Macmillan Government Of The United Kingdom’s Response And Policy To The Sino-India Border Conflict Of 1962(1962.10-1963.5)

It is widely known that the Sino-India border conflict of 1962 is not only a great event in the history of the two countries relationship, however it is also a significant issue in Asia’s regional history during the Cold War period. Because of the declining of the national power, the United Kingdom’s influence on the international affairs was weaker, So MacMillan who was in power then changed his attention to Europe continent, which does not mean the British leaders were no longer concerned about matters of the rest of the world. Once seizing the opportunity, MacMillan government was willing to play a key role to maintain its great-power status. South Asia, the Britain ex-colony, always attracted the attention of the British government, so does the Outbreak of the Sino-Indian border conflict.This paper mainly focused on the description of the policy of the United Kingdom during Sino-Indian border conflict and introduced Macmillan government’s diplomatic support and military aid to India. Macmillan government wanted to take the opportunity of the Sino-India conflict to achieve two objectives in South Asia: Firstly, It could help India against the Communist China’s expansion in South Asia through military aid; Secondly, The British government could make use of China’s threat to persuade India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir problem and maintain India-Pakistan relationship, eventually establish a joint defense in South Asia.This paper consist of three chapters. The first chapter is the background. it includes the connection between origins of the Sino-India border dispute and Britain, Macmillan government’s attention and attitude to the Sino-India border dispute during the deterioration of Sino-India relationship of 1958-1962,and the outbreak of Sino-India border conflict.The second chapter discusses Macmillan government’s decision-making of the Sino-India border conflict. It contains the reasons why Macmillan government supported India, British local authorities in China and India reported the Conflict and decision-making departments of UK decided the policy.The third chapter focuses on implementation of British government’s policy of supporting India. Firstly, it introduced the Macmillan government political support to India, including the British government announced supporting for India on high sounding words, and Macmillan took active to persuade Pakistan standing by India side. Secondly, it holds a discussion that the British government’s actual military assistance to India, including air defense mission and weapons assistance. Finally, the chapter discusses the British and United State’s cooperation and divisions in operation of military aid for India.The conclusion section analyzes the impact to the British diplomatic pattern of the Macmillan government’s policy in the Sino-Indian border conflict.