In this chapter, I introduce the topic by showing that US-India relations could be characterized as estranged and were marked by dramatic oscillations. Following this discussion, I will refer to the construction of security issues/problems related to India and security policies toward India within the discourse from Roosevelt through Bush Sr. during five periods. As the chapter will demonstrate,
... [Show full abstract] the US security policies toward India were often tied to the US containment policy—they were constructed as more important—which limited other policy options toward India within the discourse.
These five periods are as follows: the US interest in pre-independent India during the Second World War and afterward (1939–1947); the disinterest of both the Truman and the first Eisenhower administrations (1947–1957); India’s growing importance for both the second Eisenhower and the Kennedy administrations (1957–1963); the unraveling of relations under both the Johnson and the Nixon administrations (1964–1974); and a slight improvement in US-India relations under the Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush administrations as several security issues were articulated (1974–1992).
After this discussion, I provide an overview of the attributes which were attached to India’s and US subject-positions within the underlying policy discourses from the Roosevelt until the Bush Sr. administrations. During these five time periods, various meanings were attached to the USA and India. Several themes became particularly salient: those about development, non-alignment, democracy, and instability were articulated throughout these periods and after the Cold War. They re-emerged in different forms and at different instances.
