The Sino-India War (1962) – Report by Gerard H Corr (16.6.2019)

Chinese Language Source: 中印战争

Gerard H Corr’s book entitled ‘The Chinese Red Army’ was published by Osprey in 1974 and is an interesting read. Although Gerard Corr was a reporter for the centre-right Daily Express (which supported Hitler prior to WWII), his general view of China’s ‘People’s Liberation Army’ (PLA) is generally sympathetic, despite his political thinking being muddled at times and typical of the disinformed Cold War era. However, his chapter on the Sino-India War of 1962 is spot-on, and clearly demonstrates that India was encouraged by her Western (capitalist) allies to provoke a border war with Communist China. Unusually for the time, Gerard Corr admits that the Western media deliberately ‘lied’ about the situation and presented a false story depicting a spiritual India as being the victim of an aggressive Communist China! In reality, India’s leaders took leave of their senses and started a war they could not win (despite the utmost bravery from many units of the Indian Army). On March 22nd, 1959, Nehru had written to Zhou Enlai stating that India now claimed a large area of territory in the Southern Tibet part of China. The roots of this conflict start with the CIA Operation in Tibet during the 1950s – which included the 14th Dalai Lama authorizing an armed uprising in 1959. When the CIA and their small number of Tibetan collaborators were defeated – India immediately gave protection and assistance to these fleeing criminals. In reality the Indians had been militarily building their forces for offensive action since June, with the violent part of the conflict lasting one month and one day – starting on October 20th with China calling a ceasefire on November 21st, 1962. The Indian Army was smashed with the PLA achieving ALL objectives and in a position to initiate a regime change in the country – but Mao Zedong called upon the PLA to retreat back to the previous borders.  Modern (Chinese language) casualty lists suggest that India lost 4,383 people killed and 1047 wounded, whilst China lost 722 killed, and 697 wounded.  Adding even more stupidity to this affair the Indian leaders gave-in to Western pressure to ‘declare victory’. When informed of this, a relaxing Mao Zedong puffed on his cigarette and smiled…