Jawaharlal Nehru Quotes
I have come here, therefore, on a voyage of discovery of the mind and heart of America and to place before you our own heart. Thus we may promote that understanding and cooperation which, I feel sure, both our countries earnestly desire.
India had just recently gained its independence from Britain.
Jawaharlal Nehru, 1889-1964, Prime Minister, India, Remarks at a Congressional Reception in Washington DC, October 13, 1949
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In his younger days Jinnah was considered one of the greatest of the Indian Politicians in the Congress Party and all of India. Even though he was a Muslim, his leadership and political philosophy was appreciated by educated and politically active Indians of all faiths and casts. He was also so considered by the English Viceroy and his staff and noted by the politicians in England as a man who could bring Indians together without regard for religious or socio-economic status. He underwent a number of personal tragedies and changed radically until he was not only a sectarian Muslim leader but threatened and facilitated Islamic terrorism against all the other religions. Jinnah's flip flop on this point led to one of the great massacres and tragedies in human history" The Nightingale of India
Eisenhower was clear on this point but the neoconservatives of the Republican party advocated just the opposite and decades later would influence American foreign policy to have a different view and aggressively export American democracy as in the Iraq War.
Although, on sever occasions Mao tried to reach out to the United States, the fact that he was leading a communist movement and Chiang Kai-shek, our recognized ruler of China hated Mao caused his overtures to be rebuffed. American military leaders knew very little about China and our intelligence was almost non-existent. They assumed that he was under the control of Russia and Joseph Stalin when in fact, the Russians wanted to oust Mao for not following Stalin’s communist orthodoxy. They succeeded in firing him as head of the party and replacing him with a committee of more loyal communists. Not only did the US rebuff Mau’s outreach attempts, but American money and military material financed 6 different military campaigns by Chiang to exterminate Mao and his communists.
None succeeded as the vast majority of the peasants supported Mao and his troops and provided support and information in Chiang’s attempts. Some historians believe we “bet on the wrong horse”.
Jawaharlal Nehru was an Indian independence activist and, subsequently, the first Prime Minister of India, as well as a central figure in Indian politics both before and after independence. He emerged as an eminent leader of the Indian independence movement, serving India as Prime Minister from its establishment in 1947 as an independent nation, until his death in 1964. He was also known as Pandit Nehru due to his roots with the Kashmiri Pandit community, while Indian children knew him better as Chacha Nehru (Hindi: Uncle Nehru).
