" 

 :::Nehru presented Zhou a map with the McMahon Line on it when they met in Beijing in 1954. And of course the line has been used on official maps of India since 1937. There was no indication that China disputed any of this until July 1958 when China published a map that showed NEFA as Chinese territory. The Communist Party under Liu Shaoqi turned against Mao in early 1962 on the issue of the famine, so Mao turned to Lin Biao and the army to ""punish this party of ours."" The military experts agree that China spent months or years on planning and preparation while the Indians were caught unprepared. Nehru eschewed traditional power politics out of high principle. He wanted to fight the Chinese the way he had the British, with ""soul power"", symbolism and self-righteousness. This is why he obsessed over old treaties, border disputes, maps, flying flags, and tiny militarily useless posts when he should have been thinking about air cover, logistics, and firepower.   "