""Midway through the crackdown, the Central Intelligence Agency and the State Department privately reckoned that some 200,000 people had died. Ten million Bengali refugees fled into India, many later perishing in ramshackle refugee camps.
But [the US consul-general's] cables to Washington got no response. As recently declassified documents and White House tapes show, president Richard Nixon and Mr. Kissinger (then White House national security adviser) backed Pakistan’s generals, even as the army rampaged across East Pakistan.
Pakistan was a Cold War ally, and was covertly helping with the secret American opening to China. Beyond considerations of realpolitik, Mr. Nixon and Mr. Kissinger had an emotional grudge against India. In the Oval Office, Mr. Nixon said that the Indians needed “a mass famine.” Mr. Kissinger added, “They’re such bastards.” Mr. Kissinger would later sneer at people who “bleed” for “the dying Bengalis.”""
But [the US consul-general's] cables to Washington got no response. As recently declassified documents and White House tapes show, president Richard Nixon and Mr. Kissinger (then White House national security adviser) backed Pakistan’s generals, even as the army rampaged across East Pakistan.
Pakistan was a Cold War ally, and was covertly helping with the secret American opening to China. Beyond considerations of realpolitik, Mr. Nixon and Mr. Kissinger had an emotional grudge against India. In the Oval Office, Mr. Nixon said that the Indians needed “a mass famine.” Mr. Kissinger added, “They’re such bastards.” Mr. Kissinger would later sneer at people who “bleed” for “the dying Bengalis.”""
