There is nothing new in the Henderson Brooks report that we did not know. The report's highlights make out that it was the Director, Intelligence Bureau's assessment that the “Chinese would not react to our establishing new posts and were unlikely to use force” to get our ‘Forward Policy' advances uprooted.
But, why did Jawaharlal Nehru's Government accept this analysis and not that of our military intelligenceIJ The Indian Army's proposal around 1959, that we must build in India automatic rifles for self-defence, was rejected. The result was that our soldiers fought toothless in 1962 at NEFA and ladakh. That the Nehru Government panicked is known from the fact that it was announced in Tezpur during the war that the regime was not responsible for the safety of the people and their property. The Nehru Government also erred in making lt Gen BM Kaul the theatre commander. Congress spokespersons must accept that the Nehru regime is to blame for the debacle.