India had no problems in receiving aid both from US and the Soviet Union. President Kennedy referred to India favourably in his inaugural speech and earlier as a senator sponsored the Kennedy-Cooper Aid bill for India. Jawaharlal Nehru was firmly opposed to its becoming a third bloc, though the other co-founders of non-aligned movement favoured creating a secretariat and converting it into a third force. India was also opposed to the view that the Socialist bloc was a natural ally of the non-aligned.

What was the non-aligned movement about? It started with the newly decolonised nations which did not want to join either of the two military blocs getting together to assert their autonomy, their plea for disarmament and greater development aid. Attending the non-aligned conferences did not prevent individual nations from having close relations, including military relations with the US, UK and France or the Soviet Union. Malaysia and Singapore had defence pacts with Britain and Australia. Saudi Arabia had very close relations with the US and UK. Cuba was very closely tied to the Soviet Union. Yet they came together under the non-aligned umbrella because they were not formal members of Cold War military alliances.

Though the non-aligned claimed to stay out of the tensions created by the Cold War they fought wars among themselves. The Iraq-Iran war was the longest war among two non-aligned countries without the movement being able to stop it. Other non-aligned countries supported the belligerents and helped them to sustain the war. Malaysia and Indonesia, both non-aligned, had their conflicts. Somalia and Ethiopia, Egypt and Yemen fought wars. Chemical weapons were used in the Iraq-Iran and Egypt-Yemen wars. All this made a mockery of the boast of the non-aligned movement being the largest peace movement.

... contd.