Sarah Paine

And the Indians aren't going to figure out until 1958 that the roads are there.

Meanwhile, roads completed.

The Chinese want to complete their control over Tibet.

And so they're going to send big armies up there.

And Tibetan culture is much more, it's of Indian origin.

It's not Chinese origin.

So this repression of Tibetan culture just appalls the Indians.

And then two days before the People's Liberation Army is going to make it into Lhasa, which is the capital of Tibet.

The Dalai Lama flees.

He's the spiritual leader of Tibet.

He flees to India, where he's remained ever since, to the absolute horror and anger of China.

So at about this time, the Chinese come to the Indians and say, look, why don't we do a swap on sovereignty?

You recognize our sovereignty over that Aksai Chin Plateau, where nobody lives, but it's really good for the roads, for...

China's western route.

And then we'll recognize your sovereignty over this much more densely populated Arunachal Pradesh.

And Nehru doesn't want to hear anything about it.

So during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when Russia is much too busy worrying about who's going to be lobbing nukes at home, this is when China launches.

And in the 1960 Sino-Indian War, and China just plain takes the Aksai Chin

The Indians are appalled because they don't have any roads to be able to deploy up there whereas the Chinese do.

Their defeat is just total and they can't believe the Chinese did this to them.