"Kissinger was repeatedly alerted about this genocide. Harold Saunders informed him about reports that the Pakistan army was “deliberately seeking out Hindus and killing them,” while a senior State Department official notified him that Pakistan’s policy was “getting rid of the Hindus.” In a Situation Room meeting, another State Department official plainly told Kissinger, “Eighty percent of the refugees are Hindus.” In the same meeting, the CIA director doubted the prospects of refugees returning to East Pakistan, no matter what Yahya said to them: “The way the Pakistanis have been beating up on the Hindus, the refugees would have to be convinced they wouldn’t be shot in the head.”"
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
NSA, Saunders to Kissinger, 18 May 1971. FRUS, SRG meeting, 23 July 1971, pp. 270–83. FRUS, WSAG meeting, 26 May 1971, 4:35–5 p.m., pp. 149–56. See NSC Files, Box 625, Country Files—Middle East, Pakistan, vol. V, Van Hollen to Farland, 17 May 1971; NSC Files, Box 626, Country Files—Middle East, Pakistan, vol. VI, Williams to Rogers, 20 August 1971, Islamabad 8534 (the cable is signed Farland, following protocol, but is actually from Williams); NSC Files, Box 626, Country Files—Middle East, Pakis
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Blood_Telegram%3A_Nixon%2C_Kissinger%2C_and_a_Forgotten_Genocide
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide
23 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide →
Related Quotes
"“There was clear targeting of Hindus,” says Scott Butcher. “You might also talk about going after Bengalis as a racia…"
"Senior Pakistani officers would later admit much of this targeting before a secret Pakistani postwar judicial inquiry…"
"Still, he thought, genocide was the right description for what was happening to the Hindus. So the consulate “began t…"
"He explained that the Pakistani military evidently did not “make distinctions between Indians and Pakistan Hindus, tr…"
"The Indian prime minister’s secretariat knew that there was sure to be a rush of refugees, likely to overwhelm the lo…"
"Schanberg saw Pakistani soldiers throwing phosphorus grenades into thatch huts and setting villages ablaze, apparentl…"
"Yahya was effusive in his gratitude to Nixon. In a warm letter, he sympathized about the American public pressure tha…"
"Kissinger worked Nixon up. “It shows you’re a weakling, Mr. President,” he said. “[T]hese leaks are slowly and system…"
"In public, Indian officials such as Swaran Singh would impeccably speak up for sovereignty. But behind closed doors, …"
"Myers wrote a desolate letter home to his friends lamenting what he had seen in a small, impoverished Hindu village i…"