Maxwell’s ‘62 India-China War Theory Is Nonsense: Bertil Lintner

Swedish Journalist Bertil Lintner talks to The Quint about his latest book ‘China’s India War’.

Image used for representational purposes.

(Photo: Rhythum Seth/ The Quint)

The 1962 India-China War was the result of a premeditated move by China, and was launched due to domestic political conditions, ‘internal problems’, and Mao Zedong’s dipping popularity, necessitating a border conflict, according to a new book China’s India War: Collision Course on the Roof of the World’ by Bangkok-based Swedish journalist Bertil Lintner.

Bertil Lintner holding his book China’s India War.(Photo: Shiv Kumar Maurya/The Quint)

Speaking to The Quint after launching his book at the India International Centre, New Delhi, Lintner – who shot into prominence in India and Myanmar after his first title, The Land of Jade, became a best-seller – said “China was the aggressor in 1962” and the month-long war was planned at least “five years” before actual hostilities broke out 55 years ago in October.

Also Read: Excerpt: “It Was Unexpected That The Chinese Would Attack” in 1962

Claiming that China’s India War “puts the war in the geo-political context” of the time, Lintner debunked Neville Maxwell’s theory (in the best-selling book ‘India’s China War’) that the war was “provoked by India and (the then) Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s ‘forward policy.’”

According to Lintner, India’s ‘forward policy’ was “not much more than strengthening a couple of outposts along the Line of Actual Control.”

Also Read: 1962 India-China War: Seven Things You Might Not Know

Making it clear that neither China nor India “would like to see another war in the Himalayas” as “trade between the two countries is too important,” Lintner, however, said Beijing “isn’t interested in a solution to the border dispute” because it “gives China some kind of leverage in the negotiations on a number of other issues.”

While saying that “it is possible” that even India was not interested in settling the border dispute with China, Lintner questioned Beijing’s decision to build roads in Doklam and that “it was a provocation” that was intended to “drive a wedge between Bhutan and India.”

Also Read: The 1962 War at Rezang La: A Story of Raw Courage and Spirit

Camera: Shiv Kumar Maurya
Producer: Indira Basu
Video Editor: Sandeep Suman