'Great mistake' or not? Why India decided against deploying Air Force in 1962 war with China

New Delhi: On the morning of 26 May, 1960, as skirmishes broke out along what we now call the Line of Control (LoC), India's then Defence Minister V.K. Krishna Menon summoned a top-secret meeting in his office. General Kodandera Subayya Thimayya, the doughty Army chief — and an acerbic Menon critic — was present. So was the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Subroto Mukerjee. The instructions given to the military chiefs were clear — to find suitable sites for more air strips near posts on the Indian border. The strips would allow the new outposts India was setting up…