Mr Nixon’s visit to Peking has been described in a variety of ways – a gimmick to win the presidential elections next November, an expiation for America’s anti-China policy of the past 23 years, a tribute-bearing mission to the court of Chairman Mao Tse-tung, an attempt to cover-up the defeat … Read More
It is impossible to agree with Mr. Kissinger that India should ignore President Nixon’s explanation of his stand in the crisis in the sub-continent last year and concentrate on future relations with the United States. It cannot do so even if it is so inclined. The relevant section in the … Read More
It is banal to say that the rise of an independent Bangladesh marks the end of the two-nation theory which led to partition in 1947. Since in place of two there are now three fully sovereign countries in the subcontinent, the disposal of the doctrine of a nationalism based on … Read More
No one knows for sure why the Nixon Administration chose to adopt a hostile stance towards India at the time of the war in the subcontinent last month. In the absence of hard evidence – the Anderson papers, too, do not throw any light on President Nixon’s reasons for pursuing … Read More
Because of its failure to win the war in Indochina, stabilise its military presence on the mainland of South-East Asia and establish a cordon sanitaire around China, the United States has been trying for some time to reshape its Asia policy. But it has set about the job in a … Read More
It is obvious in retrospect that India could not have liberated Bangla Desh in April-May, as many leaders of public opinion had advocated at the time, and it could not have done so even in November-December in the absence of the treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union. After the … Read More
The Chinese Government cannot be so naive as to believe that it can either browbeat New Delhi and Moscow by its propaganda offensive in the United Nations and outside or win the permanent gratitude of the intelligentsia in West Pakistan by supporting the military junta’s reign of terror in East … Read More
It is rather surprising that Belgium which has no major interest in either India or Pakistan should have taken the lead in circulating a resolution among members of the Security Council on the current situation in the subcontinent. In spite of its membership of NATO, it should have thought twice … Read More
The Soviet government is displaying an unusual sense of urgency in pushing its proposal for a European security conference. It has made concessions on Berlin which no one in the West expected even six months ago. It has ignored the requirements of protocol to invite Herr Brandt to Moscow, and … Read More
While one can only hazard a guess whether the shift in China’s policy towards the United States is the result largely of more pragmatic men coming on top in Peking or of a new flexibility on the part of Chairman Mao Tse-tung, it is clear that the Chinese want something … Read More
