(November 8, 2015 at 11:02 pm)Minimalist Wrote: That's not what this says:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Indian_War#Ceasefire
Quote:China had reached its claim lines so the PLA did not advance farther, and on 19 November, it declared a unilateral cease-fire. Zhou Enlai declared a unilateral ceasefire to start on midnight, 21 November. Zhou's ceasefire declaration stated,
Since India had asked for - and been granted - American assurances of air support it seems likely that the Chinese were simply not willing to risk a confrontation with the US. Maxwell Taylor and Robert MacNamara recommended the use of nuclear weapons if the US had to intervene later on in support of India. So what is a footnote to history might well have become something far more significant.
And the British were always drawing lines on maps. That's a major reason we are up to our assholes in shit in the Middle East.
There is no reason to believe the Chinese intended to go beyond the region of dispute. China had been diplomatically isolated in the world after the split with USSR. China at the time had no allies amongst any significant powers in the world. China had assiduously courted India, which had been the titular head of the nonaligned nations during the Cold War, as an natural 3rd world ally since both countries sought to establish a separate 3rd world pole to balance the two superpowers as well as remaining European colonial influence in Asia. India under Nehru had reacted favorably to Chinese entreaties. The United States and Britain had thought India had a natural pro-communist sympathy and had feared a sino-Indian alliance. To a significant degree the United States had encouraged and manipulated Indian into adapting a number of policies antagonistic to China, including support for the Dali lama in Tibet, and taking a hard line on territorial disputes with Tibet and China. So the sino-Indian war, whatever its outcome, favored the west by driving wedged between a communist China and a socialist India with communist sympathies. It was in the interest of the United States to prolong this war as much as possible, whether India is winning or losing, because it would make solution and reproachment between China and India more difficult.
