The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide

The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide
Author Gary J. Bass
Country United States
Language English
Genre Historical Non-Fiction
Publisher Alfred A. Knopf
Publication date
 2013[1]
Media type Paperback
Pages 544[2]
ISBN 978-8184005769

The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide is a 2013 book by American journalist and academic Gary J. Bass[3] about The Blood telegram. The Blood Telegram is a state department dissent memo on American policy during the Bangladesh genocide sent by Archer Blood the American Consul General to Dhaka, East Pakistan.[4][5]

Author

Gary J. Bass is an American journalist. He is the professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University.[6]

Contents

Following the 1970 General Election in Pakistan held under General Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his Awami League won the election. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was an ethnic Bengali from East Pakistan which was a Bengali majority province. The Pakistan Army was composed mostly of recruits from Punjab and other provinces in West Pakistan. On 25 March 1971 the Pakistan Army launched a crackdown on East Pakistan and started the 1971 Bangladesh Genocide. Archer Blood was then the U. S. consul general in Dhaka, East Pakistan. The staff at the U. S. consulate in Dhaka were "horrified" by the violence and asked Washington, D.C. to intervene. Blood later described the response from Washington as “deafening” silence. Then Blood and his staff created a dissent cable, the Blood telegram. Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger did not intervene because they were trying to use Pakistan to open diplomatic relations with China.[6][7][8]

An excerpt from the telegram, Our government has failed to denounce the suppression of democracy. Our government has failed to denounce atrocities...... Our government has evidenced what many will consider moral bankruptcy . . .[9]

Critical reception

Dexter Filkins wrote in The New York Times, Nixon and Kissinger spent the decades after leaving office burnishing their images as great statesmen. This book goes a long way in showing just how undeserved those reputations are.[1] It won the Lionel Gelber Prize in 2014.[10]

References

  1. 1 2 Bass, Gary J. (24 September 2013). "The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide". Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
  2. ↑ Bass, Gary J. (15 July 2014). "The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide". amazon.com. Vintage. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
  3. ↑ Bhattacherjee, Kallol. "History divided". The Hindu. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
  4. ↑ Filkins, Dexter (27 September 2013). "'The Blood Telegram,' by Gary J. Bass". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
  5. ↑ "Nixon and Kissinger's Forgotten Genocide". counterpunch.org. 4 October 2013. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
  6. 1 2 Sheehan, Neil (4 October 2013). "'The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide' by Gary J. Bass". The Washington Post. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
  7. ↑ "Blood meridian". The Economist. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
  8. ↑ "Unholy Alliances". The New Yorker. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
  9. ↑ "One genocide, one telegram, and two opportunists". The Daily Star. 25 March 2017. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
  10. ↑ "Bass Wins 2014 Lionel Gelber Prize". Woodrow Wilson School. 31 March 2014. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
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