A Study On India’s Vietnam Policy During The Nehru Years(1947—1964)

India’s Vietnam policy during the Nehru years was a non-aligned foreign policy of “Positive Neutrality”.Its premise is to guarantee India’s national interests and its goal is to pursue the ideal of becoming a great power.There are profound historical and realistic reasons for the formulation and implementation of this policy.Firstly,India and Vietnam have close and deep historical and cultural ties.Indian religion and culture have influenced Vietnam to some extent.Secondly,since modern times,the tragic history of Western colonization and mutual sympathy between them have laid a common foundation for their opposition to colonialism and imperialism.Thirdly,after independence,Vietnam faced the threat of France re-establishing colonial rule in Indochina and the intervention of the United States.From 1947 to 1964,India’s Vietnam policy underwent many changes in order to maintain its independence and balance its relations with the north and south Vietnam as well as with Western countries during the Nehru years.Finally,although India’s policy had been adjusted for many times,it was still within its diplomatic framework of anti-colonialism,anti-imperialism and non-alignment.Vietnam was also one of the important objects for India to establish and expand “Peace Area”.India was sympathetic to Vietnam after the outbreak of the First Indochina War,but pursued a policy of “Non-Intervention”.Nehru rejected Sarat Chandra Bose’s plan to aid Vietnam,believing that allowing his volunteers would mean declaring war on France.In order to show its neutrality,India invited both the Democratic Republic of Vietnam(DRV)and French colonial authority in Indochina at the First Asian Relations Conference in 1947.Meanwhile,India turned down Vietnam’s request for assistance.When France installed a puppet regime in 1949,Nehru chose to remain neutral between the two regimes.Neither regime was recognized.Nehru’s willingness to support Vietnam’s war against the French was limited by the influence of Indo-French relations,especially the poor political and economic situation of India after independence,and the complicated battlefield situation of the First Indochina War.In 1953-54,India pursued a policy of “Active Mediation” with Vietnam.At this time,the situation of the First Indochina War had changed significantly.It lasted for a long time and both Vietnam and France suffered heavy losses.They all showed their willingness to negotiate a settlement of the conflict.The international community was also actively trying to end the First Indochina War and preparing to convene and push forward the Geneva Conference process.With the evolution of international relations and the world situation,Nehru changed his strategy and began to seek to mediate as a neutral state.The first task of its mediation was to limit the interference of external forces,oppose the American rhetoric and plans to expand the war,while avoiding direct Chinese involvement.India also played the role of “Programmatic Mediation”by putting forward a six-point peace initiative at the Colombo Conference.At the Geneva Conference in 1954,Nehru also sent his special envoy V.K.Menon to convey and coordinate information of all parties,ease the atmosphere,resolve differences and put forward useful suggestions,which played a certain role in realizing peace in Indochina.In 1955-58,India tried to bring Vietnam into “Peace Area” far from the Cold War.India mainly supervised the ceasefire,withdrawal of troops and general elections in Vietnam through the International Committee for Supervision and Control(ICSC).At that time,however,alliance politics was developing rapidly in Vietnam.The United States helped Ngo Dinh Diem to establish and consolidate an anti-communist regime in South Vietnam and brought it into the protection of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization(SEATO).With the help of China,North Vietnam quickly recovered and developed its economy and carried out regime building.Nehru proposed to establish a regional collective security system in order to realize his ideal of being a great power.He actively opposed military alliances and promoted high-level visits with North and South Vietnam in an effort to bring them into “Peace Area”.In 1955,India also co-sponsored with Indonesia the Asian-African Conference,which further consolidated the results of the Geneva Conference.However,with the support of the United States,the Diem regime refused to implement the agreement,and the ICSC had no actual coercive power,so the supervision work was difficult,and the general election in Vietnam was far from being held.At this time,India gradually changed its original pro-North Vietnamese attitude,returned to neutrality and recognized the two regimes.In 1959-64,India gradually tilted towards South Vietnam in the work of ICSC.On the issue of South Vietnam’s 10/59 Law and the continued expansion of Military Assistance Advisory Group in South Vietnam,India supported Canada’s claim of favouritism towards South Vietnam,and criticized North Vietnam’s “subversion" and“infiltration” activities in South Vietnam.The first reason for the change in India’s policy towards Vietnam is that the Vietnam issue is not the focus of its foreign policy,but a part of its pursuit of the great power ideal.The second reason is that ICSC was helpless in the face of the uncooperative behavior because it could only influence international public opinion,but has no coerciveness.The third reason was the Asian Regional Collective Security System based on Sino-Indian cooperation in Nehru’s diplomatic thought had been destroyed because of the Sino-Indian border conflict.At that time,he actively approached both the United States and the Soviet Union for support and assistance.Vietnam,on the other hand,was nothing more than a bargaining chip in great power relations.This was also one of the important factors why North Vietnam sided with China and South Vietnam chose to support India.India’s non-aligned policy of “active neutrality” towards Vietnam had undergone different changes in different periods,but in general,its core policies had not changed.To begin with,India’s Vietnam policy was always a partial adjustment under the premise of safeguarding national security and interests in the Cold War.In the second place,it was always within the framework of Nehru’s non-aligned policy,and basically maintained its neutral attitude although occasionally biased.And to continue,it had always been in the practice of Nehru’s efforts to pursue Indian ideal of great power,and was subject to the rise and fall his thought of “Asianism” based on Sino-Indian cooperation and the plan of building a collective security system in Asia.After the death of Nehru,his great power ideal and non-alignment policy,as well as practical principles and methods to deal with Indo-Vietnamese relations under the influence of relations with other great powers,had an important impact on Indo-Vietnamese relations in the post-Cold War period,especially in the context of the “Look East Policy” and “Act East Policy” proposed by India and the“Indo-Pacific Strategy” proposed by the United States.