Deal between Beijing-Moscow on the eve of China's 1962 invasion of India

A new book has just revealed details of a Beijing-Moscow dea on the eve of China's 1962 invasion of India.

Co-written by China-born author Jung Chang - best known for Wild Swan - and her husband, British historian Jon Halliday, Mao: The Unknown Story (Jonathan Cape) is rated the ''most authoritative'' biography of the late Communist leader. It is an indictment of his domestic and foreign policies, one of the victims of which, the book says, was India.

In the chapter ''Maoism Goes Global (1959-64)'', the authors outline Mao's war preparations in 1962. He ended up promising to back the Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles at America's doorstep - the Cuban Missile Crisis, as it came to be called - if Moscow supported his adventure in India.

The book describes the build-up to war in ''May-June 1962'': ''Chou (Chou Enlai) later told the Americans that 'Nehru was getting very cocky...and we tried to keep down his cockiness.''

Contrary to the most of the world's opinion, ever since the war, china has maintained that the India was the aggressor, even against the mounting evidence which indicated otherwise. Time of chinese aggression wasn't mere coincidence with cuban missile crisis but well thought out plan. This biography just vindicates this viewpoint specially considering that it has been rated highly by critics for its decade-long research and its meticulous footnotes. Chinese aggression has viewed by general Indians as back stabbing, specially considering popular slogan which says "hindi chini bhai bhai"(Indians and Chinese are brothers) to signify their relationship.

We should learn from our past blunders and be more cautious when dealing with issues related to national interest than being emotional. Its my view that Indian government should make Henderson Brooks Report & all other transcripts non-classified to let public know about the reasons for the failure in 1962 war rather than using rhetoric to cover up the facts, and also this would highlight our politician's foreign utopian policy and their understanding of world geopolitics. There shouldn't be any report classified for more than specific amount of time, since they won't have any relevance after that time period and citizens have right to know about what had transpired.

Note: It should also be remembered that at the time of war, Indian communist were openly in favor of the chinese position.