Because the socialist Indians [read:Nehru and the Congress Party] were in love, and bed, with the U.S.S.R.
Krishna Menon taught them to keep their admiration at the other end of the sofa. That Communists in government were not a good idea.
We should have moved in then .... esp. with the Chicoms all allied-up with the Paks, something no U.S. administration has ever had to explain to the American people.
Not even when it eventuated that it was the Chinese who talked Saddam out of fleeing to Switzerland when Baghdad fell, and instead launching a rope-a-dope "comeback" war, which the Chinese and everyone else knew he would go for -- he always touted himself as some kind of "comeback kid".
The Chinese cost us a lot in Iraq. We owe them in double measure. Maybe Paki would be a good place to start.
Surveying the equities now, makes the Hindu Card start to look kinda heavy in my hand ..... might fall on the table ....