The United States recently lifted Cold War restrictions on trading nuclear and space technology with India

* The United States recently lifted Cold War restrictions on trading nuclear and space technology with India. A State Department spokesman said the two countries also agreed to "expand our dialogue" on missile defense. For decades India was a soft ally of the Soviet Union. The fall of Communism, India's impatience with socialism, and--even more--9/11 have scrambled the old dynamics.

The United States and India are vastly different nations that nonetheless share representative government, religious freedom, booming high-tech sectors, and the English language. An old American interest in India, which runs through Eliot back to Emerson and Thoreau, is bound to become a lot stronger.

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