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Untangling history’s greatest controversies

Every month, host Zach Cornwell takes a hard look at the historical conflicts that raise difficult questions, stoke controversy, and send our moral compasses spinning.

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The 1971 Bangladesh War – Part 3: A Man Named Blood

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On March 25th, 1971, President Yahya Khan launches Operation Searchlight in East Pakistan, a brutal military crackdown intended to snuff out Bengali separatism and restore West Pakistani authority. Meanwhile, an American diplomat in Dacca named Archer Blood begins reporting and documenting the slaughter, hoping to convince his government to step in and restrain Yahya. In Washington, D.C., President Richard Nixon and his national security advisor Henry Kissinger weigh the political costs of intervening in the atrocities, while secretly planning a groundbreaking outreach to Communist China.


SOURCES:

Bass, Gary K. The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide. 2013.

Bennet-Jones, Own. The Bhutto Dynasty. 2020.

Carney, Scott. Miklian, Jason. The Vortex: A True Story of History’s Deadliest Storm, an

Unspeakable War, and Liberation. 2022.

Chang, Jung. Halliday, Jon. Mao: The Unknown Story. 2005.

Frank, Katherine. Indira: The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi. 2001.

Gewen, Barry. The Inevitability of Tragedy: Henry Kissinger and his World. 2020.

Hiro, Dilip. The Longest August: The Unflinching Rivalry Between India and Pakistan. 2015.

Hitchens, Christopher. The Trial of Henry Kissinger. 2001.

Hoodbhoy, Pervez. Pakistan: Origins, Identity and Future. 2023.

Jalal, Ayesha. The Struggle for Pakistan. 2014.

James, Lawrence. Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India. 1997.

Jayakar, Pupul. Indira Gandhi: A Biography. 1975.

Khosa, Faisal. The Making of Martyrs in India, Pakistan & Bangladesh. 2021.

K.S. Nair. December In Dacca. 2022.

Keay, John. India: A History. 2000.

Mookherjee, Nayanika. The Spectral Wound. 2015.

Raghavan, Srinath. 1971: A Global History of the Creation of Bangladesh. 2013.

Rose, Leo. Sisson, Richard. War and Secession. Pakistan, India, and the Creation of Bangladesh. 1990.

Saikia, Yasmin. Women, War, and the Making of Bangladesh. 2011.

Schendel, Willem van. A History of Bangladesh. 2009.

Schwartz, Thomas Alan. Henry Kissinger and American Power. 2020.

Sengupta, Nitish. Land of Two Rivers: A History of Bengal. 2011.

Tudda, Chris. A Cold War Turning Point: Nixon and China, 1969-1972. 2012.

Walsh, Declan. The Nine Lives of Pakistan. 2020.

Zakaria, Anam. 1971: A People’s History from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India. 2019.

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