Re-evaluating the First United States—Pakistan Alliance

Re: # 6 Stuka Sahib:

``It shows that Nehru was an idiot and though the US tried its best to have a good relationship with India, the damn socialists in power then wrecked every opportunity.``

Indeed. However, Nehru wasn`t a lone idiot. Another idiot was Grand Ayatollah M. K. Gandhi. Consider a couple of his fatwas:

1. Jews should commit suicide in order to avoid the Holocaust.
2. Britain should fight Germany with spiritual weapons, instead of tanks and planes.

Nehru advised his nation to substitute the spinning wheel for textile machinery. I wonder what his successors will suggest as an alternative to the microprocessor. The abacus?


Cordially.

a very abrupt ending, which gave the article a rambling appearence. I am correct in assuming that apart from the first few paragraphs this article (a ) was intended elsewhere (b ) has had its tail chopped.

still its a deviation from the usual fare here on chowk. And a very welcome one.

God help us indians forget the disastrous Nehru years.In the same vein, i hope paks will forget the monumental catastrophe that was Ayub.Pak is still paying for it today.

Re: # 3
Dont bee too harsh on Nehru ...the man was a visionary and like all idealists, occasionally out of step with reality.....but despite his foreign policy disaster ....he laid ground for a lot that is good in India...the tech boom that we are witnessing..powered by IIT`s, a healthy respect for democracy, the absolutely apolitical Army...a lot of this was possible bcoz of Nehru.....ofcourse the license raj stifled innovation and entrepreneurship...but is it not better to have a good polity before the economy unlike the (paper) Asian tigers of SE Asia...we have a long way to go in reforming the economy but an even longer way to go in liberalising our society .....the q`s is what comes first...the chicken or the egg???

# Yaqoob

a great read...interesting to hear a different perspective of the `62 ....the Sino-Pak alliance has been a thorn that the south block (offices of the Ministry of External Affairs) chooses to ignore like an ostrich...i find the spokesperson, the archetype of indian diplomatic personnel...arrogant idiots!

Yaqoob

If there is a great deal of pre-existing work in this vein, then I am unfamiliar with it. So I am impressed!

Authors rarely focus on the obviously decisive role played by the cultural understandings about India and Pakistan as lodged in the minds of the Western leaders (although, you have not paid attention to the minds of the Chinese - an equally important external factor in our history).

Your do a great service to Indians. All sired by Nehru, we are genetically incapable of any cultural analysis of international relations.

The article surmmerizes the political developments between the United States and Pakistan.

A little bit of editing skills might have helped the narrative, as the article was a bit difficult to read given the weighted subject, which it was attempting to analyze.

Ciao