The establishment of a communist regime in China upended Western plans for the post-WWII Asian order. As the United States of America and Great Britain grappled with the implications of this new China in terms of their strategic and economic interests in the western Pacific, significant divergences also emerged. A newly independent India seeking to define its place and role in the region under conditions of Cold War was hoping to enlist China as partner.

This book, based on archival material, outlines India's efforts to craft a foreign policy in the context of the Anglo- American competition in the Far East. The roles played by the towering personalities of that era-- Jawaharlal Nehru, Zhou Enlai, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John Foster Dulles, Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden and Krishna Menon-- and the personal chemistry between them are woven into the narrative to paint a picture of the nuts and bolts of Indian diplomacy during the early years of the nation.