It is also curious how, as nations and militaries reflect on campaigns as disastrous as these, they tend to forget the few moments of true military glory that they may have done well to cherish. How else do we explain the wide interest now in the war with China, the anniversary of which is this very morning, exactly 50 years to the day that, on a freezing morning several kilometres north of Tawang, the Chinese attacked the Indian 7th Brigade at Namka Chu? (A tragedy described in great detail in Himalayan Blunder by JP Dalvi, who commanded this brigade and was taken prisoner, and later by Maj-Gen Ashok Kalyan Verma in his Rivers of Silence.) And it may just be that for generations, the loser wishes he could fight the same battle, the same war, again, this time with different results of course. Maybe it is also because the pain of a military defeat sours our minds much more, leaving permanent scars that endure through generations. We have the post-1971 (Bangladesh War) turn of events in India, leading to 27% inflation and the Emergency, as a sobering example. Maybe because victories soon lose their euphoria in the inevitable economic aftermath of a decisive war, high inflation, arrogant, victorious establishments and so on. It is a sad but touching fact that nations and militaries tend to have stronger, more durable memories of their defeats than of their victories. In the darkness of defeat on the east, let?s recall a bright, shining moment?of courage on the western front

Himalayan blunder by jp dalvi