Tibet`s enduring myth, animated by the tales of Himalayan adventurers, British military expeditions, & 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 & manifestations of the Tibetan myth, as propagated by Younghusb&, Madam Blavatsky, Himmler, Acheson & Roosevelt. The authors discuss how, after WW2, Tibet
- isolated, misunderstood & with a tiny elite unschooled in political-military realities
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- misread the diplomacy between its two giant neighbours, India & China, forlornly hoping London or Washington might intervene. The PLA sought nothing less than to deconstruct traditional Tibet, unseat the Dalai Lama & `absorb` this vast region into the People`s Republic, & Lhasa succumbed to China`s invasion in 1950. Drawing on declassified CIA & Chinese documents, the authors reveal Mao`s collusion with Stalin to subdue Tibet, double-dealing by Nehru, the brilliant diplomacy of Chou en Lai & how Washington see-sawed between the China lobby, who insisted there be no backing for an independent Tibet, & Presidents Truman & later Eisenhower, who initiated a covert CIA programme to support the Dalai Lama & resist Chinese occupation. It is an ignoble saga with few, if any, heroes, other than ordinary Tibetans.