A View from New Delhi

This selection of speeches and articles turned out by the U.S. Ambassador to India from 1963 to 1969 is fresh, informative, and pertinent, documenting as it does the range and intensity of the American government’s interest in the problems of a developing country.  For all of Chester Bowles’ passion for ideas, he anchors his most speculative thinking in solid fact.  Both because of his analysis and interpretation and because of the wealth of interesting facts about India, the United States, and the Far East built into every page, this volume contains much of consequence for anyone concerned about the role of the United States in Asia. It also reflects the new India emerging at the moment of the generational change in the leadership which led it to independence. A former Governor and Congressman from Connecticut, as well as an economic administrator under Presidents Roosevelt and Truman, Mr. Bowles first went to India as Ambassador in 1951. John F. Kennedy made him Under Secretary of State in 1961, and then two years later he returned to India where he again served as Ambassador until April 1969.  When Kennedy announced the nomination in 1963, he said: “No American has a deeper understanding of India and Asia than Governor Bowles.”