Role of US during the war : During Bangladesh’s liberation war, “the United States supported Pakistan both politically and materially’. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_Liberation_War). US president Nixon remained quiet, all through the nine of months’ of war atrocities and genocide perpetrated by the Pakistanis in the occupied territories of Bangladesh, by saying that ‘it is Pakistan’s internal matter’, in other words Nixon and Kissinger did not recognize the freedom struggle of 70 million people Bangladesh .
It is imperative that we know about the ‘ Blood Telegram’ and read it in detail to understand that Mr. Archer Blood and 27 others working in the American Embassy in Dhaka informed the Nixon administration’s State Department i.e. the dept of Henry Kissinger by a telegram [(U.S. Consulate (Dacca) Cable, Dissent from U.S. Policy Toward East Pakistan, April 6, 1971, Confidential, 5 pp. Includes Signatures from the Department of State. Source: RG 59, SN 70-73 Pol and Def. From: Pol Pak-U.S. To: Pol 17-1 Pak-U.S. Box 2535. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archer_Blood.) ] about the genocide in Bangladesh but that was of no avail.
Meanwhile India traveled all around the world to make the case of Bangladesh known to the world. Despite all these Nixon & Kissinger were happy to keep quiet until the end of the war, This encouraged China to become more helpful to Pakistan militarily. Kissinger & Nixon felt that the new country of Bangladesh will be more associated & aligned with the USSR. India in the meantime enteedr a treaty with USSR in august 1971, so that -should there be any attack on her, by the China and/ or US, the USSR would get involved in the war.
When Pakistan was about to get defeated the US broke its calmness, US went to security council for the rescue of Pakistan on the 7th of Dec’71 and again on the 12th of Dec demanding immediate withdrawal of India just to save Pakistan from its impending defeat and got majority of votes in the security council , but it was vetoed by USSR. , By that time the occupying Pakistan army in Bangladesh surrendered and there was end of war on the 16th day of Dec1971. Meanwhile Nixon sent USS Enterprise , an aircraft carrier which reached the Bay Of Bengal in the 11th of Dec which was taken as nuclear threat by India. In this situation USSR sent two groups of ships loaded with nuclear missiles from Vladivostok which kept a keen eye on the movements of US task force in the Indian ocean from 18th Dec until 7th January1972. the threat poised by the US was the quelled off by USSR. By January 1972 most Warsaw countries recognized Bangladesh, but still in January US nuclear weapon rich carrier was creating a feeling of threat in the mind of already devastated Bengali people , but in the US George Harrison by the request Pundit Ravishankar organized a concert for Bangladesh which not only raised money ,but also had a more direct impact on the total psyche of American population .
However by the time US recognized it was already April ’72. Thus US waited without recognizing Bangladesh for almost 4 months just to see if survives the infancy. When it did survive - US started another chapter of activities. what happened to Allende Indira & same to Mujib. As far as China was concerned it recognized Bangladesh on the 8TH of Oct 1975 only after Bangabandhu was killed, even after Bangladesh was recognized by Kingdom of Saudi Arabia .(CONTINUED)
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