The Sino-Indian Border Dispute Section 2: 1959-61 - The Black Vault

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THE SINO-INDIAN BORDER DISPUTE
SECTION 11. (1959-1961)
Prelude to Negotiations: Fall 1959 - January 1960
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The Chinese leaders recognized, OP were made aware, *
shortly after the August 1959 clashes, that Nehru's advisers
might use these skirmishes to push him add the entire
government further to the **right"--i.e. towakds a militaht
anti-China policy and a willingness to accept some degree
of American support in this policy. The practical strategic
danger such a development posed was that the arc of U.S.
bases %ncIrclinglt China would be extended through India.
Both Ma0 %e-tung and Liu ShaO-chi reportedly alluded to
the danger in their talks with Indian party boss Ajoy Ghosh
in Pelping in early October 1959. At the 8 October meeting
with Ghosh, Liu reportedly stated:
We have taken very seriously the establishment
of military rule in Pakistan. There
is an entire game being planned by the U.S.
imperialists to capture major Asian nations,
especially the countries which are neighbors
of China and the Soviet Union. Burma, Japan,
, .
..
*The Indian Communist Party (CPI) Chairman, S.A. Dange,
later stated that the Indian party had warned the CCP, in
letters of 20 August and 13 Spetember 1959, that border
developments were providing the "right wing" 'with the opportunity
"to pull India towards the Anglo-American camp, If
and that the 13 September letter had urged the Chinese to
begin negotiations. (Dange: "Neither Revisionism Nor
Dogmatiam Is Our Guide, (' New Age, supplement, 21 April 1963.
For an account of Soviet mlEce on Ghosh in connection
with the content of these letters, see ESAU XVI-62: - The
Indian Communist Party and the Sino-Soviet Dispute.)
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