Part III: The Blood Telegram: India’s secret war in East Pakistan by Gary J. Bass

Presidential prejudice and an advisor’s chicanery

Richard Nixon had a visceral hatred of Indians and a deep disdain for the Hindu faith. His antipathy towards India originated from a mix of racism, and an inferiority complex. On his first visit to India, in 1953, as Vice President to Eisenhower, he found Nehru’s (India’s first Prime Minister) Queen’s English delivered with impeccable diction, and British accent, so distant from his own expletive-ridden Americanese, irritating. He felt that this brown washed man had no business to have a scholarly grasp of global history. He found Nehru’s non-alignment, coupled with fondness for the Soviet Union, a classic example of Hindu deceit. Nixon was not a man to forget easily his first impressions. In contrast, his visit to Pakistan, the cantonment at stately Rawalpindi, and his meeting with the smartly dressed, but distinctly less intelligent Generals was rewarding. Pakistan readily aligned itself with the United States joining eagerly the CENTO and SEATO treaties, providing bases for the US within Pakistani territory, wringing in return, military aid in the form of 640 tanks, artillery, a submarine, sundry ships, B-57 bombers, F-86 sabre jets, interceptors, helicopters, and C-130 transport planes. Pesky Nehru fumed at the mighty US, and irritated Nixon further (pages 3-4).

Kissinger was Nixon’s shadowy National Security Advisor, with a nebulous role, distinct from, and independent of, the Secretary of State, with direct and unlimited access to Presidential facetime, in brief- a buddy. Kissinger instinctively knew how make himself indispensable. Inflame the President’s prejudices, echo his views, and shield him from independent advice. Here are a few of Nixon’s views on India:

(1)   “I don’t like the Indians”- at the height of the Bengali crisis (page 5, 262).

(2)   “The Indians need- what they need really is a mass famine”, to which Kissinger responds, “They’re such bastards” (page 144). This is in the context of India having to deal with the refugee problem single handedly.

(3)   “Why don’t they [Indians] shoot them [refugees]?” This to the American Ambassador to India, Keating who had come to urge aid for India to care for the refugees (page 153).

(4)   “The Indians are a slippery treacherous people”. Kissinger the man of the hour adding, that the Indians are “insufferably arrogant”, and “Yahya hasn’t had such fun since the last Hindu massacre!” This in the context of Kissinger’s visit to India, Pakistan, and his secret visit to China in the aftermath (page 177).  

(5)   The State Department which had always taken an independent stand on this matter had recommended that Nixon take a tough approach towards Yahya including asking him to make peace with Awami League and stop destroying Hindu villages (page 209). This ignited Nixon. His response: “Sick Bastards”, said Nixon of those in the State Department who had supported Archer Blood and his telegram (page 211).

(6)   “I want a public relations program developed to piss on the Indians” & “I want to piss on them for their responsibility”, “I want the Indians blamed for this ---- we can’t let these goddamn, sanctimonious Indians get away with this.” This rant is in the context of the 14 day war that India had begun to swiftly win (page 286-7).

(7)   Not to be outdone by his boss, Kissinger, in a theatre of the absurd, more than once compared Yahya to Abraham Lincoln. Apparently Yahya was waging a civil war like Abe to keep the country together! See page 209 for one such instance.

What was the end result of these confabulations between the President and his intrepid Advisor?

(1)   Nixon cut off all aid to India, including the miniscule USD 70 million granted for refugee relief. This included the cancellation of critical radar equipment promised to India in the wake of the 1962 war with China, to guard our northern border.

(2)   China was informed of the cancellation of the supply of the radar equipment to India, a surreptitious hint that they could attack India’s northern border once again if they so desired.

(3)   The President approved the illegal transfer of American airplanes to Pakistan from third parties such as Jordan, Iran, and Turkey to compensate for the American-supplied jets that Pakistan had lost to the Indian air attacks on both frontiers.

(4)   The President ordered the famous seventh fleet, led by the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise into the Bay of Bengal in a threatening gesture. This was flowed by HMS Eagle of the UK Navy.

While these actions did not delay the Indian victory, they gave the wrong impression to Yahya that the big powers, such as China and the US would directly intervene against India- an illusion that the Pakistan’s Eastern Command hemmed in by the Indian forces from all sides did not entertain. They asked for permission to surrender on December 10^th, 1971 which was denied.  Instead they surrendered on December 16^th after Yahya, authorized the Eastern Command to decide independently on the matter, i.e., after effectively throwing the Eastern Command to the wolves.