Tibet's enduring myth, animated by the tales of Himalayan
adventurers, British military expeditions, and the novel, Lost
Horizon, remains an inspirational fantasy, a modern morality play
about the failure of brutality to subdue the human spirit. Tibet
also exercises immense 'soft power' as one of the lenses through
which the world views China. This book traces the origins and
manifestations of the Tibetan myth, as propagated by Younghusband,
Madam Blavatsky, Himmler, Acheson and Roosevelt. The authors
discuss how, after WW2, Tibet - isolated, misunderstood and with a
tiny elite unschooled in political-military realities - - misread
the diplomacy between its two giant neighbours, India and China,
forlornly hoping London or Washington might intervene. The PLA
sought nothing less than to deconstruct traditional Tibet, unseat
the Dalai Lama and 'absorb' this vast region into the People's
Republic, and Lhasa succumbed to China's invasion in 1950. Drawing
on declassified CIA and Chinese documents, the authors reveal Mao's
collusion with Stalin to subdue Tibet, double-dealing by Nehru, the
brilliant diplomacy of Chou en Lai and how Washington see-sawed
between the China lobby, who insisted there be no backing for an
independent Tibet, and Presidents Truman and later Eisenhower, who
initiated a covert CIA programme to support the Dalai Lama and
resist Chinese occupation. It is an ignoble saga with few, if any,
heroes, other than ordinary Tibetans.
General
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