Tensions escalated between the Moscow and Beijing, as Chinese leader Mao Zedong castigated Khrushchev's "capitulation" in the Cuban crisis. With a partial thaw in relations between the United States and the Soviet Union, China emerged as the biggest Cold War enemy in Kennedy's rhetoric. To rally support at home for his "Great Leap Forward", Mao deliberately made the United States a highly visible enemy, and focused even more hostility against India, to the point of low-level 33-day war along their long border in late 1962. The United States supported India, ignoring India's long-standing commitment to Moscow. India realized it needed American financial help and munitions so Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in August 1963, wrote Kennedy explaining the challenges India faced from China and Pakistan. Nehru indicated his agreement with the American position when he warned that the Chinese were: