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Kindle Notes & Highlights
“Several times Khrushchev emphasised the need for a first-class aircraft industry for a large country like India and volunteered to
send some of Soviet Union’s best experts in the field. Somehow it did not register with Nehru and no follow-up action was taken. It was only after the Chinese invasion that we woke up to the grim realities and secured Soviet collaboration in the production of modern military aircraft.”{Mac2/4541}
Intended to palliate India’s alarm at Pakistan’s entry into SEATO in 1958, General Ayub Khan proposed security alliance/pact with India to Nehru. Nehru summarily and scornfully rejected the proposal remarking security alliance “against whom?”
Oman was on good terms with India, and Sultan of Oman had offered to sell Gwadar to India for mere one million US dollars. However, India under Nehru did not take the offer, and let go of such an excellent strategic location. It was ultimately purchased by Pakistan on 8 September 1958 for three million US dollars. It had the great potential of a deep water port (which China is now exploiting), but Nehru didn't have the foresight to appreciate its critical benefit. Even if Nehru didn't see much use of the place then as a deep water port, India should have acquired it, so that it could have been
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“A talk with the Prime Minister of Thailand was very revealing. He complained that Nehru had characterised the Thai Government as corrupt [What about the financial scandals in the Nehru government?] and said the country had a ‘Coca-Cola economy’… Thailand, the Prime Minister explained to me, had a long tradition of independence, and if she had taken shelter under the U.S. umbrella it had done so to safeguard her independence. If Nehru was willing to underwrite their security [it’s another matter India could not secure itself!], the Thais would prefer to be with India since Thai culture was
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