Sydney Schanberg, who covered 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War for The New York Times, wrote this about the Indian Army: “I don’t like sitting around praising armies. I don’t like armies because armies mean wars. But this (Indian) army was something. They were great all the way. _There never was a black mark … I lived with the officers, and I walked and rode with the jawans. They were all great. But I never saw a man flinch because he was scared. There was a tremendous spirit in the Indian Army, and it did one good to experience it. _“I have seen our boys [US Army] in Vietnam—and this army was different. Their arms and equipment aren’t as good-but what they had were used with effect and boy! could they improvise. I saw heavy recoilless guns carried on shoulders, big guns pushed across marshes like ox-carts, by jawans, villagers, officers, everybody was in it together, and they were perfect gentlemen. I never saw them do a thing wrong, not even when they saw just how bestial the enemy had been.”
Cheers, Doc