This week, India and Pakistan mark the 50th anniversary of their independence from Britain - and from each other.
Under British imperial rule, the two countries had been one. But in a wrenching series of negotiations, they split over a difference in religion. Pakistan was to be primarily a Muslim state; India was to be primarily Hindu.Negotiations and nationhood didn't end the disputes between the two peoples. There have been three wars between India and Pakistan, the most recent in 1971.
This reporter doesn't pretend to be an expert on these two countries. However, I covered the second India-Pakistan war in 1965. And what I saw told me a lot about the realities, and the potentials, of these two countries.
We had to drive out to the battle front, outside a city that has been a flashpoint of conflict between the two countries: on the Pakistani side, the city is called Lahore. On the Indian side of the border, the city is Amritsar. The battle was east of Amritsar.
I'd seen a skirmish, but never a war. Suddenly here was one bursting all around me. It was like watching a deadly movie.
It was plain to see the Indians had the older equipment, but they could maneuver better, darting like a mongoose. The Pakistanis had more firepower, able to strike like the cobra. If the cobra could just keep the mongoose pinned down, the Pakistanis would win.
Yet it was not to be. In a single day, I counted more than 40 destroyed Pakistani tanks. Leadership and mobility made the difference. The Indian officers had better training, used their equipment more efficiently, and moreover had the advantage of fighting on their own turf. Within a few weeks, the Indian counteroffensive had pushed back the Pakistani incursions there in the northwest.
That first battle taught me a lesson that would be proven again in other battles I would see, from Vietnam to Afghanistan to Kuwait to Bosnia: Mobility and motivation can almost always beat heavier firepower.
But some of the other lessons I learned in those days had little to do with war.
I had never seen such poverty and sickness as I saw in India in 1965. The degree of human misery is almost impossible to describe. So many people were starving, sick, desperately poor.
I was also saddened by the hatred between Indians and Pakistanis.
What potential lay in these countries' hands! If the people could be employed and fed, if the people could work together, Hindus and Muslims side by side, then it seemed there was nothing they might not accomplish.
The potential is still there - and too little developed.
Too often, Americans tend to ignore what goes on in India and Pakistan, until there's a famine or disaster of some kind. But we do so at our peril.
This is not only because India and Pakistan are so populous, with nuclear options and the power to wage devastating war.
Both countries deserve our attention and our respect because we have much in common. Like the United States, these were large colonies who broke away from British rule. Both countries offer myriad potential resources - and markets for American goods.
And, perhaps most important, many families who are American today came from India or Pakistan only yesterday.
They will be celebrating the independence, and the peace, between India and Pakistan. So should the rest of us.