I still remember The Hindu front-paging the momentous Indo-Soviet Treaty of 1971. I also remember the trepidation with which we read the prominent news of the despatch by Richard Nixon of the U.S. Seventh Fleet to the Indian ocean. But the news about the Soviets despatching their own warships as a counter to the U.S. action, reported so inconspicuously in The Hindu in a line or two, was what gave us hope and good cheer those days. After nearly half a century, we are given to understand that so much had happened behind the scenes (Op-Ed page, “Calling the U.S.’s bluff in 1971,” Dec. 12).
S. Jagathsimhan Nair,
Thiruvananthapuram
