If containing atheistic communism is a primary goal, I suspect any Islamic state is a more reliable ally than a socialist Hindu state. India wanted to play both sides off against each other, and they’ve paid a price for that. The non-aligned states they led offer little at this point; instead they export workers to the West. In the meantime, they have to maintain ageing Soviet-bloc weapons while replacing them with newer US-made technology. Historically and culturally, we have no real relationship with India except that both are former British colonies with only a common language.
As I understand it, our support of the French was primarily to contain communism; supporting colonialism was just part of the deal.
The Soviets forced de-colonialization to happen way before it should have, it should have been gradually phased in. But they way it was done, Britain and France just basically said, “Ok, good luck with all that”, and left.
And Ho turned communist because we supported French colonialism.