better to "let (the Chinese) come into Indian territory in depth before giving them a fight," admitting that he and his Prime Minister consciously went against the strategic advantage to mollify an uninformed and shallow "public opinion."

In 1962, as the Intelligence Bureau pointed to the Lohit valley as a likely marching line for the Chinese, the Indians built up at Walong, which was one hundred miles, of two-week march, in addition to the enormous difficulties for air supply. The Chinese attacked on October 21 on the two-infantry battalions and some Assam Rifles, and were beaten off with heavy losses on both sides. The Walong sector was initially the responsibility of 5 Infantry Brigade, part of 4 Division. After fall of Tawang, a new divisional headquarters was created to command the whole of NEFA, which was designated as 2 Division under the command of Major-General MS Pathania. By the beginning of November 2 Division had settled down with three infantry battalions and some Assam Rifles platoons at Walong. General Pathania was convinced and in turn convinced Kaul that with an additional battalion, he could drive the Chinese back to the McMahon Line. The opening attack was planned for November 13 and was to be completed on November 14. The additional battalion began arriving only on November13, but II brigade did not delay its attack. The dates otherwise had no military significance, but November 14 was Nehru’s seventy-third birthday. Kaul and Pathania came up to Walong with the thought of giving a present for the Prime Minister, as "our first major success against the enemy." On November 14, two companies of the 6th Kumanon battalion, supported by heavy mortars and field guns, moved into an assault on the hill held by the Chinese, who were believed to be company strength. After six hours of fight, they were still fifty yards away from the crest. At night, a Chinese counterattack cleared the surviving Kumanois off the hill, which was what the Indian newspapers hailed on November 16 that "Jawans swing into attack."

The Chinese followed up the retreating Kumaonis and penetrated the main Indian defense positions. Having fire off all the shells in support of the Kumaonis, the Indian artillery could not engage the main Chinese assault when it came at first light on the 16th. The Indians fought grimly. After ceasefire, the returning Indians found in some posts every man dead. Kaul ordered withdrawal, but some troops did not receive it and fought on until their ammunition ran out or they were killed. Kaul sent a frantically worded signal reporting the defeat at Walong: "It is now my duty to urge that the enemy thrust is now so great and his overall strength is so superior that you should ask the highest authorities to get such foreign armed forces to come to our aid as are willing to do so without which, as I have said before and which I reiterate, it seems beyond the capacity of our armed forces to stem the tide of the superior Chinese forces which he has and will continue to concentrate against us to out disadvantage. This is not a counsel of fear, but facing stark realities." Kaul had the idea of getting allied expeditionary armies for some days. When the Cabinet Secretary called him for ideas, Kaul reportedly "produced from beneath his pillow a paper of recommendation. India should seek help of some foreign powers; Chiang Kai-shek and the South Koreans should be induced to invade China with American help."

As the climax developed in the crucial Se La-Bomdi La sector, the western sector also had endured attacks. Unlike Eastern Command and IV Corps, Western Command showed more concern for the survival of their troops than ordering isolated units to "fight it out" in useless and sacrificial gestures. In the eastern sector, the troops often fought to the last round or the last man to hold tactically insignificant and indefensible positions. Western Command continued an urgent and heavy build-up withdrawing troops from Kashmir, and despite arduous conditions, strength was built up in Ladakh by November 17. On November 18, the Chinese artillery bombardment began on the Indian outposts, airfield and brigade positions. Heavy mortars, recoilless guns and rockets softened the shallow Indian entrenchment. Of one company of another Kumaonis battalion, three wounded reached Battalion H.Q. in the valley, five were taken prisoner, and the rest of the company were found, three months later, frozen as they died with weapons in their hand. Only the Chinese bodies were removed, and evidence showed that there had been many. Five hours after, the Chinese launched assault on the hill positions, but stopped at their claim line and no attack was made on Chushul.

In the Se La-Bomdi La sector of NEFA, the Indian build-up was relatively sluggish, spreading in three main locations the 4 Division with a full complement of infantry, ten battalions, and supporting arms of field artillery, heavy mortars and a dozen light tanks. General Pathania ordered 4 Division to hold Se La to block the Chinese entry through NEFA to the plains. In the beginning of November, Pathania dispatched troops taken from the Bomdi La garrison to block what he saw as likely routes for Chinese outflanking moves. On the night of November 16, the Bomdi La garrison was reduced from three battalions (twelve companies) to six companies, about a third of the strength required to defend the position. On the midday of November 17, the Chinese attacked the Guards who fought for three hours until they ran out of ammunition, and withdrew to Bomdi La. After disintegrating the Guards, the Chinese had cut the road between Bomdi La and Dirang Dzong. The Chinese also attacked a battalion deployed several miles north of Se La. By early afternoon, Pathania asked IV Corps at Tezpur for permission to pull his headquarters out of Dirang Dzong. Pathania realized that the Chinese had cut the road meant that Se La would be wholly dependent upon air supply, and that the garrisons would be wiped out as they ran out of supplies. On the evening of the 17th, Pathania telephone IV Corps again and asked for permission to pull the troops off Se La. Kaul still had not returned from helicoptering around the rear of the lost battle in Walong, but Generals Thapar and Sen, who were superiors to Kaul, declined to give Pathania any orders. Kaul returned to headquarters in the evening and, with Thapar and Sen, drafted a signal to 4 Division, in what was a masterpiece of military buck-passing. It could be read in two ways. Pathania was given authority to fight if he decided to do so. The signals said: "You will hold on to your present positions to the best of your ability. Your only course is to fight it out as best you can." However, if he decided to withdraw, the signal authorized him to withdraw, as the signal said: "When any position becomes untenable I delegate the authority to you to withdraw to any alternative position you can hold." The signal was phrased to shift responsibility for the decision back to Pathania. For the Commander 48 Brigade at Bomdi La, Kaul ordered "to attack this enemy force tonight speedily and resolutely and keep this road clear at all costs." Brigadier Hoshiar Singh protested pointing out that he was left with only six rifle companies. Kaul agreed to suspend the order until next morning when two battalions of reinforcements were expected to reach Bomdi La. Next morning Pathania received the ambiguous signal and decided to withdraw in the following night.

The Chinese moved at nights, without firing, and followed up the withdrawing Indians closely and occupied the positions. When the Chinese opened fire, troops of one battalion began to break and move back. At dawn of the 18, the Chinese assaulted the last Indian troops in territory claimed by Peking in the western sector. The Chinese found the Indian forces emptying on Se La, their heavy weapons, artillery and stores left where they stood. Among these were American automatic rifles still in crates. The Chinese moved into the deserted positions around the pass and opened fire on the retreating Indians beneath them. At five in the morning, at Dirang Dzong there was "a complete absence of war-like atmosphere" with quietness and officers sleeping in their huts. As a company Pathania dispatched came to cover Dirang Dzong, the Chinese opened light small-arms fire on Divisional H.Q. from a thousand yards away. Pathania gave hurried oral orders to the cavalrymen to fight through to Bomdi La, and if they could not, abandon their tanks and head for the plains. Pathania then left Dirang Dzong with fellow officers and a few troops headed toward Bomdi La and, after finding out it had fallen, made for the plains.

No one took command at Dirang Dzong in Pathania’s place. The forces there, including two battalions of infantry, a squadron of light tanks, a battery of field guns, and hundreds of personnel from Divisional and Brigade H.Q., went to a sauve qui peut in the morning of November 18. One of the battalions reached the plains as a unit, the rest struggled through in small parties. Chinese ambushes took a toll, so did the wild country and the winter. Divisional H.Q. did not inform anyone that it was quitting the field. The commands at Se La and Bomdi la were left quiet in the dark, as was IV Corps at Tezpur. Brigadier Hoshiar Singh attempted to knock out the Chinese machine-guns, which fired on the withdrawing troops from Se La, but the attempt failed. With the road impassable, the Chinese fire took heavy casualties, and the brigade disintegrated into small parties, making for the plains individually. Many of the parties were ambushed and killed or captured in the following days, and Brigadier Hoshiar Singh was shot dead at Phutang on November 27. By mid-morning on November 18, 48 Brigade at Bomdi La was the only organized Indian formation left in NEFA. The brigade had six rifle companies, and was awaiting the Chinese attack in prepared positions supported by field guns, heavy mortars, and the guns of four light tanks. At about 11.00 a.m., Kaul ordered 48 Brigade to send out a mobile column to relieve Dirang Dzong (not knowing it was empty by then). Brigadier Gurbax Singh protested again, Kaul angrily and categorically ordered him to get the mobile column on the road within half an hour irrespective of the consequences to Bomdi La. Ten minutes after, as two infantry companies with two tanks and tow mountain guns were pulled out towards Dirang Dzong, the first shock of the Chinese assault came and was beaten off. But Indian counterattack against the next major Chinese attack failed. Gurbax Singh ordered a withdrawal of eight miles south to Rupa, where they began to organize a defense on the night of 18th. But IV Corps ordered them to pull back to Foothills, a village just above the plains. As troops moved accordingly, Kaul ordered them to stand at Rupa. The troops turned back to Rupa, and came under fire from the Chinese who had already taken up dominating positions in the hills around. The brigade, now about one battalion in strength, marched back through November 19 and reached Chaku just after dark. But the Chinese struck at Chaku from three sides soon after midnight, ambushing a column that was bringing up supplies and ammunition. The surviving troops made for the plains in small parties. By November 20, no organized Indian military force was left in NEFA or in the territory claimed by China in the western sector. Militarily the Chinese victory was complete, the Indian defeat absolute. However, the retreat continued, as Kaul returned to Corps H.Q. in Tezpur late on the night of November 19, he ordered the Corps H.Q. to move immediately to Gauhati, nearly a hundred miles to the west and on the other side of the Brahmaputra. Next day Kaul helicoptered over the trails and gave Pathania and some wounded men a lift to Tezpur.

The news of the fall of Walong, released in New Delhi only on November 18, sent a greater shock than the debacle at Thag La ridge. There the public believed that Indian troops were taken by surprise by the Chinese attack as an infantry Pearl Harbor. But in Walong, the Indian Army had three weeks to prepare itself and was in fact on the offensive. In the evening briefing to the press, it was announced that the Chinese had attacked Se La and fighting was going on there. After a glow of optimism and expectation of an Indian victory at Walong, now the Prime Minister not only confirmed in the morning newspaper reports on the fall of Walong, but also said that Se La had fallen too. After the House heard Nehru’s short statement in dead silence, there was uproar of angry questioning and expostulation. Nehru sat silent, with his dominance of the House gone for good. Nehru addressed himself to the people of Assam: "Now what has happened is very serious and very saddening to us… We shall not be content till the invader goes out of India or is pushed out. We shall not accept any terms that he may offer because he may think that we are a little frightened by some setbacks…" On November 20, the American Ambassador noted "ultimate panic in Delhi, the first time I have ever witnessed the disintegration of public morale." Fear was in the air, and rumors were spreading that the Chinese were about to take Tezpur, even land paratroops in the capital, and that General Kaul was taken prisoner. Late that night Nehru made an urgent and open appeal for the intervention of the United States with bombers and fighters squadrons to go into action against the Chinese. Nehru requested fifteen squadrons and appealed American aircraft to undertake strikes against Chinese troops on Indian territory and to provide cover for Indian cities. In response, an American aircraft carrier was dispatched from the Pacific towards Indian waters, but the crisis passed twenty-four hours after Nehru made this appeal, and the aircraft carrier turned back.

That appeal was not the only step taken in the shock of the debacle. Nehru had been emphasizing from the beginning that India was not fighting Communism because it was fighting China. The distinction was necessary not only to the posture of non-alignment, but to cushion India’s relations with the USSR. But on November 20, orders went out to arrest several hundred leading members of the Communist Party. The intention was to arrest only those belonged to the left wing, but a muddle in the Home Ministry resulted in arresting many of the party’s centrists and some of its pro-Moscow wing. Nehru complained to the Home Minister that it would give India a bad name in the Communist countries. But simply to let them all out again would compound the embarrassment, so it was decided to release the mistakenly imprisoned ones one by one in order not to make it look like a confession of error. As the Home Minister was looking to the country’s security, some politicians were worried about the political stability. Some in the Opposition and Congress suggested to President Radhakrishnan of suspending Parliament and making the Cabinet an advisory committee to the president, which was wooly and short of a coup, to which the Radhakrishnan gave no encouragement. In Tezpur, it was feared that the invaders would reach the town in a few hours. On November 18, the civil administration ceased to function, with the loudspeaker warning the townspeople that the authorities could no longer be responsible for their safety. Great crowds, including released convicts and inmates of the local asylum, gathered at the ferry, which carried up to a thousand people a trip, rather than their safe load of three or four hundred, across the Brahmaputra River. Those who stayed at the State Bank tried to burn some £300,000 worth of currency, including the coin; they first tried to get rid of coin by throwing it in a lake but people began diving for it. The disorganization at Tezpur was later blamed on the state Government and local administration, but at least part of the responsibility can be traced to the Home Ministry in New Delhi, which instructed selective evacuation of the town and destruction of currency. Kaul had personally briefed two ministers of the state government on the morning of the 20th that the Chinese were coming, with a possible paratroop landing at Misamari and air raid on Tezpur likely. General Thapar returned to New Delhi late on November 19 and submitted his resignation to the Prime Minister. Even now Nehru’s first thought was that Kaul should succeed Thapar as Chief of Army Staff. After discussing with the Radhakrishnan, as there was still no Defense Minister, the idea was dismissed as absurd and instead suggested General Chaudhuri as the new Army Chief. On the morning of November 21, as the Home Minister’s party prepared to fly to Assam, they noticed a crowd and an air of excitement around the newsstand. One of them went to buy a paper and learned the headline announcement that China was going to unilaterally stop the fighting and then withdraw from NEFA. They immediately went to the Prime Minister’s residence, where Nehru gave the impression that he had not heard the Chinese announcement, although the news had reached the newspapers several hours before. Thus the Government learned that China had been engaged not on an invasion of India, but on a giant punitive expedition.

Part V: Ceasefire

When the world learned on November 21, 1962, the border war in the Himalayas was to be ended by China’s unilateral ceasefire and withdrawal. The Times expressed the universal reaction: "Astonishment almost blots out relief at the sudden Chinese decision." Chou En-lai called the Indian chargé d’affaires to his residence and told him in detail of China’s intentions: "1) Beginning from 00.00 on November 21, 1962, the Chinese frontier guards will cease fire along the entire Sino-Indian border. 2) Beginning from December 1, 1962, the Chinese frontier guards will withdraw to positions 20 kilometers behind the line of actual control which existed between China and India on November 7, 1959." The proposal further spelled out clearly that "in the eastern sector… the Chinese frontier guards … withdraw … to north of the line of actual control, that is, north of the illegal McMahon Line, and to withdraw twenty kilometers back from that line" and that "in the middle and western sectors, the Chinese frontier guards will withdraw twenty kilometers from the line of actual control." The Indians would be expected to keep their armed forces twenty kilometers away from the line of actual control too, and China "reserved the right to strike back" if they did not do so. This proposal was the same when Chou En-lai first made it to Nehru in his letter of November 7, 1959, and was reiterated after the Namka Chu battle. India rejected the repeated and consistent Chinese insistence of it as the only possible way to defuse the border, most recently and brusquely on October 24 after the first Chinese attack. Now, at the point of smoking gun, a victorious China imposed not a victor’s terms but what she had proposed all along.

The Indian Army had no doubt about the response to the ceasefire. The new Chief of Army Staff, General Chaudhuri, reported that his forces were in no condition to do anything but reciprocate the Chinese move. However, the story was different for the politicians, as usual, whose most frequent use of the word was "humiliation." While the soldiers were relieved, the civilians took the unilateral Chinese ceasefire as rubbing salt in the wounds. There was nearly unanimous opinion to reject Peking’s "offer" out of hand. Nehru played for time, simply saying that no official message about a ceasefire had been received from Peking. As for negotiations, "our position … continues to be … that the position as it existed prior to September 8, 1962, shall be restored." The Opposition members denounced "a typical piece of calculated Chinese trickery" and demanded assurances that the Government would ignore the ceasefire and continue to refuse negotiations. One politician cried: "Decency, dignity and self-respect require that we negotiate only after the barbarians are driven out." As some called the Chinese move "fraudulent," others saw it as an ultimatum. All the Opposition Parties except the Communists issued a joint statement: "The Chinese offer of a unilateral ceasefire is only another of their notorious maneuvers, calculated to cause confusion and disruption in our national front, gain time for consolidation and build up for another infamous offensive and prevent us from mobilizing resources from inside and outside and create doubts in the minds of our friend in world democracy." The statement continued that the Prime Minister must not allow himself to be taken in, and the Government should reassure the nation that it would stand firmly by the policy of determined resistance and no negotiations.

When it was announced that the Chinese declaration was received that night, the spokesman refused to comment: "Let us wait and see." Neither then nor later would officials confirm that the troops had been ordered to observe the ceasefire, for that would be taken as admission that India had surrendered. In contrary, the Government strove to give the impression that India had just started to fight. Nehru fondly reassured a gathering of school-children: "The war with China will be long-drawn-out affair, it may take years – it may take so long that some of you will be fit and ready to fight it." In the following days, the Chinese diplomats were called to the Ministry of External Affairs for clarifications on the meaning of "line of actual control," and if the Chinese withdrew twenty kilometers, "where will that be?" Peking described these questioning as meaningless. These were clearly spelled out in the ceasefire statement and restated by the diplomats, but the Indian Government complained that it was still vague and would require further elaboration "before the Chinese ceasefire proposals can be fully considered." What China intended, of course, fell short of what the Indians desired. The Indians wanted to restore the positions they had held prior to September 18 and to resume the positions inside the Chinese claim line in the west and north of the map-marked McMahon Line in the Thag La area. It was not enough for the Chinese to withdraw their troops. The Indians wanted all Chinese personnel to withdraw so that the Indians would return to their forward positions.

A week after the ceasefire, Chou En-lai wrote to Nehru again and appealed for Indian reciprocation of the Chinese measures. He urged that the Chinese proposals had given "full consideration to the decency, dignity and self-respect of both sides," and argued that their implementation would not involve gain or loss of territory for either side. But he warned that Chinese withdrawal could not by itself be expected to prevent clashes, and that Indian refusal to cooperate would jeopardize the ceasefire. A sharply worded Chinese note of December 8 accused India of "deliberate haggling and evading an answer." Peking put three blunt questions: "Does the Indian Government agree, or does it not agree, to a ceasefire? … Does the Indian Government agree, or does it not agree, that the armed forces of the two sides should disengage and withdraw each twenty kilometers from the November 7, 1959, line of actual control? … Does the Indian Government agree, or does it not agree, that officials of the two sides should meet…?" The Indian position to these questions was: "Yes and No." For domestic and international effect, Nehru and his colleagues were saying that the struggle with China would continue, and that the deceitful Chinese proposals must be rejected. But in fact the Indian Army was ordered to preserve the ceasefire and to avoid any provocation to the Chinese. It had no intention of moving right up to the McMahon Line again. The forward policy was dead, with the two or three thousand Indian soldiers lost in the fighting, but the fundamental position of the Indian Government had only been confirmed with no negotiations at their stand. But as from the beginning, the Indian reputation for a pacific approach was so high and the general opinion of China was so low that it was not difficult for India to clock the unyielding and unchanging refusal to negotiate and to shift the onus for preventing settlement to China. The border war was almost universally reported as an unprovoked Chinese invasion of India, which only confirmed the general impression that Peking pursued a reckless, chauvinistic and belligerent foreign policy. The unilateral Chinese ceasefire and withdrawal was explained as a Russian ultimatum that brought it about, or that the U.S. had cleared its hands of the Cuba and was about to intervene. Others accepted the popular Indian explanation that the Chinese stop was "basically inspired by fear" because their lines of communication were overstretched and they became vulnerable to Indian counterattack. In time it was believed that, as Nehru put it, the Chinese had turned tail rather than face "the unexpected anger of the Indian people when aroused."

In the NEFA front, the ceasefire that came into effect at midnight on November 21 was a formality. Although organized fighting had effectively ended nearly forty-eight hours before, skirmishes continued in NEFA for a week after the ceasefire. The ceasefire was more definitive in the western sector than in the eastern sector. Survivors continued to emerge from the foothills for several weeks. The trek was so arduous that many Indian troops died from exposure or starvation on the way back. In 1965, the Defense Ministry released the figures of Indian losses: 1,383 killed, 1,696 missing, and 3,968 captured. Twenty-six of the Indians died of wounds in captivity, and the remainders were repatriated. About ninety percent of the Indian casualties were suffered in NEFA. The Indian Army later estimated that the Chinese had used three divisions in the NEFA fighting; one normal and one light division for the main thrust through Tawang, Se la and Bomdi La to the foothills, and another division for the Walong action. The Indian forces in NEFA numbered about twenty-five infantry battalions, equivalent to just under three normal infantry divisions. So the Chinese probably had only a narrow numerical superiority. But the Indian forces were so scattered that Mao’s teaching could be easily put into effect: "In every battle, concentrate an absolutely superior force … encircle the enemy forces completely and strive to wipe them out thoroughly." Not one Chinese prisoner was taken by the Indians.

The new Chief of Army Staff, Chaudhuri, proposed to transfer the displaced Kaul to a training command in Punjab, but Kaul put in his resignation. Nehru tried to dissuade him and then wrote him a letter: "The events which have led to your retirement are sad and have distressed many of us. I am sure, however, that you were not specially to blame for them. A large number of people and perhaps just the circumstances were responsible for them." Nehru suggested to Kaul later that he might be appointed lieutenant-governor of Himachal Pradesh, but the idea was dropped, and the position was given to Dr Teja, who was later indicted for fraud. General Thapar made Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan. General Sen continued in East Command until he resigned from the Army. General Prasad was reinstated in Western Command. General Pathania resigned soon after the ceasefire. Brigadier Dalvi was repatriated in May 1963, received two substantive promotions and commanded a brigade in the 1965 war with Pakistan, and resigned in 1966 after superseded in promotion to the rank of major-general. Krishna Menon stayed on the Congress until being defeated twice in the 1967 general elections, but returned to the Lok Sabha in 1969.

The Indians and to some extent people abroad held skepticism that China would fulfill the proclaimed intention to withdraw behind the McMahon Line. On November 30 the Chinese Defense Ministry in Peking announced of the punctual withdraw to begin on December 1. The withdrawal was slow as the Chinese had a lot of tidying up to do, and went about the task with meticulous and even fussy care. They made it a matter of principle or pride to hand back the equipment left by the retreating Indians in as good condition as possible. It was collected, sacked, piled or parked; cleaned, polished, and carefully inventoried – small arms, mortars, artillery, trucks, shells and ammunition, clothing, and all the other impedimenta of a defeated army. Among the return equipment were a few American automatic rifles as the first installment of American military assistance captured at Se La, and a Russian helicopter in serviceable condition. China did not publicize this extraordinary transaction, and said it was simply a gesture "to further demonstrate … sincerity for a peaceful settlement." But although Indians cooperated by formally receiving the returned equipment, they bitterly resented what they perceived as added humiliation and denounced the Chinese gesture as a propaganda maneuver. The Indian Army did not return to NEFA on the heels of the withdrawing Chinese. Civilians took over administration and reached Tawang on January 21, 1963 and many months later the Indian troops moved back into NEFA. New Delhi ignored the Chinese demand that Indian troops be withdrawn twenty kilometers from the line of actual control in the western and middle sectors, and Peking did not press that point. But in the eastern sector, the Indians kept out of the territory between Thag La ridge and the map-marked McMahon Line, and kept well back from the Line.

After the ceasefire, the Afro-Asian countries showed marked inclination to credit Peking for a genuine attempt to return the dispute to the negotiation table. Now New Delhi felt the pressure to accept the Chinese ceasefire proposal and resented it. The official spokesman explained at the end of November: "Those who do not understand the full significance of the deceptive Chinese proposals naturally ask why we cannot accept (them)." Nehru noted with some exasperation that the non-aligned countries were failing to grasp things that were obvious to India. However, President Nasser of the United Arab Republic (UAR) gave no ground to Indian Government for complaint this time. As he put forward a proposal to convene a conference to discuss the ceasefire and possible bases of bilateral negotiation, the Indians found him "one hundred per cent" behind them. On December 10, the Prime Minister of Ceylon, Mrs. Bandaranaike, agreed to convene the conference in Colombo, where six delegations met, including Ceylon, the UAR, Cambodia, Ghana, Indonesia and Burma. The Governments concerned had previously been carefully briefed by special ministerial missions from New Delhi as to the minimal Indian requirement. It remained the restoration of the positions that Indians obtained on September 8, which would permit the Indians to return to posts set up in the western sector under the forward policy and to Dhola Post in the east. Accordingly the UAR delegation in Colombo presented for full restoration of the September 8th position, but that was plainly unacceptable to China. The Colombo powers proposed that the line of actual control (i.e. the McMahon Line) could serve as the ceasefire line, ignoring the Chinese stipulation that both sides keep armed forces twenty kilometers back from the line.

In the western sector, the Colombo powers proposed that China should carry out the twenty-kilometer withdrawal, but there should be no reciprocation on the Indian side. Then, "pending a final solution of the border dispute, the area vacated by the Chinese military withdrawals will be demilitarized zone to be administered by civilian posts of both sides to be agreed upon, without prejudice to the rights of the previous presence of both India and China in that area." This passage permitted the return of Indians to areas they had infiltrated under the forward policy, but it left ambiguous point that the presence of Indian civilians across the line of actual control in the western sector had "to be agreed upon" by China. When Mrs. Bandaranaike went to New Delhi in January to submit the Colombo proposals, the Indians persuaded her to allow them to remove the ambiguity. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs released the "clarification" of the original passage, by adding that "the number of posts and their composition that there has to be an agreement between the two governments of India and China." For once it seemed that Nehru and Chou En-lai both informed Mrs. Bandaranaike to have accepted the proposals in principle. But Chou stated "two points of interpretations" which were in fact reservations. As "clarified" by the Indian Government, the proposals looked to China’s fulfilling most of the provisions of her ceasefire declaration, but exempted India from any obligations of reciprocity. Chou suggested that India military forces should stay where they were in the east as in the west. He argued that Indians should not be allowed back into the strip in the west where they had infiltrated under the forward policy, either with troops or civilian personnel. Peking maintained that to allow this would be "tantamount to recognizing as legitimate the Indian armed invasion of this area and its setting up of forty-three strong points there between 1959 and 1962." Instead, Chou volunteered that China would pull all her posts out of that area, civilian as well as military. Chou suggested that neither his "points of interpretation" nor reservations on the Indian side should delay the opening of talks. Such differences could be resolved in the talks themselves.

But the Indian Government was as resistant as ever to any kind of direct exchanges with the Chinese. Nehru told the Lok Sabha: "We cannot have any kind of talks, even preliminary talks, unless we are satisfied that the condition we had laid down – about the 8th September position being restored – is met." Beneath the rhetoric of Opposition in Parliament that pressed Nehru for clearer undertaking, the Indian approach was unchanged. They were seeking a way to avoid meeting the Chinese without seeming to rebuff the attempts of the Colombo powers. Peking’s reservations to the Colombo proposals provided them the answer. The Indian Government promptly declared that it accepted the Colombo proposals as clarified by themselves "in toto," and declared that there could be no further step towards talks or discussions until Peking had also accepted the proposals together with the Indian clarifications in toto. Once again, skilful Indian diplomacy had avoided negotiations by making physical concessions by China a precondition, and shifted the onus of obstructing a meeting to China. In the International Court at The Hague, Nehru’s reference strengthened the general impression that it was India who was anxious to explore every avenue for peaceful settlement, and China who was balking. Nehru’s stated: "I am prepared when the time comes, provided there is approval of Parliament, even to refer the basic dispute of the claims on the frontier to an international body…" The foreign press reported this as a substantive Indian concession, ignoring Nehru’s gloss latter on the remark. When members objected Nehru’s reference to the International Court, Nehru immediately backed away: "What I said was that if and when the time came of it, if the House agrees, if Parliament agrees, we might perhaps think of it."

By this time it was plain that the Indian Government’s determination not to negotiate for a settlement had only been confirmed by the defeat on the borders. Chou En-lai wrote Nehru in April 1963, accusing him of taking a dishonest approach and of having no intention whatever of holding negotiations. He said that India exploited ambiguities in the Colombo proposals to interpret those as conforming with the Indian demand for restoration of the September 8th positions, and was now trying to convert them into an adjudication and force them on China. As for the reference to the International Court, that was "plainly an attempt to cover up the fact that the Indian Government refuse to negotiate." Chou reiterated China’s readiness to open negotiations immediately on the basis of the Colombo proposals, which both sides had accepted in principle. But, he went on, "if the Indian Government, owing to its internal and external political requirements, is not prepared to hold negotiations for the time being, (China) is willing to wait with patience." A year later Nehru said in Parliament that he would be willing to consider opening talks if the Chinese completely evacuated the twenty-kilometer strip in the western sector. Chou En-lai had proposed exactly that compromise, and when two emissaries of Bertrand Russell put it to the Chinese Government, the Chinese did not rule it out. New Delhi instantly denied that the Nehru entrusted the Russell emissaries and said that only if the Chinese evacuated the western strip "the new situation … might merit considerations." But by this time the Chinese Government had decided that it was useless to open discussions on the borders with India unless there was evidence of a radical change in Indian approach. New Delhi continued to publish the diplomatic exchanges for years, and the Indians continued to present themselves as the aggrieved party, and the Chinese as aggressive and recalcitrant. On the ground the position was reversed. There the boundaries had already been settled by China’s crushing victory.

As the dust of battle subsided, most of the internationally conscious class of Indians had to come to terms with a sad new world. That India had preached the world to stopping the fighting in situations of dispute was forgotten, and there was strong resentment towards the non-aligned countries, "these amoral neutralists who have refused to give India the unreserved sympathy and support she has asked for." The Soviet Union also came in for a share of this displeasure. The U.S., Britain and other Western powers stepped forward staunchly in the hour of India’s need, denouncing China and offering India weapons and other assistance. America’s most active efforts were increasingly in Asia against China. The Soviet Union had serious split with China and soon also moved in the same direction as the U.S. India’s falling-out with China fitted in with the emerging new pattern of big-power relationships, with India moving towards a bi-alignment with both Washington and Moscow against Peking. The substantial American military assistance to India did not put off the Russians, who replied that they understood the Indian needs and requests. In the immediate aftermath of the border war, India appeared to be moving closer to the U.S. Nehru maintained that non-alignment was alive and unimpaired, but in 1963 the Indian Foreign Secretary expressed the Indian Government’s willingness "to work with the United States both politically and militarily in the rest of Asia" for the containment of China.

After receiving Nehru’s call for help, President Kennedy dispatched Averell Harriman to India with a team of high-level State Department and Pentagon advisers and General Paul Adams, commander of the mobile strike force for emergency ground action. The Chinese announced their ceasefire before Harriman and others left Washington, but unlike the aircraft carrier, this mission did not turn back. After an eighteen-hour flight, the Americans arrived on the evening of November 22, and found Nehru had constraint in his attitude. One member of the mission wrote later: "His letters to Kennedy asking for help had painted a desperate picture, but face to face Nehru seemed to want to avoid talking about it all," and observed that "it must have been difficult (for him) to greet Americans over the ruins of his long-pursued policy of neutralism." The Harriman mission was paired with one from Britain led by Duncan Sandys, and laid the groundwork for substantial military assistance for India over the next three years. Later in 1963 a joint Anglo-American air exercise was held in India, with long-range fighter aircraft flying in to operate from Indian Air force Bases. Nehru had always explained his earlier resistance to acceptance of military aid, as such dependence would reduce India’s independence.

Harriman’s mission hinted, "with exquisite delicacy," "at the need for a settlement of the Kashmir dispute and for taking measures for joint defense with Pakistan." But the "delicacy" soon disappeared, with Harriman and Sandys launching all-out effort to use the promise of arms aid to lever India into settlement with Pakistan. That meant compromise by India, involving at least the surrender of a good part of the valley of Kashmir, and there was never a chance that India would agree to that. The British and Americans had been misled by a mirage effect of India’s mood of "nothing matters but repelling the Chinese." Indians at all levels were saying that the time had come to settle with Pakistan, but they meant to settle on the status quo in Kashmir. To the Pakistanis, that was no settlement, but rather a refusal to reach one. Harriman and Sandys pressed on, and a week after their arrival, it was announced that Nehru and President Ayub of Pakistan were to meet in an attempt to resolve the Kashmir dispute. The very next day, Nehru assured an alarmed Parliament that his meeting with Ayub was not "negotiations" but "talks." The Indo-Pakistan exchange broke down after a series of fruitless preliminary meetings, when it became unmistakable that the most India would concede fell unbridgeably short of the least Pakistan would accept. American military aid continued until 1965 when Pakistan attempted to shake Kashmir out of India’s grip by force that set off their three-week war. India turned to the Soviet Union for assistance, and thereafter Moscow became India’s biggest source of defense equipment. Meanwhile, Pakistan moved into more cordial relations with Peking and began receiving military equipment from China. The Indian role in international affairs after the border war was never the same as before. The debacle brutally exposed Indian weakness and its tacit alliance with the U.S. against China, and India can no longer claim the role of leader of the non-aligned countries. The 1960s were also the beginning of a period of mounting domestic difficulties for India, further diminishing its international role.

The defeat from the border war was not so bitter, after all. The country was united as never before and the Government was so confident that it suspended the committee set up to promote national integration, arguing that the war had done the work for it. The mythmakers were soon at work on the defeat. A week after the ceasefire a journalist wrote: "The planned withdrawal of several thousand Indian jawans (soldiers) and officers from the besieged 14,000-ft Se La region in NEFA will surely be regarded by future historians as a great page in military history." The official explanations of the debacle were accepted, with the blame put on the Chinese rather than on the Indian Government or the military leadership. It was suggested that the Chinese had won because they fought in overwhelming numbers, without regard for casualties, and took the defenders often by surprise. Much was made of the climatic and logistical difficulties that faced the Indian troops, and few asked why they had been made to engage the Chinese without preparation in such adverse circumstances. The Army was instructed to conduct an inquiry into the reverses in NEFA, but Major-General Brooks and Brigadier Bhagat were ordered not to concern themselves with individual responsibilities for the debacle. Furthermore, they were not allowed to question officers in the General Staff or in other sections of Army H.Q., nor given access to Army H.Q’s records. General Thapar declined to give a statement to the board of inquiry, but offered to record his own comments on the report, a procedure ruled as entirely improper. Kaul submitted two long statements, but along with the report of Brigadier Dalvi, they were not passed on to Brooks. The inquiry was almost closed, and the crucial exchanges between the civilian leadership and Army H.Q. were undisclosed. The report followed the NEFA fighting in detail, and the responsibility of Kaul, Sen and Thapar was made clear although the blame was left tacit. The report could have been but most damaging to Nehru and the Government, and therefore it was classified and kept top secret. Defense Minister, Chavan, merely made a statement to Parliament: "We should never … say or do things which could only give heart to the enemy and demoralize our own men." Chavan explained the "series of reverses" from the Namka Chu to Bomdi La: "These battles were fought on our remotest borders and were at heights not known to the Army and at places which geographically had all the disadvantages for our troops and many advantages to the enemy."

Nehru made no gesture towards resignation, and he and his Government thus survived the disaster, which would surely have overturned any other democratic Cabinet. But Nehru’s old moral and political domination in Parliament and the Congress Party was gone, not to be recovered in his remaining eighteen months of life. The inner balance of power in New Delhi shifted with uncertainty and indecision as Nehru remained to be the Prime Minister. Before the border fighting, when Nehru was in his prime, it might be said that India had a dictator who would not establish a dictatorship. One area of decisive and determined change in the Indian Government was that of defense. In the next two years, India’s defense expenditure was more than doubled. The latest available American and British supplies replaced the obsolete equipment and stores. The political position of the Army was sharply changed, almost reversed by the debacle. There would be no more interference by the civilians in internal Army matter. In a letter to Bertrand Russell in December, Nehru referred to "the danger of the military mentality spreading in India, and the power of the Army increasing." In broader political terms, a marked shift to the Right appeared as a consequence of the border war, which exposed the intrinsic shallowness and weakness of the Indian Left as a national political force. The Left leadership, represented by Kerala and West Bengal, showed avowed sympathy for Peking and refused to denounce China for aggression, and as a result lost popularity. But the influence of the Sino-India dispute on the political balance was far from racial in India, and probably did no more than accelerating trends already in progress.

One of the most marked and saddest consequences of the border was perhaps the personal and political decline of Nehru. Menon said later in 1962: "I think he collapsed; it demoralized him completely because everything he had built up in his life was going." The remaining youthfulness was stricken from his shoulders, and he was left stooped and unsteady, cherishing a bitter sense of injury against the Chinese, whom he felt had betrayed him and all he had striven for. Much less was heard in India about forcing the Chinese "to vacate their aggression," although in 1970 the opposition Congress tried to commit the Government to doing just that. The forward policy was not revived. The Army build up its strength in Ladakh and opened roads to its forward positions, but they remained outside the Chinese claim line and the dispositions were defensive. The overall superiority in numbers of the Chinese Army and their advantages in movement on the Tibetan plateau make it likely that the Indians can never hope to mount a successful offensive action anywhere on the northern borders, so long as China’s central power is unbroken. As the borders settled into an armed truce, diplomatic relations between China and India were also frozen. Nehru resisted the pressure to break off the diplomatic relations with Peking, but closed the Chinese consulate in Bombay. It was a concession to domestic opinion, but it cost India its consulate in Lhasa, a loss which must have made Lord Curzon turn in his grave. It was years before anyone in India was bold enough to suggest mending relations with China. In 1969, when Mrs. Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister, made the suggestion, she was criticized in Parliament. The Chinese showed no interest in improving relations with India. Chinese maps continue to ignore the McMahon Line. Presumably Peking’s long-standing offer to negotiate a boundary settlement on the basis of the status quo when India is ready to do so still stands. But thus to go back to the beginning would mean India’s tacit admission of error, and recantation of the deeply cherished belief that in 1962 she was the innocent victim of unprovoked Chinese aggression. That will never be easy.

AlexHu. 1999.