USMYINDIA: November 2010

INDO-US RELATIONSHIP LANDMARKS

1941 President Franklin D Roosevelt roots for Indian independence. He tells British

Prime Minister Winston Churchill, “India should be made a Commonwealth at

once. After a certain number of years-five perhaps or ten-she should be able to

choose whether she wants to remain in the Empire or have complete

Independence.”

1949 Jawaharlal Nehru becomes the first Indian Prime Minister to visit America.

1953 India and the United States are embroiled in an acerbic dispute over the Battle

Act, which bars American aid to any country that traded in strategic goods

With China.

1959 Eisenhower becomes the first American president to visit India.

1960 America signs a four-year, $1.27 billion PL-480 food agreement with India.

1966 Indira Gandhi travels to Washington and meets President Lyndon B Johnson.

Although billed as a goodwill visit she admits to an associate that “my main

mission is to get both food and foreign exchange without asking for them.”

1969 Richard Nixon becomes the second American president to tour India in a visit

that’s believed by many to be the least productive by any US president.

1979 A year after Morarji Desai travels to the US, Jimmy Carter comes to India,

visits a village in Haryana, which is later christened “Carterpuri”.

1985 Rajiv Gandhi goes on his first official tour of America; meets President

Ronald Reagan.

2000 Bill Clinton becomes the fourth American president to come to India.

2005 Dr. Manmohan Singh visits America and the much debated nuclear deal is

signed.

2006 Bush comes to India, agrees to support India’s nuclear power programme.

2009 Dr. Manmohan Singh visits Washington, the first foreign leader to be received

as a state guest by the 10-month old Obama administration.

USMYINDIA