Blue Skies in Camelot: An Alternate 60's and Beyond
- Thread starter President_Lincoln
- Start date
Merry Christmas President_Lincoln, keep up the good work!
(Also Elvis and Saint Nick wish you a merry Christmas as well.)
(Also Elvis and Saint Nick wish you a merry Christmas as well.)
@President_Lincoln how do you manage tio find so many pictures of JFK doing casual stuff like this? Merry Christmas by the way.
Merry Christmas, President Lincoln, and thanks for all the effort you're putting into this story.
Chapter 78
OOC: A small Christmas Present to make up for the lack of updates of late... 
Above: U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru tour the White House grounds in Washington, D.C. in preparation for a formal state dinner (left). Indian troops prepare to cross the border into Pakistan in the 1965 war over Bangladesh (right).
The Republic of India, the world’s second most populous nation, and the heir to a rich, fascinating history which reaches back many millenia into man’s ancient past, was beginning to reach its first “growth spurts” toward modern nationhood in the wonder years of the 1960’s. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister and “father” of the Republic was reaching the end of his time in power as the new decade dawned, but sought to do as much good for his developing country as he could before passing the reins to a successor. Pursuing a mixed economy, whose tenets mirrored his foreign policy of non-alignment in the Cold War, Nehru advocated the practical approach of progress for India’s people over strict adherence to either of the world’s predominant ideologies during his time in office. Nehru believed that the establishment of basic, heavy industries such as steel, iron, coal, and power, was fundamental to the development of India’s economy, and thus nationalized these industries, creating a robust public sector to exist side by side with the country’s rapidly growing private sector. His government under the Indian National Congress (INC) heavily subsidized India’s public industries, even as American, British, West German, and Japanese investors rushed to invest in the burgeoning businesses there, in order to prevent “essential services” from ever being controlled by foreign entities again. Nehru’s relatively popular policies led to 4% annual GDP growth for India between 1951 and 1964, the Prime Minister’s last year in power, a vast improvement over what had been achieved during the British colonial period. The people of India praised Nehru for his honest, forthright leadership, and for steering a middle course in the turbulent Cold War world around them. He was not without his critics, however.
Compared to other industrial powers in Europe and East Asia at the same time, the 4% growth rate Nehru boasted of could be seen as anemic. Nehru may have tripled Indian industrial output from the time he first took office, turning India into the world’s seventh largest industrial economy in the process, but his policies of import substitution industrialization were said to make the country’s manufacturers less competitive on the global market over time. What was more, “economic miracles” in Japan, West Germany, France, Italy, and increasingly, Mexico, seemed to undercut the Prime Minister’s message that he was doing everything he could to bring India into the modern age. State planning, price and wage controls, and strict regulations were argued by some, including American conservative William F. Buckley, Jr., to be severely hampering India’s potential for economic growth, and while India’s GDP would grow faster than the United States’ and United Kingdom’s during the Romney Administration Churchill Government of the early 1970’s, low initial income and rapid population expansion meant that any sort of “catch up” with the west was not possible under Nehru-era growth rates.
What Nehru had undeniably achieved however, was the lasting legacy of a strong, unified India, brought about by political realignment and reorganization of the country’s many states, agricultural reform via the “Green Revolution”, education investment that would serve to give the country a literate, productive population, and cordial, if not always close relations with the United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union. The 1962 Sino-Indian War had shown the Prime Minister that his country was not invulnerable to foreign threats, as China quickly defeated India and claimed Aksai Chin, which had been part of British India, but was considered disputed territory after independence. Thus began a long and expensive build-up of India’s military, aided in part by $5,000,000 worth of jet fighters from the United States, modern radar equipment from the UK, six transport planes from Canada, and another $1.8 million munitions’ credits from Australia. Despite Nehru’s commitment to non-alignment in the Cold War, as he did not want India to be subject to the whims of any of the world’s superpowers, he developed a close personal friendship with President John F. Kennedy near the end of his time in office, and began to drift closer toward American influence as Kennedy managed to keep Pakistan neutral during the ‘62 war and secure arms deals to the Indians for the foreseeable future, despite skepticism from conservatives in Congress who were suspicious of Nehru’s socialist policies and worldview. Despite his old age and failing health, Nehru turned his sights toward the future and began to groom the only person he thought could ever be worthy of succeeding him: his only daughter, Indira Gandhi, with whom he had not been close for much of her life. On May 27th, 1964, Prime Minister Nehru passed away of a heart attack, causing the world, and especially the Republic of India, to mourn. Several days later, a funeral was held in New Delhi, the nation’s capital. Draped in the Indian national Tri-color flag, the body of Jawaharlal Nehru was placed for public viewing. "Raghupati Raghava Rajaram" (a Hindu devotional song popularized by Mahatma Gandhi) was chanted as the body was placed on the platform. On May 28th, Nehru was cremated in accordance with Hindu rites at the Shantivan on the banks of the Yamuna, witnessed by 1.5 million mourners who had flocked into the streets of Delhi and the cremation grounds to see their beloved leader one last time. The announcement of his passing in Parliament echoed Nehru’s own words at the death of Gandhi 16 years earlier: “the light is out.” Leaders around the world from President Kennedy and First Secretary Khrushchev to President Nasser of Egypt eulogized the man, and Prime Minister Harold Wilson declared: “the world has lost one of its foremost visionaries.”
Nehru was succeeded as Prime Minister by Lal Bahadur Shastri, a Nehru loyalist and pupil who mostly continued his mentor’s policies, including the rapid build-up of the country’s defence budget and armed forces. Much of the second Indian Prime Minister’s early leadership was concerned with foreign affairs. In October of ‘64, Shastri signed an accord with Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, regarding the status of the Indian Tamils. Under the terms of this agreement, 600,000 Indian Tamils would be repatriated, with 375,000 granted Sri Lankan citizenship. The settlement was to be completed by October of 1981, and was seen as a major foreign policy success for the new leader. He followed this up by re-establishing cordial relations with the soviet style military government of Burma, which he visited with his family in December, 1965. Though this decision was controversial, Shastri claimed he did so primarily to aid in the repatriation of millions of Indian refugees fleeing Burma in the wake of the 1962 coup there. Undoubtedly Shastri’s crowning achievement however, was leading India through the 1965 Indo-Pakistani War. Throughout 1964 and 1965, relations between India and Pakistan became more strained and tense than they already were. The simmering conflicts over the disputed territories of Kashmir, Rann of Kutch, and other border areas were exacerbated by newfound aggressiveness on Pakistan’s part in the wake of an Indian defeat in the Sino-Indian War. Intermittent skirmishes between both countries’ border police led to larger scale attacks on each others’ bases in the Rann of Kutch in April of 1965, and prompted international intervention to try and prevent a full-scale war. UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson managed to negotiate an end to the initial bloodshed by granting Pakistan 350 square miles of the 3500 square miles of the Rann of Kutch they initially claimed. Feigning acceptance, Pakistan backed off on the attacks and it looked like peace might prevail on the subcontinent after all. Unbeknownst to the world however, Pakistan dealt in bad faith. Believing that the Indian Army would be unable to defend itself against a quick, decisive military campaign in Kashmir, Pakistani President Ayub Khan also believed that the population of Kashmir was generally discontented with Indian rule, and that a resistance movement could be ignited by sending in a few infiltrating saboteurs to get things going. Codenamed “Operation Gibraltar”, Pakistan’s attempt at covert infiltration in Kashmir was only the first step in a larger plan for war with India which President Khan ordered his cabinet to draw up in the spring and early summer of ‘65.
Early evidence of these plans quickly reached President Kennedy in Washington via the CIA. They made him furious. Personally calling the Pakistani President to dissuade him from carrying through with the plans, Kennedy demanded that Khan uphold the peace he and Shastri had signed with Prime Minister Wilson. JFK was ultimately rebuffed however, with Khan explaining that the opportunity for his country was simply too great to be ignored. Khan had been betting that Kennedy, who was developing a reputation abroad as a “dove” for his peaceful withdrawal from Vietnam, would take the invasion in stride and continue to support Pakistan against the “socialist” India. He could not have been more wrong. President Kennedy’s greatest causes were for peace and justice in the world, not political opportunism. When it became clear that Pakistan was going to carry out its invasion of Kashmir against U.S. demands, President Kennedy alerted Prime Minister Shastri of their intentions, and ordered the CIA to feed intel to the Indian army to help them beat back the invasion when it ultimately came on August 1st. 33,000 Pakistani soldiers crossed the ceasefire line and were met with initially sporadic Indian resistance. Attacking with an overwhelming ratio of troops and technologically superior tanks, Pakistan nearly captured all of Kashmir before being stalled at last by the Indian air force, comprising mostly of U.S. made F-4 Phantoms on the 18th. Pakistan retaliated for the air attacks by bombing Indian air bases in both Kashmir and nearby Punjab, only adding fuel to the fire, and drawing international condemnation onto Pakistan for their war of “aggressive expansion”. Indian forces under World War II veteran Major General Prasad led a massive counterattack which saw India reclaim much of the contested territory, and battle the Pakistanis back to their own international border by September 13th. By this point however, Pakistan was able to mobilize reinforcements and heavy artillery bombardment of Kashmir and surrounding Indian hamlets commenced. Aerial and tank battles, larger than any seen since World War II startled the international community into swift action to prevent the further escalation of the conflict between the South Asian nations. On September 23rd, 1965, President Kennedy and First Secretary Khrushchev made an unprecedented joint announcement in which they demanded peace between the two countries, and wielded significant diplomatic tools to bring both parties to the negotiating table. Geneva, Switzerland played host to the negotiations, which were attended by both Khan and Shastri, Khrushchev’s foreign minister, Andrei Gromyko, Secretary of State Robert McNamara, and UK Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Michael Stewart. The Pakistani President and Indian Prime Minister agreed to sign the ceasefire agreement, which demanded that both sides withdraw to pre-invasion lines no later than February, 1966. With declining supplies of ammunition, and only tepid support from supposed allies Iran and Turkey, Pakistan feared that the war may be going in India’s favor and reluctantly signed the agreement. Despite massive domestic fervor to continue the war and “repay” the Pakistanis with an invasion of their homeland, the Indian government bent to overwhelming international pressure and signed the agreement as well, with the United Nations Security Council unanimously passing a resolution supporting the ceasefire the very next day. The war ended, at least in terms of territory, with status quo antebellum. The same could not be said however, for the serious shifts in geopolitics which followed.
For years, the United States and United Kingdom had been dubious at Pakistan’s intentions as a member of CENTO and SEATO, a nominal ally of the west in its fight against the expansion of communism. Well before President Kennedy’s learning of Khan’s invasion plans, the U.S. and U.K. suspected that Pakistan had joined the alliances out of opportunism, and to obtain advanced weapons for a future war against India and worried that its alliance was essentially meaningless. The events of 1965 seemed to be a direct playing out of this narrative and resulting in harsh diplomatic retaliation from the west. Cutting off all military arms sales and financial support to Pakistan, the United States and United Kingdom shifted their collective friendship and support to India, whom the international community largely agreed was the wronged party in the war. President Kennedy and Prime Minister Wilson joined together in celebrating India’s “successful defense of her borders” and both cabled New Delhi to wish Prime Minister Shastri their congratulations. Meanwhile, India had received little to no support during the war from her fellow members of the Non-Aligned Movement, an organization which Nehru had helped to found decades earlier. Indonesia, a fellow founder of the NAM had even crossed over to quietly supporting Pakistan during the war, shattering the trust between the two nations and damaging relations between them severely. Disillusioned that their supposed friends were not there for them in their time of need, Indians began to reevaluate their standing in the Cold War world. Many wished to position themselves as allies to the west, particularly Britain and the United States, and politicians across the political spectrum in India took note as new elections were scheduled shortly after the parades died down. Pakistan, having severed ties with many of its closest friends on account of its ambitions, would ultimately find new allies in the People’s Republic of China, who also had reason to want to contain Indian power, and later, with Andropov’s USSR, who sought to pick up a new ally to counter the new Anglo-American friendship with India.
The war was ultimately therefore a boon for Prime Minister Shastri. Hailed as a national hero across his country for his strong leadership and the new ties he was forging with the west, Shastri seemed a shoo-in for reelection and a long, successful career in government. It was however, not to be. While negotiating the ceasefire with Pakistan in Geneva, Shastri passed away of a heart attack on January 11th. 1966. He was only 61 years old. His death, wildly unexepected in his home country immediately led to rumors of foul play on the part of the Pakistani delegation. Shastri’s wife, Lalita, insisted that he must have been poisoned before going to bed the night before. This comment fanned the flames of suspicion and nearly led to another outbreak of war before Indian and UN authorities were able to conclusively put the rumors to bed with an official autopsy. With a new, bright future ahead of it, the Republic of India was once again left without a leader. Parliament quickly convened to elect Shastri’s successor, and though Home Minister Mojari Desai at first seemed the frontrunner, he was ultimately defeated in the leadership election by Indira Gandhi, daughter of Nehru. Widely popular among the country’s population but seen as a “puppet” of the party leaders who elected her by the media and political opposition, Gandhi’s status as a woman also left her exposed to accusations of weakness and a hard line to walk in leadership of her country. A shy, lonely child who grew into a suspicious, but driven woman with an affinity toward legendary female leader Joan of Arc, Gandhi would grow to become something of an icon for women’s liberation the world over, and developed a friendship with First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy which would last for both of their lives. Kennedy, who visited Gandhi shortly after she took office, advised her thus: “Be proud. I yearn for the day when my country follows your example and elects its first female leader.” The Indian Prime Minister would later credit that kind statement with guiding her as an example for women everywhere. Gandhi’s first decision as Prime Minister was to appoint Mojari Desai, her primary rival, as Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, in order to “keep her enemies closer” and try to consolidate power within the Congress. She then faced her first major test as a leader following the 1967 elections, which saw the Congress receive a decreased majority in the wake of widespread disenchantment over rising prices of commodities, unemployment, economic stagnation, and the lingering food crisis which Gandhi hoped friendship with the bountiful United States would help solve. She faced a rocky start to her second year in office with the devaluation of the rupee, which created much hardship for Indian businesses and consumers, but managed to hold on to cheap American imports of wheat, thanks to warm relations with the U.S.
The 1971 elections found Gandhi trumpeting two themes to her country’s voters: her nationalization of India’s fourteen largest banks in 1969 had been a success, and her slogan: “Garibi Hatao” (Eradicate Poverty). Modeled after the success of President Kennedy’s second term in the United States, Gandhi won a new mandate for continued leadership with independent popularity among the rural and urban poor. This electoral strategy enabled Gandhi to bypass the dominant rural castes both in and of state and local governments; likewise the urban commercial class. And, for their part, the previously voiceless poor would at last gain both political worth and political weight as Gandhi strove to create a “New India” in which “No citizen would be left behind”. Gandhi’s populist message and increasingly strong image played well in election season and 1971 saw two triumphs for her: a massive victory at the polls for her faction of the Indian National Congress, and martial triumph over Pakistan once again in the Bangladesh Liberation War. Though she still had a long way to go toward fulfilling India’s potential promise to Robert McNamara as “the superpower on the rise in Asia”, Prime Minister Gandhi was going a long way toward proving that women could lead major nations, and that the Cold War in South Asia was far more complex than observers twenty years earlier would have dared think. Her eyes turned northward, toward shoring up defenses against Pakistan and China while strengthening ties with Churchill’s Britain and President Romney in Washington. If India were to reclaim her position as one of the world’s leading powers, its journey would begin with her.
Chapter 78: Kabhi Tanhaiyon Mein - South Asia, 1962 - 1972
The Republic of India, the world’s second most populous nation, and the heir to a rich, fascinating history which reaches back many millenia into man’s ancient past, was beginning to reach its first “growth spurts” toward modern nationhood in the wonder years of the 1960’s. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister and “father” of the Republic was reaching the end of his time in power as the new decade dawned, but sought to do as much good for his developing country as he could before passing the reins to a successor. Pursuing a mixed economy, whose tenets mirrored his foreign policy of non-alignment in the Cold War, Nehru advocated the practical approach of progress for India’s people over strict adherence to either of the world’s predominant ideologies during his time in office. Nehru believed that the establishment of basic, heavy industries such as steel, iron, coal, and power, was fundamental to the development of India’s economy, and thus nationalized these industries, creating a robust public sector to exist side by side with the country’s rapidly growing private sector. His government under the Indian National Congress (INC) heavily subsidized India’s public industries, even as American, British, West German, and Japanese investors rushed to invest in the burgeoning businesses there, in order to prevent “essential services” from ever being controlled by foreign entities again. Nehru’s relatively popular policies led to 4% annual GDP growth for India between 1951 and 1964, the Prime Minister’s last year in power, a vast improvement over what had been achieved during the British colonial period. The people of India praised Nehru for his honest, forthright leadership, and for steering a middle course in the turbulent Cold War world around them. He was not without his critics, however.
Compared to other industrial powers in Europe and East Asia at the same time, the 4% growth rate Nehru boasted of could be seen as anemic. Nehru may have tripled Indian industrial output from the time he first took office, turning India into the world’s seventh largest industrial economy in the process, but his policies of import substitution industrialization were said to make the country’s manufacturers less competitive on the global market over time. What was more, “economic miracles” in Japan, West Germany, France, Italy, and increasingly, Mexico, seemed to undercut the Prime Minister’s message that he was doing everything he could to bring India into the modern age. State planning, price and wage controls, and strict regulations were argued by some, including American conservative William F. Buckley, Jr., to be severely hampering India’s potential for economic growth, and while India’s GDP would grow faster than the United States’ and United Kingdom’s during the Romney Administration Churchill Government of the early 1970’s, low initial income and rapid population expansion meant that any sort of “catch up” with the west was not possible under Nehru-era growth rates.
What Nehru had undeniably achieved however, was the lasting legacy of a strong, unified India, brought about by political realignment and reorganization of the country’s many states, agricultural reform via the “Green Revolution”, education investment that would serve to give the country a literate, productive population, and cordial, if not always close relations with the United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union. The 1962 Sino-Indian War had shown the Prime Minister that his country was not invulnerable to foreign threats, as China quickly defeated India and claimed Aksai Chin, which had been part of British India, but was considered disputed territory after independence. Thus began a long and expensive build-up of India’s military, aided in part by $5,000,000 worth of jet fighters from the United States, modern radar equipment from the UK, six transport planes from Canada, and another $1.8 million munitions’ credits from Australia. Despite Nehru’s commitment to non-alignment in the Cold War, as he did not want India to be subject to the whims of any of the world’s superpowers, he developed a close personal friendship with President John F. Kennedy near the end of his time in office, and began to drift closer toward American influence as Kennedy managed to keep Pakistan neutral during the ‘62 war and secure arms deals to the Indians for the foreseeable future, despite skepticism from conservatives in Congress who were suspicious of Nehru’s socialist policies and worldview. Despite his old age and failing health, Nehru turned his sights toward the future and began to groom the only person he thought could ever be worthy of succeeding him: his only daughter, Indira Gandhi, with whom he had not been close for much of her life. On May 27th, 1964, Prime Minister Nehru passed away of a heart attack, causing the world, and especially the Republic of India, to mourn. Several days later, a funeral was held in New Delhi, the nation’s capital. Draped in the Indian national Tri-color flag, the body of Jawaharlal Nehru was placed for public viewing. "Raghupati Raghava Rajaram" (a Hindu devotional song popularized by Mahatma Gandhi) was chanted as the body was placed on the platform. On May 28th, Nehru was cremated in accordance with Hindu rites at the Shantivan on the banks of the Yamuna, witnessed by 1.5 million mourners who had flocked into the streets of Delhi and the cremation grounds to see their beloved leader one last time. The announcement of his passing in Parliament echoed Nehru’s own words at the death of Gandhi 16 years earlier: “the light is out.” Leaders around the world from President Kennedy and First Secretary Khrushchev to President Nasser of Egypt eulogized the man, and Prime Minister Harold Wilson declared: “the world has lost one of its foremost visionaries.”
Nehru was succeeded as Prime Minister by Lal Bahadur Shastri, a Nehru loyalist and pupil who mostly continued his mentor’s policies, including the rapid build-up of the country’s defence budget and armed forces. Much of the second Indian Prime Minister’s early leadership was concerned with foreign affairs. In October of ‘64, Shastri signed an accord with Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, regarding the status of the Indian Tamils. Under the terms of this agreement, 600,000 Indian Tamils would be repatriated, with 375,000 granted Sri Lankan citizenship. The settlement was to be completed by October of 1981, and was seen as a major foreign policy success for the new leader. He followed this up by re-establishing cordial relations with the soviet style military government of Burma, which he visited with his family in December, 1965. Though this decision was controversial, Shastri claimed he did so primarily to aid in the repatriation of millions of Indian refugees fleeing Burma in the wake of the 1962 coup there. Undoubtedly Shastri’s crowning achievement however, was leading India through the 1965 Indo-Pakistani War. Throughout 1964 and 1965, relations between India and Pakistan became more strained and tense than they already were. The simmering conflicts over the disputed territories of Kashmir, Rann of Kutch, and other border areas were exacerbated by newfound aggressiveness on Pakistan’s part in the wake of an Indian defeat in the Sino-Indian War. Intermittent skirmishes between both countries’ border police led to larger scale attacks on each others’ bases in the Rann of Kutch in April of 1965, and prompted international intervention to try and prevent a full-scale war. UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson managed to negotiate an end to the initial bloodshed by granting Pakistan 350 square miles of the 3500 square miles of the Rann of Kutch they initially claimed. Feigning acceptance, Pakistan backed off on the attacks and it looked like peace might prevail on the subcontinent after all. Unbeknownst to the world however, Pakistan dealt in bad faith. Believing that the Indian Army would be unable to defend itself against a quick, decisive military campaign in Kashmir, Pakistani President Ayub Khan also believed that the population of Kashmir was generally discontented with Indian rule, and that a resistance movement could be ignited by sending in a few infiltrating saboteurs to get things going. Codenamed “Operation Gibraltar”, Pakistan’s attempt at covert infiltration in Kashmir was only the first step in a larger plan for war with India which President Khan ordered his cabinet to draw up in the spring and early summer of ‘65.
Early evidence of these plans quickly reached President Kennedy in Washington via the CIA. They made him furious. Personally calling the Pakistani President to dissuade him from carrying through with the plans, Kennedy demanded that Khan uphold the peace he and Shastri had signed with Prime Minister Wilson. JFK was ultimately rebuffed however, with Khan explaining that the opportunity for his country was simply too great to be ignored. Khan had been betting that Kennedy, who was developing a reputation abroad as a “dove” for his peaceful withdrawal from Vietnam, would take the invasion in stride and continue to support Pakistan against the “socialist” India. He could not have been more wrong. President Kennedy’s greatest causes were for peace and justice in the world, not political opportunism. When it became clear that Pakistan was going to carry out its invasion of Kashmir against U.S. demands, President Kennedy alerted Prime Minister Shastri of their intentions, and ordered the CIA to feed intel to the Indian army to help them beat back the invasion when it ultimately came on August 1st. 33,000 Pakistani soldiers crossed the ceasefire line and were met with initially sporadic Indian resistance. Attacking with an overwhelming ratio of troops and technologically superior tanks, Pakistan nearly captured all of Kashmir before being stalled at last by the Indian air force, comprising mostly of U.S. made F-4 Phantoms on the 18th. Pakistan retaliated for the air attacks by bombing Indian air bases in both Kashmir and nearby Punjab, only adding fuel to the fire, and drawing international condemnation onto Pakistan for their war of “aggressive expansion”. Indian forces under World War II veteran Major General Prasad led a massive counterattack which saw India reclaim much of the contested territory, and battle the Pakistanis back to their own international border by September 13th. By this point however, Pakistan was able to mobilize reinforcements and heavy artillery bombardment of Kashmir and surrounding Indian hamlets commenced. Aerial and tank battles, larger than any seen since World War II startled the international community into swift action to prevent the further escalation of the conflict between the South Asian nations. On September 23rd, 1965, President Kennedy and First Secretary Khrushchev made an unprecedented joint announcement in which they demanded peace between the two countries, and wielded significant diplomatic tools to bring both parties to the negotiating table. Geneva, Switzerland played host to the negotiations, which were attended by both Khan and Shastri, Khrushchev’s foreign minister, Andrei Gromyko, Secretary of State Robert McNamara, and UK Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Michael Stewart. The Pakistani President and Indian Prime Minister agreed to sign the ceasefire agreement, which demanded that both sides withdraw to pre-invasion lines no later than February, 1966. With declining supplies of ammunition, and only tepid support from supposed allies Iran and Turkey, Pakistan feared that the war may be going in India’s favor and reluctantly signed the agreement. Despite massive domestic fervor to continue the war and “repay” the Pakistanis with an invasion of their homeland, the Indian government bent to overwhelming international pressure and signed the agreement as well, with the United Nations Security Council unanimously passing a resolution supporting the ceasefire the very next day. The war ended, at least in terms of territory, with status quo antebellum. The same could not be said however, for the serious shifts in geopolitics which followed.
For years, the United States and United Kingdom had been dubious at Pakistan’s intentions as a member of CENTO and SEATO, a nominal ally of the west in its fight against the expansion of communism. Well before President Kennedy’s learning of Khan’s invasion plans, the U.S. and U.K. suspected that Pakistan had joined the alliances out of opportunism, and to obtain advanced weapons for a future war against India and worried that its alliance was essentially meaningless. The events of 1965 seemed to be a direct playing out of this narrative and resulting in harsh diplomatic retaliation from the west. Cutting off all military arms sales and financial support to Pakistan, the United States and United Kingdom shifted their collective friendship and support to India, whom the international community largely agreed was the wronged party in the war. President Kennedy and Prime Minister Wilson joined together in celebrating India’s “successful defense of her borders” and both cabled New Delhi to wish Prime Minister Shastri their congratulations. Meanwhile, India had received little to no support during the war from her fellow members of the Non-Aligned Movement, an organization which Nehru had helped to found decades earlier. Indonesia, a fellow founder of the NAM had even crossed over to quietly supporting Pakistan during the war, shattering the trust between the two nations and damaging relations between them severely. Disillusioned that their supposed friends were not there for them in their time of need, Indians began to reevaluate their standing in the Cold War world. Many wished to position themselves as allies to the west, particularly Britain and the United States, and politicians across the political spectrum in India took note as new elections were scheduled shortly after the parades died down. Pakistan, having severed ties with many of its closest friends on account of its ambitions, would ultimately find new allies in the People’s Republic of China, who also had reason to want to contain Indian power, and later, with Andropov’s USSR, who sought to pick up a new ally to counter the new Anglo-American friendship with India.
The war was ultimately therefore a boon for Prime Minister Shastri. Hailed as a national hero across his country for his strong leadership and the new ties he was forging with the west, Shastri seemed a shoo-in for reelection and a long, successful career in government. It was however, not to be. While negotiating the ceasefire with Pakistan in Geneva, Shastri passed away of a heart attack on January 11th. 1966. He was only 61 years old. His death, wildly unexepected in his home country immediately led to rumors of foul play on the part of the Pakistani delegation. Shastri’s wife, Lalita, insisted that he must have been poisoned before going to bed the night before. This comment fanned the flames of suspicion and nearly led to another outbreak of war before Indian and UN authorities were able to conclusively put the rumors to bed with an official autopsy. With a new, bright future ahead of it, the Republic of India was once again left without a leader. Parliament quickly convened to elect Shastri’s successor, and though Home Minister Mojari Desai at first seemed the frontrunner, he was ultimately defeated in the leadership election by Indira Gandhi, daughter of Nehru. Widely popular among the country’s population but seen as a “puppet” of the party leaders who elected her by the media and political opposition, Gandhi’s status as a woman also left her exposed to accusations of weakness and a hard line to walk in leadership of her country. A shy, lonely child who grew into a suspicious, but driven woman with an affinity toward legendary female leader Joan of Arc, Gandhi would grow to become something of an icon for women’s liberation the world over, and developed a friendship with First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy which would last for both of their lives. Kennedy, who visited Gandhi shortly after she took office, advised her thus: “Be proud. I yearn for the day when my country follows your example and elects its first female leader.” The Indian Prime Minister would later credit that kind statement with guiding her as an example for women everywhere. Gandhi’s first decision as Prime Minister was to appoint Mojari Desai, her primary rival, as Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, in order to “keep her enemies closer” and try to consolidate power within the Congress. She then faced her first major test as a leader following the 1967 elections, which saw the Congress receive a decreased majority in the wake of widespread disenchantment over rising prices of commodities, unemployment, economic stagnation, and the lingering food crisis which Gandhi hoped friendship with the bountiful United States would help solve. She faced a rocky start to her second year in office with the devaluation of the rupee, which created much hardship for Indian businesses and consumers, but managed to hold on to cheap American imports of wheat, thanks to warm relations with the U.S.
The 1971 elections found Gandhi trumpeting two themes to her country’s voters: her nationalization of India’s fourteen largest banks in 1969 had been a success, and her slogan: “Garibi Hatao” (Eradicate Poverty). Modeled after the success of President Kennedy’s second term in the United States, Gandhi won a new mandate for continued leadership with independent popularity among the rural and urban poor. This electoral strategy enabled Gandhi to bypass the dominant rural castes both in and of state and local governments; likewise the urban commercial class. And, for their part, the previously voiceless poor would at last gain both political worth and political weight as Gandhi strove to create a “New India” in which “No citizen would be left behind”. Gandhi’s populist message and increasingly strong image played well in election season and 1971 saw two triumphs for her: a massive victory at the polls for her faction of the Indian National Congress, and martial triumph over Pakistan once again in the Bangladesh Liberation War. Though she still had a long way to go toward fulfilling India’s potential promise to Robert McNamara as “the superpower on the rise in Asia”, Prime Minister Gandhi was going a long way toward proving that women could lead major nations, and that the Cold War in South Asia was far more complex than observers twenty years earlier would have dared think. Her eyes turned northward, toward shoring up defenses against Pakistan and China while strengthening ties with Churchill’s Britain and President Romney in Washington. If India were to reclaim her position as one of the world’s leading powers, its journey would begin with her.
Next Time on Blue Skies in Camelot: A Look at the Second Heroic Age of Comic Books
Yay, comics!
Also, doesn't seem like that many butterflies happened here, hopefully the ethnic cleansing in the Bengal region was avoided in the Bangladesh war.
Also, doesn't seem like that many butterflies happened here, hopefully the ethnic cleansing in the Bengal region was avoided in the Bangladesh war.
Good update; hopefully, Indira Gandh avoids her OTL fate...
Sounds like it'll be a reverse of OTL, with Pakistan aligned with the Soviets and China and India aligned with the United States and Britain...
BTW, "Kabhi Tanhaiyon Mein" was the theme song to the Hindi movie Hamari Yaad Aayegi, released in 1961, so congrats for continuing the pattern, @President_Lincoln, waiting for more, and Merry Christmas!!!
Sounds like it'll be a reverse of OTL, with Pakistan aligned with the Soviets and China and India aligned with the United States and Britain...
BTW, "Kabhi Tanhaiyon Mein" was the theme song to the Hindi movie Hamari Yaad Aayegi, released in 1961, so congrats for continuing the pattern, @President_Lincoln, waiting for more, and Merry Christmas!!!
Merry Christmas!
Right you are, Worffan! The primary difference will be in the aftermath of the '65 war, as India is now closer aligned to the US and UK, whereas Pakistan will start to shift its allegiance toward the USSR and/or China. Generally speaking, the bigger butterflies will occur further down the road.
Thank you, Unknown!
Merry Christmas!
Great early Christmas gift.
Seems not much has changed in India, aside from Pakistan being in a different situation. Hope a certain PM isn't overthrown in a military coup in the late 70's.
Seems not much has changed in India, aside from Pakistan being in a different situation. Hope a certain PM isn't overthrown in a military coup in the late 70's.
"Dear George, remember no man is a failure who has friends. Thanks for the wings. Love, Clarence."
Merry Christmas, Everybody!
Felt the need to share a favorite line from my all time favorite film.
Merry Christmas, Everybody!
Felt the need to share a favorite line from my all time favorite film.