New York Times Book of the Year The Blood Telegram is an unprecedented chronicle of a pivotal but little-known chapter of the Cold War. Gary J. Bass shows how Nixon and Kissinger supported Pakistan's military dictatorship as it brutally quashed the results of a historic free election. The Pakistani army launched a crackdown on what was then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), killing hundreds of thousands of people and sending ten million refugees fleeing to India - one of the worst humanitarian crises of the twentieth century. Driven not just by Cold War realpolitik but by a bitter personal dislike of India and its leader Indira Gandhi, they silenced American officials who dared to speak up, secretly encouraged China to mass troops on the Indian border, and illegally supplied weapons to the Pakistani military - an overlooked scandal that presages Watergate. Drawing on previously unheard White House tapes, recently declassified documents, and extensive interviews with White House staffers and Indian military leaders, The Blood Telegram tells this thrilling story for the first time. Bass makes clear how the United States' embrace of the military dictatorship in Islamabad would mould Asia's destiny for decades, and confronts for the first time Nixon and Kissinger's hidden role in a tragedy that was far bloodier than Bosnia. This is a revelatory, compulsively readable work of politics, personalities, military confrontation, and Cold War brinksmanship.

"A gripping and well-researched book . . . Sheds fresh light on a shameful moment in American foreign policy . . . with admirable clarity." - The Economist

"A riveting read with direct relevance to many of the most acute foreign-policy debates of today." - Financial Times

"This is a dark and amazing tale [and] an essential - Nixon and Kissinger spent the decades after leaving office burnishing their images as great statesmen. This book goes a long way in showing just how undeserved those reputations are." - The New York Times Book Review

"A superb book - Bass deploys White House recordings, including several new transcripts, to excellent effect, and . . . the book contains enough material to make the reader sick . . . Astonishing . . . A morally serious book that nevertheless reads like a first-rate novel." - The Times Literary Supplement

"A profoundly disturbing account of the hitherto hidden role of Nixon and Kissinger in the slaughter of hundreds of thousands . . . Bass has defeated the attempted coverup through laborious culling of relevant sections of the Nixon White House tapes, declassified State Department documents and interviews with former officials, American and Indian, who were involved . . . After reading Bass's account of this shameful episode, one has to . . . conclude that where the Bengalis were concerned, Kissinger and Nixon simply did not give a damn." - The Washington Post

"Gary Bass has provided us with a helpful reminder of Nixon's true character. In 'The Blood Telegram', Bass expertly recounts the stunning indifference of Nixon and . . . Henry Kissinger to the reports from US diplomats of Pakistani genocide . . . Vivid, often disquieting detail from Oval Office tapes unearthed by Bass . . . Bass has performed an essential function." - The Guardian

"Absorbing . . . Bass draws up a severe indictment of Nixon and Kissinger." - The New Yorker

"Blistering . . . a must-read." - New York Post

"A stellar new book . . . Astonishing . . . a meticulously researched and searing indictment of the shameful role the United States played . . . The book tells of the damage wrought when world leaders abandon rational calculation and allow their country's interests to be subordinated to personal prejudices and animosities." - Foreign Policy

"Devastating . . . Excellent . . . Bass has written an account - learned, riveting, and eviscerating - of the delusions and the deceptions of Nixon and Kissinger. Steeped in the forensic skills of a professional academic historian, he also possesses the imaginative energies of a classical moralist, and he tells the story of the choices and the decisions that led to the slaughter in Bengal . . . appropriately as a moral saga . . . Indispensable." - The New Republic

"Bass takes us inside the Oval Office to reveal the scandalous role America played in the 1971 slaughter in what is now Bangladesh. Largely unknown here, the story combines the human tragedy of Darfur, the superpower geopolitics of the Cuban missile crisis and the illegal shenanigans of Iran-contra . . . [A] harrowing tale." - The New York Times

"Bass has written the definitive account of the political machinations behind one of the worst (and most widely ignored) humanitarian crises of the 20th century . . . Bass also offers Americans much-needed context about America’s pre-9/11 involvement in a region where it still finds itself with bloody hands . . . 'The Blood Telegram' offers a nuanced yet unflinching look at the juxtaposition of geopolitics and humanitarian crisis. Bass shines a much-needed spotlight on yet another dark corner of modern American history." - The Daily Beast

"It was a non-subject for scholars, a no man's land for knowledge . . . [u]ntil the arrival of a memorable book by Gary Bass . . . While doing justice to the victims, also, for the first time, draws out for us its lessons . . . The book is also a tribute to politics in its true sense . . . I do want readers to be aware of the appearance of Gary Bass' book, which I hope will be widely read (and translated into French!) . . . A return to Bangladesh is required reading." - Le Point

"'The Blood Telegram' convincingly unravels the rather shocking truth of the American position in the Pakistan crisis in a well-written narrative . . . This book has the potential to fuel international lawyers to research the legal consequences of the passive stance taken by Nixon and his underlings." - LSE Review of Books

"Bass, a reporter turned academic, displays great forensic skill, using secret Whitehouse tapes to show how Nixon and Kissinger covered up their responsibility for the slaughter. Even now, much material remains a secret." - History Today