Sarah Paine

Why?

It's a NATO ally, and we have very important bases in Portugal.

So we kept the bases, but we made the Indians really angry.

And there are other areas of public support or not criticizing people publicly.

For instance, in the 1971 Bangladesh War, when the United States refuses to support India by telling China, don't enter this place.

But of course, it was December, so the road system would have been a little rough to even try that, but it made the Indians mad.

Or if you think during the Cold War,

So with Nehru, it's the 1956 Hungarian crisis where the Russians sent tanks into Hungary.

The Indians don't say anything about that.

There's a Berlin crisis in 1961 where the Russians are pretty rough and the Indians don't say anything about that.

And then Indira Gandhi comes in and when the Russians sent tanks into Czechoslovakia in 1968, the Indians say nothing.

And then when the Russians invade Afghanistan in 79, again, the Indians say nothing.

So this is one way that you make your allies feel better about things.

Another thing is if you're one of the five veto holders at the UN Security Council, you can do your public support that way.

And I've already mentioned these Russian vetoes on Kashmiri plebiscites that the Indians truly didn't want to have happen or short-circuiting the Indian offensive in Bangladesh.

So this is what Russia did for India, and it was a very valuable thing for them.

You can also put money where your mouth is, economic aid.

And it's interesting, the United States provided far more economic aid than either the Russians or the Chinese, but still both Pakistanis and Indians preferred China and Russia, respectively.

And some of this aid was really important.

During the Bihar famine in 1967, the United States sent 20% of its wheat crop to India.