September 23, 2004 ☼ Foreign Affairs
This is an archived blog post from The Acorn.
He was the senior official among 20 members of the U.S. diplomatic corps who signed the dissenting cable, which was prompted by the Pakistani military’s brutal crackdown against the Bengali inhabitants of what was known as East Pakistan in March 1971. At least 10,000 civilians were massacred in the first three days; the eventual civilian death toll might have been as high as 3 million. Some 10 million Bengalis, about 13 percent of East Bengal’s population, fled across the border into India.
In their cable, Mr. Blood and his fellow signatories charged: “Our government has failed to denounce the suppression of democracy. Our government has failed to take forceful measures to protect its citizens while at the same time bending over backwards to placate the West Pakistan-dominated government. Our government has evidenced what many will consider moral bankruptcy, ironically at a time when the U.S.S.R. sent President Yahya Khan a message defending democracy. . . .” [Washington Post]Nixon and Kissinger immediately recalled him to Washington and banished him to bureaucratic oblivion. Blood had the courage to call a spade a spade. May his tribe increase.
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