Logo

Synopsis The Indian armed forces fought in all three wars against Pakistan and a war with the People's Republic of China. India also fought in the Kargil War with Pakistan in !999, the highest altitude mountain warfare in history. These include their views of the superpower competition during the Cold War years, their decisions to become nuclear powers, their views of the United States1 global war on terrorism, and, most important of all,-implications of the war on terror for their respective positions on the obdurate Kashmir conflict. When India signed that friendship treaty with the Soviet Union, it hoped to use it as a restraint against the United States and China, both of whom were viewed as friends of Pakistan. Indian prenuer Indira Gandhi might have been stunned at the so-called American "tilt" toward Pakistan when president Richard Nixon sent the USS Enterprise to the waters of (he Bay of Bengal as a show of support for Pakistan during die East Pakistan crisis in 1971 that led to the formation of Bangladesh. A former Indian military officer narrated to me how scared the Indian top leadership became at the sight of that show of force. Within only three years of that incident, in 1974, India conducted its so-called "peaceful" nuclear explosion.