When President Johnson Held Back Food Aid to Humiliate Indira Gandhi | PART 2 of Cold War Series

10/07/2025 11 min
When President Johnson Held Back Food Aid to Humiliate Indira Gandhi | PART 2 of Cold War Series

Listen "When President Johnson Held Back Food Aid to Humiliate Indira Gandhi | PART 2 of Cold War Series"

Episode Synopsis

In Part 2 of our Cold War mini-series on the US-India-Pakistan triangle, we explore how Pakistan won over the Kennedy White House while India struggled to keep up. From Nehru’s waning influence and Ayub Khan’s charm offensive to Kennedy’s diplomatic missteps and the Indo-China war, we unpack a volatile decade that shaped the region’s geopolitics.
We also examine LBJ’s humiliating ‘ship-to-mouth’ food policy towards India, Indira Gandhi’s criticism of the US over Vietnam, and India’s growing resolve to go nuclear.
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