In May, Indian and Chinese troops clashed in the Galwan Valley in the Himalayas. More than 20 soldiers may have died in the brutal hand-to-hand fighting, which was the first deadly clash between the two nations in over half a century. Considering the tense relationship between India and China over the past seven decades, perhaps the surprise is not that there was a battle this year but that it has been so long since the last one. In Watershed 1967, Probal DasGupta explains why this might be, combining astute political analysis with a gripping military history. He turns away from the well-known 1962 war between India and China, which ended with an effective defeat for India, and argues that a much less commemorated event five years later — the clashes at Nathu La and Cho La on the border between China and Sikkim — were central to India regaining control in those dangerous border areas.
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