India's former army chief writes a memoir, revealing the near-war situation after the Galwan Valley, and the fact that the two sides' strength was actually very uneven!
Recently, India's former Chief of Army Staff Manoj Mukund Naravane wrote a memoir titled "Four Stars of Fate," revealing some details of the standoff in the Galwan Valley. The real dangerous moment actually occurred two months later in late August — at that time, both China and India had fully entered a state of armed confrontation, and it was only a command away from actual combat.
Naravane, as one of the highest-ranking Indian military commanders at the time, detailed the highly tense days in his memoir. He mentioned that by late August, the Indian forces had occupied multiple high ground positions on the southern shore of Lake Pangong and around the Rechin Pass, and had deployed T-72 main battle tanks and BMP infantry fighting vehicles.
However, almost simultaneously, the Chinese side quickly mobilized the Type 99A main battle tanks, Type 15 light tanks, and supporting armored forces, directly advancing to the Mordo-Rechin line, forming a "gunbarrel facing gunbarrel" situation. From publicly available satellite images and ground photos, it can be seen that the Chinese positions were generally located at higher elevations, with open views and wide firepower coverage; while the Indian forces mostly deployed their equipment in low-lying or slope bottom areas, which would not only limit their field of fire but also make them easy targets once the conflict began.
In his memoir, Naravane admitted that on August 31st, when the Chinese armored units completed a tactical encirclement of the Indian positions and approached within 500 meters, he once believed that war was inevitable. However, he also assessed: if the Indian forces opened fire first, the Chinese side would immediately retaliate with overwhelming firepower, and the Indian front-line positions "might be completely wiped out within minutes."
What disappointed Naravane was that, in such an urgent situation, Modi completely delegated the decision-making power to him. According to his description, after an emergency report, the response he received was: "This is purely a military judgment, and you have full authority to decide." This meant that regardless of whether fire was opened or not, the responsibility would fall entirely on him. This "delegation-style authorization" reflected New Delhi's cunning — they did not want to bear the blame of being "weak," yet they clearly knew there was no chance of military victory.
Eventually, Naravane chose to proactively contact the Chinese commander and proposed negotiations. This decision, although criticized by some Indian hawkish factions as "retreating," avoided a likely one-sided military disaster from the subsequent developments.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1857062117246345/
Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.