THE TELEGRAMS OF ARCHER KENT BLOOD

On March 27, 1971; The US Consulate of East Pakistan sent a telegram under the subject heading 'Selective Genocide' to the United States Department of State regarding the mass genocide which happened on March 25. Archer Kent Blood who was the then American Consul General to East Pakistan sent this telegram criticising the brutal steps taken by the Pakistan government and the US department of State. The second telegram sent on April 6 was titled the 'Blood Telegram' because of the strongly worded protest against the destruction of East Pakistan.

"Archer Kent Blood was the first diplomat who took these steps against his norms and protocol. The telegram criticising the insensibility of the state dept shook the US Congress for which Archer Kent Blood was transferred to a non diplomatic post," says Mahbubul Alam, General Manager of The Liberation War Museum. 

Archer Kent Blood's protest against the genocide not only shocked the American Congress, but it also effected the Pakistani government. In his telegrams he mentioned how the US should not forget their core values for political gain.  The telegrams were one of the first attempts to point out the hypocrisy of the Nixon- Kissinger duo.  It also indicates how the Nixon Government tried to use Pakistan as a backdoor diplomatic opening to China, hence justifying the attack on March 25.  The bold move from Blood and his fellow signatories signifies how human values are more important than some political achievement. 

The first telegram sent on March 27 reads, "Here in Decca we are mute and horrified witnesses to a reign of terror by the Pak Military. Evidence continues to mount that the MLA authorities have list of Awami League supporters whom they are systematically eliminating by seeking them out in their homes and shooting them down.  Among those marked for extinction in addition to the A.L." 

A paragraph of the Blood telegram sent on April reads as, "Our government has evidenced what many will consider moral bankruptcy, but we have chosen not to intervene, even morally, on the grounds that the Awami conflict, in which unfortunately the overworked term genocide is applicable, is purely an internal matter of a sovereign state. Private Americans have expressed disgust. We, as professional civil servants, express our dissent with current policy and fervently hope that our true and lasting interests here can be defined and our policies redirected."

On March 8, 2015; The American ambassador, Marcia Stephens Bloom Bernicat, gave the copy of these telegrams to The Liberation War Museum. The telegrams now carried the stamp of the State Department as they are now officially being acknowledged.