Uncover The Dark Truth - II

 

 

“It was Nehru, not the Chinese, who declared war.” - Mr. Neville Maxwell, Australian journalist and author of the controversial book ‘India’s China War’, in a media interview in 2014, as quoted by American researcher and former CIA officer Mr. Bruce Riedel in his book ‘JFK’s Forgotten Crisis’ (referred to by Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi in Parliament). THIS may be treated perhaps as the most explosive statement on the Chinese invasion of India in 1962. This is also one statement that everybody will find difficult to believe -- since no open evidence to that effect is available in any domain, classified or declassified, in that regard.

 

Yet Mr. Bruce Riedel uses this statement in a part (of Chapter 3) of ‘JFK’s Forgotten Crisis’ discussing what de describes as ‘The Forward Policy’ (of India) under Prime Minister Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru. Mr. Bruce Riedel offers details of the ‘Forward Policy’ and blames it to be a loose document that came to fore only incrementally and not as a proper, focused thought. Mr. Riedel says, “The process that produced the Forward Policy was not only haphazard but also reflected a seriously dysfunctional understanding of the threat posed by Chinese advances in Tibet and on the border. Nehru was trying to shows Indian resolve to Mao and protect his domestic political position from critics who claimed was weak on China. ...” Earlier in the segment, Mr. Bruce Riedel says, the Forward Policy was “more of a statement of political resolve than a military strategy: ‘The Indian Army was never given the means to effectively implement it. ...” Shocking ! -- one must say. But then, such assertions from various people who ‘knew’ the truth about the 1962 crisis have often flooded the public comprehension from time to time. Because Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi made a specific reference to the Riedel book ‘JFK’s Forgotten Crisis’, appropriate it is to delve a little deeper not just into the page of the book, but also in the overall scenario of those times, and the subsequent investigations by various agencies (including an official one instituted by the Government of India subsequently) -- so that the common people understand the story of those dark times as it truthfully was. Factually, the country has long resolved the issue in clear understanding that Prime Minister Pandit Nehru needed to be blamed for much part of the crisis since he either initiated wrong thought and action, or did not allow others (right people) to take right action to safeguard Indian interest long term and short term. Frankly, after arriving at such a conclusion, the country was all willing to let the bygones be bygones.

 

The common Indian people -- and the world at large -- also know that India has learnt lessons on China correctly from those dark 1962 days. But Mr. Narendra Modi obviously chose to raise the issue when the Opposition started picking up loose points from that part of history and quoting things in the most incorrect manner. It was in that light that Mr. Modi said, in effect, that those who wanted to know the correct history should read the Bruce Riedel book. This book -- and dozens and dozens of other books on the history of those times -- have stated the truth in different ways, mostly pointing to the guilty on the Indian side. In fact, the people in the Opposition must read all those books in utmost sincerity without bias. Of course, Mr. Bruce Riedel wrote the book not to blame Pandit Nehru, but to highlight how the then US President Mr. John F. Kennedy handled successfully two most daunting crises simultaneously -- the Cuban Missile crisis; and the Chinese invasion of India crisis. Mr. Kennedy had met with a couple of diplomatic disasters in the early days of his presidency, but rose to great heights to handle the Cuban Missile crisis and the Chinese invasion of India crisis very smartly -- in the process assuming global leadership. But as Mr. Bruce Riedel writes about Mr. Kennedy, many references also emerge from the pages about how Pandit Nehru failed to handle deftly the situation vis-a-vis China, whose leaders played smart games with the Indian Prime Minister. Several such truthful and research-validated references are available in public domain about the dark days of the winter of 1962 when the Chinese forces pushed deep into the Indian territory.

 

All these references will lead us to raise some FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions), some of which may be as follows: Did China send the forces on its own, or was it provoked by India -- and/or also by the United State’s covert operations in Tibet first launched during Eisenhower presidency and later approved by President Mr. J.F. Kennedy? Was Pandit Nehru’s haphazardly implemented Forward Policy provoke China? Did China feel emboldened by Pandit Nehru’s half-baked and impractical romanticism about India-China friendship? There are several such questions that the common people must ask and seek their answers -- only because the Opposition often tries to mislead the public on facts of history by distorting what actually happened and who did all that.