Book exposes China's tacit backing to Pakistan in 1965 war

New Delhi, June 10 (UNI) Former Defence Minister Y B Chavan's ''cryptic''diary entries about the 1965 Indo-Pak war have recently been 'decoded' into a book by his Private Secretary R D Pradhan (1962-65) in '1965 War: The Inside Story'.

Mr Pradhan, a retired IAS officer, highlights the 'Higher Direction of War' (the lack of which led to the 1962 war debacle as commented in the Henderson-Brook Report of inquiry), given by the Defence Minister in the cabinet of then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastrito the entire 22-day conflict in his nearly more than 40 years old 'memoir'.

Paying tributes to the Indian Air Force, which partook in a war for the first time since Independence and came out with flying colours, the book lauds its feat of defeating Pakistan's much vaunted 'F-104' Star Fighters, 'F-86' Sabre Jet Fighters and 'B-57' Bombers with its 'Mysteres', 'Vampires' and 'Hunters' ''museum pieces'' (an epithet given to the IAF by US Defence Secretary Robert McNmara), and how the war defined its new role, a la 1999 Kargil war.

While dissecting Pakistan's 'real intentions' and China's 'indirect help' to it in the first ''all-out clash'' between the two South-Asian neighbours, the 138-page book by 'Atlantic Publishers' exposes the 'Chinese angle' in the 1965 war which had issued an 'ultimatum' to India to dismantle within three days the 'construction on Chinese territory', near Sikkim border, -- a ploy to trouble India in the North-East in support of Pakistan.

''Politically, so that it does not get weak to accept ceasefire proposal under pressure from US and Russia, and militarily to ease pressure on Pakistan and give it military support on the Kashmir Line of Control,'' records the book on China's attitude.

The book details on why India did not march into Lahore, how the political and defence leadership re-established mutual confidence badly fractured in the 1962 Indo-China war and how India lost the gains of war at the Tashkent Peace Conference.

Bracketed in three sections, '1965 War: The Inside Story' specially dwells on the 'ground situation, Pakistan's intentions and India's military assessment', '22-day war diary account by Y B Chavan' and 'overall assessment of conduct of war, lessons learnt from 1962 war and Chavan's reflections on resolving the basic issue which led to the war'.

Not an account of the 1965 India-Pakistan War, but annotation of day-to-day recordings of a minister who enjoyed full support of Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, the 138-page book also describes the behaviour of key political and military figures, mental condition of those directing war operations and the diplomatic efforts behind bringing about the ceasefire.

Near its end, the book delves into 'personal beliefs' and musings of Chavan on Kashmir, which according to him was ''basically a political issue'' and not a military one, and how ''we are tragically alone'' with none of the 'five superpowers' with us on the issue, while adding that ''I hope we have the vision and courage to accept this challenge to our political leadership''.

UNI