The Foreign Service Journal, December 2004

the Pakistani authorities to maintain a communications wireless, and it was by way of this tenuous thread that he sent his communications to Washing- ton. According to a dark joke made at the time, all that one heard from Bangladesh was “blood, butcher and kill.” In addition to Consul General Blood, Scott Butcher was the political officer in Dhaka; Andy Killgore had recently left Bangladesh to serve at the bureau in Washington. As the political crisis darkened and deepened, Blood struggled to have his voice heard above the din of obfuscation and temporization aris- ing from Embassy Islamabad and the White House. He experienced mounting frustration as he sought to nudge his superiors into action. It must have felt like trying to push a piece of string. The Washington press corps in that heady era of Woodward and Bernstein caught wind of the general drift of the com- munications emanating from Dhaka, and sought to pry free answers to embarrassing questions from a recal- citrant Nixon White House and a secrecy-obsessed Kissinger NSC. The Blood Telegram The most well-known of Archer Blood’s cables has come to be labeled the “Blood Telegram” (pun fully intended). It is worth excerpting here for those who may not have seen it, but also because it is of particularly point- ed relevance given contemporary Dhaka events. (The frequent unre- solved murders of journalists, and the recent unsolved deaths in suspicious circumstances raise serious ques- tions.) The Blood Telegram stated: “Our government has failed to denounce the suppression of democ- racy. Our government has failed to denounce atrocities. Our government has failed to take forceful measures to protect its citizens while at the same time bending over backwards to pla- cate the West Pak[istan]-dominated government and to lessen any de- servedly negative international public relations impact against them. Our government has evidenced what many will consider moral bankruptcy … “But we have chosen not to inter- vene, 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 ser- vants, express our dissent with cur- rent policy and fervently hope that our true and lasting interests here can be defined and our policies redi- rected.” This cable was signed by 20 mem- bers of the U.S. consulate in Dhaka, and by a further nine officers in the Near Eastern Affairs Bureau in Washington. 62 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 4 SERVING THOSE WHO SERVE AMERICA S I NCE 1 9 7 1 2004 represents our 34 th year helping to maintain America’s fleet of vehicles throughout the world. All of us at D & M consider it an honor to have worked with all of you through these years. We are aware of the importance of your official and private vehicles, forklifts, generators, tools and equipment. We look forward to continuing this service in a professional manner. We are here to help, just ask! Gary Vlahov www.dmauto.com (516) 822-6662; FAX: (516) 822-5020; E-mail: info@dmauto.com