First Encounters

Abstract

Nehru’s forceful arguments that Asia would emerge from the retreat of British colonialism with new strength and vitality to become subjects of foreign policy found no place in Washington’s bipolar view of the world at the onset of the Cold War. Kennan’s famous formulation of containment viewed the newly independent states as backward and dependent peoples open to Soviet support and enabling Moscow to put their own puppet regimes in power. In contrast, Nehru assumed that India was destined to become a great power and the pivot around which security problems of Asia and the Indian Ocean would have to be considered. He looked toward China, still engaged in a civil war with the communists, as sharing a common outlook.