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Blood Telegram Essay

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This ignorance in American policy is best seen through the notable Blood Telegram. American diplomats in the region sent numerous cables to the White House with evidence of torture and genocide. These messages urged higher officials to take on the responsibility of intervention due to the humanitarian crimes being committed. The famous telegram was sent by American consulate Archer Blood, who was serving in Dacca, the capital of East Pakistan. Witnessing the genocide first hand, Blood warned that the “independence of East Pakistan is inevitable”. He justified the revolt for autonomy by East Pakistan as the Awami League party won a majority in the general elections. Describing the actions of Khan as genocide, Blood and his colleagues continuously …show more content…

This resulted in the failure to enforce the norm strictly and prevent the conflict. At the dawn of the conflict, Soviet President Nikolai Podgorny sent a letter to Khan stating that the conflict should be solved politically without force, while further mentioning the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in guiding their opinion. This letter exemplifies that the USSR did play an active position in the beginning of the conflict in conveying Khan to stop the genocide. In this way, Soviet interests of the Cold War were put aside to some extent. However, once the geopolitical intentions of the US and China were made clear, the USSR turned towards pursuing their own Cold War interests. The Indo-Soviet Treaty of Peace, Friendship, and Cooperation signed in August 1971, aimed to counter the Chinese influence in the region whilst spreading Soviet ideologies. This signing was a strategic tactic for the Soviets to achieve their Cold War goals. This pro-India tilt represents the fact that the USSR faced the inevitable compliance to pursue Cold War interests, dismissing the responsibility to act on the international norm. It was inevitable as This is why the conflict can be seen as a proxy war. The three biggest powers in the world took action in the region solely based on Cold War calculations. Actions as such failed to prevent or halt the genocide, turning the already problematic conflict into the Indo-Pakistan war of

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