The Cruel Birth of Bangladesh - Memoirs of an American Diplomat

The Cruel Birth of Bangladesh - Memoirs of an American Diplomat' is Archer K. Blood's firsthand account of the emergence of Bangladesh, seen through the eyes of a sympathetic American diplomat stationed in Dhaka during the turbulent period of 1970-71. Blood, who served as the U.S. Consul General in Dhaka, chronicles the events of 1971 as he and his staff at the United States Mission witnessed them unfold. The book portrays the drama involving the three central figures of the period: General Yahya Khan, Z.A. Bhutto and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Blood attempts to explain how these three men handled the enormous pressures from their own constituencies, from each other, and from their sense of personal duty.

The narrative swings between an intensely personal memoir and a serious account of the Bangladesh crisis, which Henry Kissinger later described as perhaps the most complex issue to confront the first Nixon term. Blood had to wait until December 1998 for the State Department to declassify the documents and telegrams related to this period before he could use them. In 24 chapters, this book reads like an epitaph for the martyrs of the Bengali people's struggle for freedom. It is part of the Road to Bangladesh Series, which presents published accounts of the background to Bangladesh's emergence, making it invaluable for students and scholars of South Asian politics and history.