Pre-independence Commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1936, Candeth saw action in West Asia during the Second World War. Shortly before India's independence from colonial rule, he was deployed in the
North West Frontier Province, bordering
Afghanistan, to quell local tribal uprisings. The mountainous terrain gave Candeth the experience for his later operations against
Nagaland separatists in the North East. He attended the Military Services Staff College at
Quetta, capital of
Baluchistan in 1945.
Kashmir 1947 After Independence, Candeth was commanding 16 Field Regiment, an artillery regiment that was deployed to
Jammu and Kashmir after
Pakistan-backed tribesmen attacked and captured a third of the province before being forced back by the Indian Army. Thereafter, Candeth held a series of senior appointments, including that of Director General of Artillery at Army Headquarters in
Delhi, to which he was appointed on 8 September 1959, with the acting rank of major-general (substantive colonel).
Goa Following Indian independence from British rule, certain parts of India were still under foreign rule. While the French left India in 1954, the Portuguese, however, refused to leave. After complex diplomatic pressure and negotiations had failed, on 18 December 1961
Defence Minister V.K. Krishna Menon ordered the military to overrun Goa and oust the Portuguese. Candeth, whose father was close to Menon, all three of them being related as elite
Nairs, was chosen by Menon to command in
Operation Vijay—the
Annexation of Goa,
Daman and Diu from Portuguese rule. In an obituary tribute to Candeth, The Independent of London however referred to him as "born into a middle-class Anglo-Indian family" while early scholarly references also referred to him as Kenneth P. Candeth. As 17 Infantry Division commander, Candeth took the colony within a day and was immediately appointed Goa's first Indian administrator (acting as the Military Governor), a post he held till June 1962. Controversial as the military action was, Candeth inevitably received critical coverage in the western press, although the primary brunt of criticism was Menon, followed by Nehru.
North East After relinquishing command as Goa's Military Governor in 1963, Candeth was appointed GOC, Nagaland on 23 August 1963. He took command of the newly raised 8 Mountain Division in the North-East on 15 November 1963, where he battled, although with little success, the highly organised Naga insurgents. The insurgency in the North East has not been quelled completely to this day. On 7 May 1965, he was appointed Deputy Chief of the Army Staff (DCOAS) with the acting rank of lieutenant-general. He was promoted to lieutenant-general on 17 January 1966, ==Awards and later life==