Of Great Expectations and Bitter Disappointments

During the Johnson administration three important events had a profound impact on the course of Indo-U.S. Relations. They were the IndoPakistani War of 1965, the rupee devaluation of 1966, and the selfhelp/short-tether agricultural aid policies of the Johnson administration. Each has been examined as a case study.' I shall focus on the divergent interests and expectations of the Indian and American decisionmakers and show how their asymmetric concerns further widened the gap between the two countries. This gap existed before Lyndon Johnson became president in 1963 because the two nations had marked differences in the conceptions of their respective global roles. The United States saw its South Asian policy as derivative from its larger global interests. These were the forging of an anticommunist consensus and the creation and sustenance of a liberal international economic order. Though economically and militarily weak, India sought to challenge the superpower condominium and had refused to dovetail its policies to fit those of the United States. Even after Jawaharlal Nehru's death in 1964, and despite the difficulties he encountered in implementing his policies, his successors sought to adhere to his legacy. This included a willingness to challenge superpower interventions in other parts of the world. However, as this principle was evoked only when it was

Administration (probate law · Devaluation · Development economics · Economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Rupee · Superpower · Sustenance · Indian Economic and Social Development · Law

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  Mark Lawrence, Mark Atwood Lawrence•India Review•2002

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