Personal Life
Menon was an intensely controversial figure during his life, and has remained so even well after his death. Widely described as brilliant and arrogant, he was known for the sheer force of his personality.
A complex man, Menon dressed expensively in bespoke Savile Row suits, while maintaining an otherwise ascetic lifestyle, abstaining from tobacco, alcohol, and meat.
The Sino-Indian War of 1962, marked a turning point in the life of Menon and he himself described it as a "grave mistake" to underestimate China.
Menon was widely reviled by Western statesmen who loathed his arrogance, outspokenness, and fiercely anti-Western stances. American President Dwight Eisenhower considered the outwardly courteous Menon a "menace ... governed by ambition to prove himself the master international manipulator and politician of the age". Western publications routinely referred to him as "India's Rasputin" or "Nehru's Evil Genius".
Read more about this topic: V. K. Krishna Menon
Famous quotes containing the words personal and/or life:
“Childrens lives are not shaped solely by their families or immediate surroundings at large. That is why we must avoid the false dichotomy that says only government or only family is responsible. . . . Personal values and national policies must both play a role.”
—Hillary Rodham Clinton (20th century)
“Mortals are easily tempted to pinch the life out of their neighbours buzzing glory, and think that such killing is no murder.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)