Fading Illusions

The war in the high Himalayas dwindled for the moment to patrol actions and exchanges of mortar fire. But the sudden invasion by the Red Chinese, which penetrated nearly 40 miles into Indian territory, has profoundly shaken the government of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and forced a drastic change in India's role in Asia and the world. India is still a long way from giving up its passion for neutrality. But the country is now angrily fighting off the kind of attack that, when suffered by others in the past, Indians always tried to talk away with smug moral platitudes. At least some of the country's illusions about peace, war and Communism are beginning to fade.

Also fading are the influence and career of Krishna Menon, whose arrogant, pro-Communist politics are heavily responsible for India's predicament.

Gold Hoard. Across India, recruiting centers were jammed with volunteers, ranging from 14-year-old schoolboys to such grizzled veterans as retired General K. M. ("Kipper") Cariappa, 62, who dramatized his impatience at not being called to duty by queuing up alongside other volunteers. Led by Nehru's daughter, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, citizens dug into their hoard of gold ornaments, estimated at a total value of $6 billion, to make donations for the national defense. Maharajahs handed over part of their tax-free state stipends, and workers throughout the subcontinent contributed the equivalent of a day's wages.

Ten thousand students in Delhi marched from the Red Fort in the old city to Connaught Place, shouting anti-Chinese slogans and waving banners reading "Choke the yellow opium eaters!" and "Wipe Out Chink Stink!" That evening, brandishing torches, the students charged police lines before the office of the Communist Party while a handful of Red underlings cowered in the darkness behind a hedge on the office lawn. The desperate Indian Communists finally issued a party statement denouncing both Moscow and Peking, and appealing to "all sections of the people to unite in defense of the motherland."

Defense Minister Menon came in for almost as much abuse as the Red Chinese. For four years Indian staff officers have been trying to get Menon to replace the army's obsolete, single-shot Lee Enfield rifle of World War I vintage with lighter, modern automatic weapons, and to increase stocks of heavy mortars and mountain artillery. Instead, Menon blandly presided over a military organization that was starved for money; during his tenure, the Defense share of the Indian national budget dropped from 38% to 27%.

Nothing Changed. Against reason, Menon insisted that India's real enemy was Pakistan, not Red China, and crack units of the Indian army were on idle garrison duty in Kashmir when the Chinese broke through the light defenses on the Himalayan border. He kept baiting the West as enthusiastically as he praised the Soviet Union, sure, as was Nehru, that if his Red Chinese friends should ever become troublesome, Moscow would keep them in line. The utter bankruptcy of this policy was demonstrated last week when ten Indian Air Force pilots returned emptyhanded from Russia, where they had been sent to take delivery on long-promised MIG-21 jet fighters. In the showdown, Russia stayed loyal to its alliance with Red China, leaving India to shift for itself.

Though it was obvious that Menon was through, he still refused to resign. Finally, Nehru abruptly took over the Defense portfolio, which now makes him Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, Defense Minister and Chairman of Commissions for Planning, Atomic Energy and Scientific and Industrial Research. As adviser on military matters, Nehru will probably rely on former Commander in Chief, General K. S. Thimayya, 56, a bluff, hearty, polo-playing officer with unrivaled popularity among the soldiers, who resigned from the Indian army in 1959 because of clashes with Menon. The present army chief of staff, General Pran N. Thapar, 56, is another veteran soldier who served with distinction in World War II campaigns in Burma, the Middle East and Italy.

Though fired as Defense Minister, Krishna Menon was shunted to the face-saving obscurity of a newly created Ministry for Defense Production and allowed to keep his old offices. With typical glibness, Menon described the change as "merely a move to bring more strength into the administration," added complacently: "Nothing is changed. I am still a member of the Cabinet and still sitting in the Defense Ministry."

Great Task. Having no other choice, Nehru at long last appealed to the West for military help. Still trying to preserve his nonaligned stance, he insisted that he did not want to join any military alliance and that India would pay for the weapons some time in the future. Both the U.S. and Britain played along. After loading at arms depots in West Germany and Turkey, U.S. transport planes headed for India with automatic weapons, heavy mortars and mountain howitzers. British transports brought in Bren and Sten guns. France promised arms and helicopters. In New Delhi, U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Galbraith hailed the airlift of arms, but warned, "I hope no one will imagine they will work magic,'' because "the great task remains with the Indian army."

Taskmaster for the border war is Lieut. General Brij Mohan Kaul, 50, a Kashmiri Brahman distantly related to Prime Minister Nehru. When the Chinese Reds overwhelmed the Indian border posts last month, General Kaul was absent--ill with pneumonia, he had been evacuated, almost by force, to New Delhi. Now fully recovered and back at his headquarters in Tezpur, Kaul is determined to regain all the lost territory. The task is formidable. By an accident of geography, the Himalayan border is more easily reached from the Chinese-held Tibetan plateau than from the plains of India. Kaul's army must climb up rocky Jeep paths and through heavily forested hills before reaching the mountain rampart. In this region of howling blizzards, avalanches and thin air, even Jeeps have to be fitted with superchargers, and tanks and trucks are useless because of terrible roads.

Indians trust Kaul's determination. Before his illness, he was responsible for one of the few Indian victories in the border war, when his troops routed the Chinese at Ndhola on Oct. 10, killing 100 of the attackers and driving back the remainder. A veteran who saw action against the Japanese in Burma during World War II and against the Pakistanis in 1948, Kaul also served as chief of staff of the Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission at the end of the Korean war, where he was accused of favoring the Communists. When he returned to India, Nehru jokingly asked, "Have you turned Red?'' Kaul, who insists that he took a completely neutral position in Korea, answered wryly: "Sir, I am as Red as you are."

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