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"Don't worry, as long as the Chinese fight you, we will drop nuclear bombs in their capital!"
At a time when Sino-Indian relations were tense, the Soviet ambassador to India expressed his heart and mind very clearly in front of Indian officials.
Between China and India, the Soviet Union chose India, and if China and India started fighting, the Soviet Union "guaranteed" the end.
We all know that the Soviet Union was a socialist country, and so was China, so why did the Soviet Union not help its own "brothers", but help India?
1. The increasingly distorted China policy
As a representative of the Non-Aligned Movement in the fifties of the last century, relations between India and China were good at the beginning.
At that time, under the situation of the United States and the Soviet Union vying for hegemony, India pursued an independent development path, which was consistent with China.
At first, the two countries "talked happily", but within a few years, the Indian prime minister began to drift.
Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was quite an ambitious man.
As early as 1934, he began to build his own "Greater Indian Federation", which included South Asia, Southeast Asia and Central Asia, and was like a "third power" outside of China and the Soviet Union.
In the fifties of the twentieth century, Nehru grew under the rapid development of India's social economy and national strength.
It was at this time that nationalism was gaining momentum in India, and Nehru began to fantasize about his dream of a Greater India, hoping to swallow Burma, Sikkim, and Afghanistan.
For this whimsical federation of India, Nehru wanted to demarcate the Sino-Indian border along the McMahon and Johnson lines.
In his vision, there should be a buffer state between China and India, and this "country" is the Tibet he envisioned.
This is the same idea that the Soviet Union thought of separating Mongolia from China.
In 1951, Nehru openly sent troops into Tibet and began to liaise with the Tibetan princes and nobles, hoping to take advantage of the PLA's inattention to turn his idea into reality.
However, Nehru's conspiracy did not succeed, and after the PLA entered Tibet and successfully took over the Tibetan government, the Indian army had no survival in Tibet, but they still occupied the southern part of Tibet and refused to retreat.
In 1959, Nehru openly instigated and supported the reactionary actions of the Dalai Lama in Tibet, and soon after the defeat, the first armed conflict between China and India took place.
After the armed conflict, China immediately reported the incident to the Soviet Union, hoping that the Soviet side would remain "friendly and neutral."
However, this time, Big Brother gave China a "stab in the back"!
Second, a big brother who suppresses his brothers
Why did the USSR favor India in the Sino-Indian conflict? In the final analysis, I don't want to see China strong.
The Soviet Union is China's big brother, and there is nothing wrong with that, and it is true that the Soviet Union has helped China a lot, but on top of this "help" of the Soviet Union, there are often many interests to consider, especially the consolidation of its hegemony.
After the founding of New China, it advocated an independent foreign policy, which was the choice of the Chinese people.
However, the Soviet Union did not want China to embark on this path, and he had to take care of China's decision here and say a few words there.
Coupled with Mongolia, Lushun and other issues, there are actually many hidden dangers behind the friendship between China and the Soviet Union, Big Brother is indeed Big Brother, but he only thinks about himself, and does not think too much about your development.
He wants you to be good, but he doesn't want you to be too good, especially if you don't want to be independent, which will make him uneasy because it threatens his supremacy.
Winning over India was precisely the link in which the Soviet Union became the hegemon.
At this time, India could be said to be shining brightly in the international community, relying on the so-called "non-alignment" movement, India made a wide range of "friends" in the international community, and the national situation was very good.
At this time, the United States hoped to establish an "encirclement" around China, so it also began to win over India, and trade between the United States and India was frequent.
Naturally, the Soviet Union did not want an American sword to be placed in its couch, and with the rising of China at this time, the Soviets hoped to use India to restrain the "disobedient" China.
As a result of this policy tendency, in 1959, after the outbreak of the first armed conflict between China and India, the Soviet side issued the TASS Statement.
The Chinese side was aware of this "Statement" in advance, but the content of the "Statement" made the Chinese side angry, and the whole text of the "Statement" is "criticism" of China, not to express regret, that is, to say that China is wrong.
Therefore, before the issuance of the "Statement," the Chinese side had been expressing its views to the Soviet office in China, hoping that the Soviet Union would refrain from making public statements on this matter and remain neutral.
Eventually, however, the Declaration was issued, and the Soviet Union's support for India has since become apparent.
The Chinese side severely condemned this, but the Soviet Union never took the attitude of other countries into account, and continued to go its own way, and the confrontation officially came.
3. Unreasonable "insignificant" theory!
In October 1959, Khrushchev came to Beijing, and the leaders gathered together to discuss the most important issue of the Sino-Indian border.
Khrushchev still had a consistent attitude, making it clear that he wanted to sell China to India.
Chen Yi and Zhou Enlai spoke one after another, and Peng Zhen and Liu Shaoqi also made many statements, and the wording of both sides became more and more solemn, and their emotions became more and more excited.
At the height of the confrontation, the interpreters were struggling with how to translate each other's words reasonably, not only to avoid mistakes in meaning, but also to ensure that the attitude was dressed.
Chen Yi was the vanguard in this meeting, and he scolded Khrushchev at the meeting table with angry eyes and murderous eyes, which made the Soviets later marvel that he was a "tiger that was released".
And after this whole debate, Chairman Mao did not speak, he was thinking about the next action in his heart, maybe at this time he knew that there must be a war between China and India.
In an interview after this meeting, Khrushchev even openly stood for India, saying that the Chinese were too "stingy."
He said: "The territorial competition between China, which has more than 9 million square kilometers of land, and India, which has only more than 3 million square kilometers of land, is a sign of stinginess! The USSR and Iran would not have quarreled over this land! ”
In Khrushchev's view, the Soviet Union's "dream of hegemony" was the key, and the tens of thousands of square kilometers of Chinese territory were the bargaining chips he used to curry favor with India.
When Khrushchev visited India in 1960, he cheered Nehru on his support, and again brought in huge military aid.
Soviet MiGs, transport planes, helicopter units, and mechanized equipment were constantly being transported from the Soviet Union to India.
With the support of the Soviet Union, the Indians began to boldly promote their own "forward policy", and the friction between China and India on the border increased.
Most people know the story after that, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers descended from the sky, and Ah San was beaten up and lost a large number of elites.
Perhaps the Soviets did not expect that India, which had made a heavy bet on itself, would be so unbeaten. If Khrushchev were given a chance to choose at this time, would he choose India again?
References:
The Soviet Union Backtracked: The Differences between China and the Soviet Union on the Sino-Indian Border Issue_News_Phoenix.com
The Soviet Union encouraged India to fight with China: it claimed to use the atomic bomb as a "backup"|India|Nehru|China_Sina Military
Khrushchev once criticized China: like a rooster who is aggressive and keen on war_Satellite TV Channel_Phoenix.com