This book by Neville Maxwell could have been good. He writes well, and with a journalist's flair.

Unfortunately, his research and understanding of geopolitics is poor. I agree with his assertion that Nehru was largely to blame for the 1962 conflict. I also agree that Nehru is to take a large part of the blame for our poor preparedness.

However, he has painted the Chinese in almost saintly, divine colours. This is naive and stupid. Neville Maxwell did not take the trouble to even mention the manner in which the Chinese overtook Sinkiang (now XinJiang) and Tibet. He dismissed the Simla Conference in a cavalier fashion.

Read the book to get a different perspective on the old war, but take his writing with a ton of salt. ( )