China's India War

The 1962 war between India and China was not about a disputed border. It was the result of China's desire to become the leader of the 'Third World' - and, at a time when China was barely recovering from the disastrous Great Leap Forward and its architect, Mao Zedong, was discredited, to unite different factions within the Chinese leadership against an outside enemy: India. China won the war, became the main voice of revolutionary movements in the Third World-and Mao Zedong was back in power.