In 1962, India was engaged in a bitter, desperate struggle against a Chinese invasion in Ladakh and the North East Frontier Agency (NEFA). The Chinese forces had launched a massive attack, pushing back Indian troops along multiple fronts. The then prime minister , Jawaharlal Nehru , made a frantic request to Western powers, particularly the USA and the UK, to rush much-needed military aid to help India stop the relentless advance of Chinese forces.

While the military aid from Western powers did come through and the war came to an end in November of 1962 with the Chinese announcing a unilateral ceasefire and withdrawing from most occupied territory in the east, the danger from China’s belligerent policy was still ever present.

It is in this backdrop that the UK and USA began exploring a previously floated idea of a joint defence of India and Pakistan against China to protect the subcontinent from Communist forces.

US State Department archives include a letter British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan wrote…