[For Favour of Publication]

Summary

This two-page press-release-style paper reports M. R. Masani’s address to the annual general meeting of the Indian Council of World Affairs on India’s “neglected backyard” in Southeast Asia. Masani argues that India’s foreign-policy failures have weakened its position after the 1962 Chinese invasion, leaving Laos, Malaysia, South Vietnam, and India vulnerable to Chinese Communist expansion. He presents the Vietnam conflict as externally directed armed aggression rather than an indigenous “war of national liberation,” citing North Vietnamese infiltration, direction from Hanoi, foreign-supplied weapons, and alleged violations of the Geneva Convention.

Key points

• Masani warns that Chinese Communist influence could extend from Vietnam and Laos through Malaysia and Indonesia toward India.
• He attributes India’s insecure regional position to fifteen years of mistaken foreign policies and continued governmental neglect of Southeast Asia.
• The paper characterizes the Vietnam conflict as organized aggression directed from North Vietnam rather than a spontaneous national-liberation movement.
• Masani criticizes India’s handling of Malaysia and its proposed participation in the Algiers Conference on terms favorable to recognition of the Viet Cong.
• He argues that non-alignment should not mean neutrality in self-defence or refusal of American and British assistance.
• The paper attributes New Delhi’s policies partly to dependence on the Soviet veto over Kashmir and to appeasement of communist expansionism.
• Masani proposes a regional security arrangement involving the free countries of Asia and Western democracies, with India and Japan as opposing bastions to Chinese Communist pressure.