// Blood was satisfied with the prospect of a deal that gave Mujib “everything but independence and which, we believe, he could sell to people of Bangla Desh.” On March 24, Blood shrugged off a plea from Mujib, who wanted U.S. pressure on Yahya to avoid a crackdown. Blood saw little evidence that Yahya was “about to take a harder line.” As Yahya, Bhutto, and Mujib negotiated frenetically, Blood’s disastrously incorrect evaluation was agreeable to the higher-ups at the State Department , who preferred to avoid taking sides in Pakistan’s politics. But Mujib suspected that the West Pakistanis were dragging out the talks to buy time to reinforce their military. The defense attaché at the Dacca consulate, a U.S. Air Force colonel, visited two senior Pakistani officers. They were unbearably tense. One of them, a Pakistani wing commander, said that they would carry out their orders, but hoped they would not have to do the worst: “It is [a] terrible thing to shoot your own people.” //
Posted on: Sat, 28 Sep 2013 02:19:09 +0000
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