Includes bibliographies and index.

"The mythologising of Tibet in the West and the Himalyan state's subsequent abandonment to China are recounted in this briskly-paced and revealing new history"--

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

Prologue -- Introduction -- PART I -- 1. Earliest Beginnings in the Western Imagination -- 2. Sir Francis Younghusband : Soldier, Visionary, Romantic -- 3. British and Nazi Versions of the Tibetan Image -- 4. Stilwell, the Burma Hump, and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) -- 5. The First Truman Administration -- 6. The Iron Triangle : the China Lobby, the Red Scare, and the Catholic Church -- 7. Truman and India -- 8. Tibetan Independence : Resting upon a Three-Legged Stool -- 9. The Matter of Tibet's Status -- 10. Lowell Thomas in Tibet -- 11. Major Douglas Mackiernan : A Tragic Incident -- 12. "The Bearded Khampa" : Tibet's Paul Revere -- 13. 1950 : The PLA Invades Korea and Tibet -- 14. Nehru's Non-Alignment, the Korean War, and Tibet -- 15. The Dalai Lama and Henderson's Plan -- 16. Mr. Nehru Again -- 17. Formosa : The Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier -- PART II -- 18. The Eisenhower Era -- 19. Pakistan : A New American Ally -- 20. The Panchsheel Agreement : An Indo-Chinese Condominium -- 21. Nehru's Bid for Global Prominence -- 22. NSC Directive 5412 : Structuring CIA Operations -- 23. Mobilizing Religion -- 24. Meanwhile, a World Away -- 25. Gyalo Thondup : A Mystery Wrapped in an Enigma -- 26. Washington's Covert Program in Tibet -- 27. The South Asian Rubik Cube -- 28. The Dalai Lama Leaves Tibet -- 29. Tibet and the United Nations -- 30. The Dalai Lama, Nehru, and the Chinese : A Difficult Mix -- 31. Conclusion -- 32. Postscript -- Appendix: Seventeen-Point Plan for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet (1951).

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