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Dragon’s Mind: The Chinese
Strategic View continues....
Mao Zedong’s little red book of military tactics drew heavily upon
the teachings of Sun Tzu and other ancient Chinese authors who wrote
on the subject. These writings continue to influence military thought in
China, and their influence on both strategy and tactics is unlikely to
diminish, as many of the principles and methods enunciated centuries
ago continue to be relevant even today in the age of the nuclear missile.
The Chinese actions during the 1962 border war were entirely in
accordance with these teachings. Indian and other analyses both at the
time and subsequently, regarding their ‘inexplicable’ halt and unilateral
cease-fire, had it completely wrong when they attributed this to overstretched logistics at the onset of a difficult winter and other reasons.
They had achieved their aim of knocking Nehru off his pedestal on the
world stage.
For example, these ancient teachings, which conform to the
Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist ways of thought, all enjoin upon the
rulers to undertake war only as a last resort, and only in a just cause.
From China's point of view, the 1962 border war was a just war,
intended to chastise India, because they viewed India as the aggressor.
Their teachings emphasize that warfare should be ethical, which
generally means defensive war, but equally allows for punitive war,
which is what they viewed their 1962 attack on Indian troops in
Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh as. As per the classical teachings, war
should be minimized even if it is just. This is even interpreted to mean
that war that is not minimized can thus eventually become unjust, and
Sun Tzu writing on strategic science says:
Prolonging or expanding hostilities unnecessarily is one of
the major causes of self-destruction, and is neither
ethical nor practical.
This completely explains their unilateral withdrawal after achieving
their military objectives after a month’s fighting in October-November
1962. They withdrew, as per their own teachings, because they had
achieved their strategic and diplomatic objective of a punitive war, and
of humiliating India and in particular Nehru on the world stage.
To be continued...