As the Cuban missile crisis gripped the world’s attention 60 years ago, a less remembered conflict broke out high in the mountain passes of the Himalayas. Tensions had been mounting for months on the border between India and China and on October 20 the Chinese People’s Liberation Army attacked Indian forces on disputed territory and started the 1962 Sino-Indian war.
The origins of the conflict lay in two areas. First was the shifting, disputed frontier of colonial India, which ran across mountain peaks and glaciers. And second was the uncertain status of Tibet.
