“The World is determined to commit suicide.”
After a failed bid at nurturing peace in the Korean Peninsula, Jawaharlal Nehru’s observation on the deteriorating relations between the United States and North Korea in 1950, serves a poignant reminder of the dangers of brinkmanship in East Asia.
India, though geographically distanced from the peninsula, has played an important role in Korea’s affairs since the Second World War. For a while, Nehru was the primary interlocutor between the United States, the Western Powers and China; with Nehru providing early warning of a Chinese intervention. In a way, he was the only world leader who recognized the horrors that a Third World War would bring.
Jawaharlal Nehru, his sister Vijaylakshmi Pandit, and President Truman in Washington, 1949 (Image: Public Domain)Nehru’s India was well-placed to mediate – being a proponent of non-alignment in a world that was rapidly splitting into Eastern and Western blocs. But Nehru’s commitment to neutrality was questioned by the Americans – who saw him as softer on the Soviets than he was on the Western powers.
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