Tuesday, November 18, 2014

India - China War - 1962


The attack by Chinese began on 19 October 1962
By 23 October they occupied a large territory and on 24 made some proposals to Indian Government regarding cessation of hostilities.

On 20th November Bomdila fell.

Unsung Battles of 1962 

Gurdip Singh Kler
Lancer Publishers, 1995 - 525 pages

http://books.google.co.in/books?id=hciHTVUILb4C  (Preview facility)


War in High Himalaya: The Indian Army in Crisis, 1962



D. K. Palit
C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 01-Jan-1991 -  450 pages


The circumstances attending the disastrous campaign that followed the Chinese invasion of India's Himalayan borders have never been clearly understood. Even today, some three decades after the ceasefire of November 1962, very little official information has been made available to the public or the press about that brief but traumatic episode.

The author is Director of Military Operations at Army Headquarters during that fateful period and he both witnessed and took part in the processes through which government policies were formulated and the decision taken to go to war against the Chinese, in circumstances that must have indicated inevitable catastrophe.

General Palit describes with refreshing candour the ad hoc nature of the decision-making apparatus at prime ministerial and cabinet levels, the lack of any semblance of coordinated staff analyses, the over-reach of government into the responsibilities of the military, and the quiescence of the latter in permitting it. He is uninhibited in recording facts as he saw them and the opinions he held at the time, though always careful to distinguish between that and hind-sight rationalization. While commenting on the actions of others the author is also frankly and disarmingly self-critical. In an attempt to explain the historical causes for the almost total lack of inter-face between the government and the military, a leitmotiv that runs through the narrative, the author has made an interesting analysis of the ethos of the Indian Army as it has developed during the British-Indian period, an inheritance from the colonial past that remained unchanged despite forty-five years of independence. In a fascinating postscript the author demonstrates that this malfunctioning of the government's national security system continues to the present day.
http://books.google.co.in/books?id=ukw1PuEt8IcC (Preview the book)


India and the China Crisis
Steven A. Hoffmann
University of California Press, 1990 - Political Science - 324 pages
http://books.google.co.in/books?id=BpSRwC5_EPUC


Ten Truths about the 1962 War
http://www.indiandefencereview.com/spotlights/ten-truths-about-the-1962-war/

Reasons for the Bomdila debacle
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Reasons-for-the-Bomdila-debacle/articleshow/29487817.cms


Memories of 1962 War - Times of India

The Se La Debacle of 1962  (To be read again)
http://www.indiadefence.com/Sela.htm

Unforgettable Battle of 1962 : 13 Kumaon at Rezang La
http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/LAND-FORCES/History/1962War/414-Rezang-La.html

Battle of Rezang La - Article by me under preparation

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