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A riveting historymdashthe first full accountmdashof the involvement of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger in the atrocities in Bangladesh that led to war between India and Pakistan shaped the fate of Asia and left in their wake a host of major strategic consequences for the world todayGiving an astonishing inside view of how the White House really works in a crisis The Blood Telegram is an unprecedented chronicle of a pivotal but little-known chapter of the Cold War Gary J Bass shows how Nixon and Kissinger supported Pakistanrsquos military dictatorship as it brutally quashed the results of a historic free election The Pakistani army launched a crackdown on what was then East Pakistan today an independent Bangladesh killing hundreds of thousands of people and sending ten million refugees fleeing to Indiamdashone of the worst humanitarian crises of the twentieth century Nixon and Kissinger unswayed by detailed warnings of genocide from American diplomats witnessing the bloodshed stood behind Pakistanrsquos military rulers Driven not just by Cold War realpolitik but by a bitter personal dislike of India and its leader Indira Gandhi Nixon and Kissinger actively helped the Pakistani government even as it careened toward a devastating war against India They silenced American officials who dared to speak up secretly encouraged China to mass troops on the Indian border and illegally supplied weapons to the Pakistani militarymdashan overlooked scandal that presages Watergate Drawing on previously unheard White House tapes recently declassified documents and extensive interviews with White House staffers and Indian military leaders The Blood Telegram tells this thrilling shadowy story in full Bringing us into the drama of a crisis exploding into war Bass follows reporters consuls and guerrilla warriors on the groundmdashfrom the desperate refugee camps to the most secretive conversations in the Oval Office Bass makes clear how the United Statesrsquo embrace of the military dictatorship in Islamabad would mold Asiarsquos destiny for decades and confronts for the first time Nixon and Kissingerrsquos hidden role in a tragedy that was far bloodier than Bosnia This is a revelatory compulsively readable work of politics personalities military confrontation and Cold War brinksmanship.
