A review of the book 'The Blood Telegram: India's Secret War in East Pakistan' written by Gary J. Bass.
This magnificent history provides an unprecedented chronicle of the 1971 break-up of Pakistan and the creation of Bangladesh. It provides the first full account of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger’s secret support for Pakistan in 1971 as it committed shocking atrocities in Bangladesh.
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Coming up: A review of the book 'The Blood Telegram: India's Secret War in East Pakistan' written by Gary J. Bass.
Namaste Friends. My name is 'Shinil Subramanian Payamal' and you are listening to the Historylogy podcast.
Before I proceed, a full disclosure: This book was bought with my own money and not been provided to me by the author or publisher.
Little bit about the author:
Gary J. Bass is the author of Freedom's Battle: The Origins of Humanitarian Intervention and Stay the Hand of Vengeance: The Politics of War Crimes Tribunals. His most recent work, Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia, has received widespread acclaim and was shortlisted for major literary awards. He is a professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University.
A former reporter for The Economist, he has written often for The New York Times, and has also written for The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The New Republic, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Slate, and other publications.
Let me read a brief description of the book:
QUOTE
This magnificent history provides an unprecedented chronicle of the 1971 break-up of Pakistan and the creation of Bangladesh. It provides the first full account of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger’s secret support for Pakistan in 1971 as it committed shocking atrocities in Bangladesh.
Drawing on unheard White House tapes, recently declassified documents, and investigative reporting, Gary Bass uncovers an astonishing unknown story of superpower brinkmanship, war, scandal, and conscience and the events which led to war between India and Pakistan, shaped the fate of Asia, and left major strategic consequences for the subcontinent today.
This is a pathbreaking account of India’s real motives and the secret decisions taken by Indira Gandhi and her closest advisers. Revelatory, authoritative, and compulsively readable, The Blood Telegram is a thrilling chronicle of a pivotal chapter in South Asia’s history.
UNQUOTE
The book centers on the U.S. consul general in Dhaka Archer Blood, who courageously documented and reported the atrocities being committed by the Pakistani military on the Bengali population of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and the specific targeting of Bengalis’ Hindu minority. His telegrams—most famously the one that inspired the book’s title—condemned the American government’s complicity and silence, particularly that of President Richard Nixon and his national security adviser Henry Kissinger. Bass portrays Blood as a principled diplomat whose warnings were largely ignored in favor of maintaining a strategic alliance with Pakistan and preserving backchannel diplomacy with China.
The author mentions how Kenneth Keating, the U.S. ambassador to India reminded Kissinger that the Pakistani army was concentrating on the Hindus. At first, the refugees fleeing into India had been in the same proportion as existed in the overall population of East Pakistan, but now 90 percent were Hindus.
The Indian government, from Indira Gandhi on down, worked hard to hide an ugly reality from its own people: by an official reckoning, as many as 90 percent of the refugees were Hindus.
The narrative also delves into India’s role, portraying Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as a shrewd strategist navigating domestic pressures and international constraints to support the Bengali independence movement.
Indira Gandhi gave Zulfikar Ali Bhutto generous terms at Simla in June 1972: the return of some five thousand square miles of Pakistani territory seized by Indian troops, and the repatriation of ninety-three thousand Pakistani prisoners of war. Many Indians were startled by Bhutto’s success at Shimla, with the opposition arguing that Gandhi had lost at the negotiating table what the army had won in war.
Bass excels at blending high-level diplomacy with ground-level horror, detailing the genocide that killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions. His prose is clear and engaging, though occasionally dense with diplomatic minutiae. The book’s strength lies in its nuanced portrayal of moral ambiguity—nobody emerges as a pure hero or villain, from Nixon’s callousness to India’s mixed motives.
Conclusion:
The Blood Telegram is a sobering reminder of how power politics can amplify suffering, and it remains strikingly relevant to discussions of intervention and ethics today. It is essential reading for anyone interested in South Asian history, U.S. foreign policy, or international human rights. Gary J. Bass has produced not just a historical account but a cautionary tale about the cost of ignoring conscience in the corridors of power.
I give this book 4.25/5.
Before I finish this review, I would like to state that many Indian officials gloated that the creation of Bangladesh has sounded a death knell to the so-called two-nation theory. More than a decade after the war, the journalist Tariq Ali wrote, “The ‘two-nations’ theory, formulated in the middle-class living rooms of Uttar Pradesh, was buried in the Bengali countryside.”
The book is available in Paperback, Kindle and Audible formats. I have given the respective buy links in the show notes. Please check them out for the latest prices.
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