Reddit reviews The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide

> I wish Indira had invaded West Pakistan in 1971 and broken it to pieces.

I used to think like that. Then I read this book. Then I understood why Indira Gandhi didn't go into West Pak.

India was facing a very hostile west, especially a very hostile America. Indira Gandhi's whole reasoning was that it was beyond an internal matter of Pakistan because it was having a direct effect on India (refugee crisis). Furthermore, India said that it supported the right of Bangladeshis for self-determination.

Nixon and Kissinger, meanwhile, where paranoid that India was using this as an excuse to steamroll Pakistan and destroy it. In fact, they were convinced of it from the beginning. They were also extremely pro-Pakistani at the time because of Nixon's close personal relationship with Yahya, whom he admired. At the time Yahya was also working through back-channels with China to facilitate Nixon's rapprochement with that country.

Towards the end of the war, Nixon was starting to become increasingly unhinged. He was convinced that India would destroy Pakistan and essentially lay out a red (pun not intended) carpet for Soviet hegemony over South Asia. This is why he even sent Task Force 74 led by the USS Enterprise to threaten India.

India's goals were to crush the Pak army in East Pakistan while defending the western frontier. There is no way India could have rolled into West Pakistan and taken over territory (geopolitically; I am not saying that the Army didn't have the capability). The US would most certainly have reacted, along with other western powers. It would have also nullified India's moral stance on the war.

You could not be more wrong. There were 10 million Bangladeshi refugees pushed into India in that war, 90% of them were Hindus. Before the war, nearly 30% of Bangladeshi population were Hindu, today, only about 10% are. This is a direct result of persecution and ethnic cleansing that took place during the war and continued after the Mujib years. FYI.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Blood-Telegram-Kissinger-Forgotten/dp/0307700208

Since a number of people over here are asking for further reads, I would recommend this excellent book - 'The Blood Telegram', less from the Indian perspective, and more of Nixon's phobia towards India, and the resulting policies.

> If India is so great, why arent you there?

I have business interests in both India and the US. I work 6 months in each country. Apparently, I am a very useful guy and your country's firm needs me desperately.

> It's also clear your opinions are racially based (hence your comment about white people being dumb earlier).

Aww, did I hit a nerve? LOL.

> Of course hinduphobia is a thing, but the idea our media is Hindi-phobic is laughable.

You are speaking out of your ass again cowboy. There's enough documented evidence for this phenomenon in US media:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-India_sentiment#North_America

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vamsee-juluri/indophobia-the-real-eleph_b_415237.html

http://rajivmalhotra.com/library/articles/washington-post-hinduphobia/

http://hafsite.org/sites/default/files/Coalition_Against_Genocide_A_Nexus_of_HinduphobiaUnveiled.pdf

FFS, the US ignored a genocide of 3 million Hindus and actively supported the genocidal regime as recently as the 1970s.

> Lol. I ask again, if India is so great, why aren't you there? Seems funny you are in an "inferior country".

I am there, half the time. Unlike some people, I don't see countries as inferior or superior. However, I have no problems calling a spade a spade. If the US has a higher rape rate than India, then it just does. There's nothing wrong in accepting facts. Doesn't make the US any "inferior". LOL.