03069cam a2200349 i 4500 140131s2014 enka b 001 0 eng 9780199368365 SDU DS786 H195 T 2014 Halper, Lezlee Brown, 203739 Tibet : an unfinished story / Lezlee Brown Halper, Stefan Halper. New York : Oxford University Press, 2014 367 p. : ill. HKBU Library "The mythologising of Tibet in the West and the Himalyan state's subsequent abandonment to China are recounted in this briskly-paced and revealing new history"-- "Tibet's enduring myth, animated by the tales of Himalayan adventurers, British military expeditions, and the novel, Lost Horizon, remains an inspirational fantasy, a modern morality play about the failure of brutality to subdue the human spirit. Tibet also exercises immense 'soft power' as one of the lenses through which the world views China. This book traces the origins and manifestations of the Tibetan myth, as propagated by Younghusband, Madam Blavatsky, Himmler, Acheson and Roosevelt. The authors discuss how, after WW2, Tibet-- isolated, misunderstood and with a tiny elite unschooled in political-military realities--misread the diplomacy between its two giant neighbours, India and China, forlornly hoping London or Washington might intervene. China's People's Liberation Army sought nothing less than to deconstruct traditional Tibet, unseat the Dalai Lama and 'absorb' this vast region into the People's Republic, and Lhasa succumbed to China's invasion in 1950. Drawing on declassified CIA and Chinese documents, the authors reveal Mao's collusion with Stalin to subdue Tibet, double-dealing by Nehru, the brilliant diplomacy of Chou en Lai and how Washington see-sawed between the China lobby, who insisted there be no backing for an independent Tibet, and Presidents Truman and later Eisenhower, who initiated a covert CIA programme to support the Dalai Lama and resist Chinese occupation. It is an ignoble saga with few, if any, heroes, other than ordinary Tibetans"-- Myth Political aspects History 20th century. 203740 World politics 1945-1989. 54861 POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Nationalism. 203741 HISTORY / Asia / Central Asia. 203742 Tibet Autonomous Region (China) History 1951- 203743 Tibet Autonomous Region (China) Foreign relations 20th century. 203744 Tibet Autonomous Region (China) Foreign public opinion, Western. 203745 Tibet Autonomous Region (China) Strategic aspects. 203746 India Foreign relations China. 203747 China Foreign relations India. 203748 United States Foreign relations 1945-1953. 186209 United States Foreign relations 1953-1961. 186210 Halper, Stefan A., author. 203749 = C.1 SDU GBE lcc 106938 106938 0 0 lcc 0 DS0786 H195 T2014 0 CGB 278780 SDU SDU GEN3 2025-08-21 2 0 DS786 H195 T 2014 1000369972 2025-08-21 00:00:00 C.1 2025-08-21 GBE