ehru’s messages to President John F. Kennedy make pathetic reading. Of one of these B.K. Nehru writes, “The telegram when I read it in its entirely was so humiliating that found it difficult to prevent myself from weeping…” He came to the conclusion that “Jawaharlal’s spirit had been totally destroyed and he never really recovered. The destruction of his personality was not born out of fear…it was the destruction of his entire Weltanschauung which destroyed him.” The pleading telegrams Nehru sent to Kennedy in November 1962 make very distressing reading. These are no longer classified. I quote one of them in its melancholy entirely. “Dear Mr. President, “Within a few hours of despatching my earlier message of today, the situation in the North East Frontier Agency Command has deteriorated still further. Bomdila has fallen and the retreating forces from Sela have been trapped between the Sela Ridge and Bomdi La. A serious threat has developed to our Digboi oil fields in Assam. With the advance of the Chinese in massive strength the entire Brahmaputra Valley is seriously threatened, and unless something is done immediately to stem the tide, the whole of Assam, Tripura, Manipur and Nagaland would also pass into Chinese hands. “2. The Chinese have poised massive forces in the Chumbi Valley between Sikkim and Bhutan, and another invasion from that direction appears imminent. Our areas further north west on the border with Tibet in the States of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh are also threatened. In Ladakh, as I have said in my earlier communications, Chushul is under heavy attack and shelling of the airfield at Chushul has already commenced. We have also noticed increasing air activity by the Chinese Air Force in Tibet. “3. Hitherto, we have restricted our requests for assistance to essential equipment and we are most grateful for the assistance which has been so readily given to us. We did not ask for more comprehensive assistance particularly air assistance because of the wider implications of such assistance in the global context and we did not want to embarrass our friends. “4. The situation that has developed is however really desperate. We have to have more comprehensive assistance if the Chinese are to be prevented from taking over the whole of Eastern India. Any delay in this assistance reaching us will result in nothing short of a catastrophe for our country. “5. We have repeatedly felt the need of using air arm in support of our land forces but have been unable to do so as,