Book Review [99] : The Blood Telegram

Indians are bastards, sons of bitches, cowards, full of ingratitude, Indira is a bitch..blah blah blah.... (President Nixon and his NSA Henry Kissinger)

These were the words spoken by the most powerful men of 1970s and so called upholder of democracy and human rights. 

President Richard Nixon and his National Security Adviser perpetrated what can be called a full blown genocide in the flat lands of East Pakistan. They were neither actually pulling the triggers nor burning the houses of Bengalees (mainly Hindus) but they were the force behind all those criminals and their super boss Yahya Khan. The crackdown started by Lt. General Tikka Khan (Military Governor of East Pakistan) on 25th March 1971 stopped only when Indian Army along with Bangladeshi volunteer force (Mukti Bahini) liberated East Bengal on the fateful day of 16th Dec 1971 but before that about 1 million (though the numbers vary from 300,000 to 3 million depending on the source selected) people were brutally killed, more than hundred thousands women were raped and about 10 million Bengalees were expelled from East Pakistan. This was called selective genocide as various sources including Senator Ted Kennedy, Dacca Consul General Archer Blood, NYT Correspondent Sydney Schanberg and others had proved beyond any reasonable doubt that this was directed mainly against Hindus. 80% of the people killed in East Pakistan were Hindus and 90% of the expelled people were Hindus. The twin objective of Pakistani leadership were:

1. To crush the moral of Bengalees

2. To get rid of Hindu element from East Pakistan thus reducing the population of Bengalees to less than 50% of the overall population of Pakistan. This would reduce their say in the political solution of the Pakistan. 

Nixon and Kissinger supported Yahya Khan in this Hitlerian task to gain some points on Cold War chessboard. Yahya Khan was playing the role of broker between China and USA to bring China closer to USA in order to end the Cold War once and for all. 

The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide is a magnificently researched work by historian Gary. J Bass. This work is based on the White House tapes, papers of Nixon and others and is well acclaimed. The Blood Telegram was the telegram sent by the Archer Blood in April 1971 just a week after the star of the genocide. This telegram was a conscious effort of the American diplomats based in Dacca to shift a change in US foreign policy to save people from getting massacred in East Pakistan but Nixon and Kissinger ignored this telegram and endorsed Yahya Khan's effort in East Pakistan.

Its a must read book to understand the politics and policies of USA; the country that considers itself as the defender of Democracy and upholder of Human Rights played a key role in the genocide and rape of Bengalees (mainly Hindus) in East Pakistan. 

Highly Recommended (10/10)