Video: 'The Sino-Indian War: Why India Turned On China In The 1960s | Mao's Cold War | Timeline'

(Saturday, October 20, 1962, 5:14 a.m. Indian Standard Time; during the Sino-Indian War) — The Sino-Indian War, a conflict primarily caused by a three-year dispute over the Himalayan border, began today as the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) launched two attacks, 620 miles apart.

Video: 'The Other October Crisis: The Sino-Indian War of 1962'

In the western theatre, the PLA sought to expel Indian forces from the Chip Chap valley in Aksai Chin while in the eastern theatre, the PLA sought to capture both banks of the Namka Chu river.

Some skirmishes also took place at the Nathula Pass, which is in the Indian state of Sikkim (an Indian protectorate at that time). Gurkha rifles traveling north were targeted by Chinese artillery fire.

Video: '1962: Morality and Brinkmanship (1970 documentary narrated by Peter Jennings)' (Sino-Indian War at 1:31) (

After four days of fierce fighting, the three regiments of Chinese troops succeeded in securing a substantial portion of the disputed territory.

The populations of the two nations (670 million for China and 450 million for India) represented one-third of the world’s three billion people in 1962, prompting Newsweek magazine to headline an article in its Oct. 29, 1962, edition, “A Third of the World at War.”