How the US went from being indifferent to fawning over India—because of China

How the US went from being indifferent to fawning over India—because of China

On Oct. 11, 1949, at 4:40pm, Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru stepped off US president Harry Truman’s plane Independence onto the tarmac at Washington’s National Airport. Truman, along with three cabinet ministers and a 19-gun salute, greeted Nehru at the airport. Just ten days earlier, Chinese Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong had announced the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.