The Blood Telegram: Indias Secret War in East Pakistan

Language: English
Pages: 526

About the Book

In 1971, The pakistani army launched a devastating crackdown on what was then east pakistan. Killing thousands and sending ten million refugees fleeing into India. The events also sparked the 1971 indo-pakistani war.

Drawing on recently declassified documents, Unheard white house tapes, and meticulous investigative reporting. Gary bass gives us an unprecedented chronicle of the break-up of pakistan. And Indias role in it, This is a pathbreaking account of Indias real motives. The build-up to the war, and the secret decisions taken by Indira gandhi and her closest advisers.

This book is also the story of how two of the worlds great democracies-India and the united states-dealt with one of the most terrible humanitarian crises of the twentieth century. The united states embrace of the military dictatorship in islamabad would affect geopolitics for decades. The blood telegram is a revelatory and compelling work, Essential reading for anyone interested in the recent history of our region.

About the Author

Gary j. Bass is the author of freedoms battle: the origins of humanitarian intervention and stay the hand of vengeance: the politics of war crimes tribunals. A former reporter for the economist, he has written often for the new york times, as well as writing for the new Yorker, Washington post. Los angeles times, New republic. Foreign affairs, and other publications.

Preface

Archer Blood, the United States consul general in Dacca, was a gentle-manly diplomat raised in Virginia, a World War II navy veteran in the upswing of a promising Foreign Service career after several tours over-seas. He was earnest and precise, known to some of his more unruly subordinates at the U.S. con