Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Radio War Nerd #283 — 1971 Bangladesh Genocide, Part II (Patreon)

Published:
2021-06-09 18:29:34
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Downloads

Content

Guest: The Fakir

Recorded: June 2, 2021

In part II in our 2-part series on the 1971 Bangladesh genocide & wars, RWN guest The Fakir takes us from the first months of the genocide in Operation Searchlight in spring 1971, up through the war between India and Pakistan in December 1971 that led to the creation of independent Bangladesh. Through it all, Kissinger and Nixon misread everything in the most malevolent ways imaginable, even risking nuclear war with the Soviet Union to prove some realpolitik point that only existed in their psycho-mediocre minds.

Maps & Illustrations

*West Pakistan, East Pakistan (Bangladesh), India

*Bangladesh insurgency (Mukti Bahini)

*Indian, Pakistani & Bangleshi forces, eastern (Bangladesh) theater

*Western theater, West Pakistan-India borders

*Airpower arsenals

*Yayha Khan & Nixon, BFF

*1971 concert poster

*Watch the 1971 NBC News clip we played in the show here.

Listen to Part I of our series on the 1971 Bangladesh genocide with The Fakir here. Also, check out The Fakir's two-part series on the Rise & Fall of the Maratha Empire: RWN EP #220, EP #224.

Interlude music by Brendon Anderegg. Check out his group Mountains here.

Buy John Dolan's book "The War Nerd Iliad" and his audiobook "Pleasant Hell".

Check out the new Radio War Nerd Merch store here!

Total time: 2:26:07

Direct link to this episode's mp3 here 

Files

Comments

Jason

I want to give a heartfelt thanks to Brendon or whoever puts these collections together for being apparently the only podcast that can put together collections in the correct order, so that when one episode finishes it doesn’t start the one I just listened to again. You are appreciated.

orc

Thank you for talking about my home country

cstenzy

Fantastic episode(s)! Learned a lot about a topic I was always curious about. Maybe this got covered at some point and I forgot, but did the Pakistani troops in Bangladesh before (and during) the war have any self-sufficiency, or did they constantly need resupply from West Pakistan? And if so was it only by sea? Makes the destruction of that sub seem like even more of a nail in the coffin for the troops there if so.

Aditya V

Started listening today. Completed about 40 minutes, my driving time today. It would interest listeners to this episode that US stopped food aid to Bangladesh during the 1974 famine because ... From NYT: In the spring of 1974, Bangladesh had sold about $3 million worth of jute gunny sacks to Cuba. As one Bangladesh minister recalled, someone in the United States Embassy read about the sale in a local newspaper and rushed off a cable to Washington. United States legislation required that countries buying food as aid certify that they were not trading with Cuba and North Vietnam. Bangladesh could no longer provide this assurance. All summer, United States Government lawyers negotiated with Bangladesh over the Cuban jute. No new food aid sales agreement was signed until October, when the last shipment of jute had left Bangladesh's waters. No wheat was loaded for export until mid‐November, when the worst of the famine was over. “We goofed on Bangladesh,” one senior official in the Agriculture Department said, “and a lot of people died.” https://www.nytimes.com/1977/01/11/archives/the-economics-of-starvationii-the-rats-dont-starve.html

David Andrews

Another great job guys. More evidence that Kissinger should be sitting in prison.

Haemu

"Goofed" in this context seems like a particularly malicious understatement.

Blaz Kelbl

Fantastic two episodes. Hope to hear the fakir again soon.

Jimmy B

Mark’s Nixon impression started off well but quickly turned more into a Jesse “The Body” Ventura lol

Aditya V

Lots of history and characters from the1971 war and obviously very tough to do justice with 2 episodes. Indira Gandhi without a doubt is central to it. Her rule of India should not be thought of only in terms of the 1971 war or the 1975 emergency or the final years when she gave in to bad advice that led to increased tensions. Let me post this homage from Naipaul to make sense of what Indira Gandhi and Nehru contributed to India. https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/03/opinion/india-after-indira-gandhi.html " Indians, more than they acknowledge, owe a lot to the stability that Mrs. Gandhi, following her father, created. Three or four generations have been permitted to flourish, thanks to that balance. The Nehrus gave India time - consider Pakistan, which has had no scientific revolution, or Iran, which hardly had one educated generation."

xnfec

I thought his Nixon teetered in to Yogi Bear at one point and I was eagerly waiting for Nixon to address Kissinger as BooBoo. But is was a noble effort overall.

xnfec

That was interesting. I remember coverage of this war in the British press when I was a teenager. My main memory is of the Pakistanis bringing a general who was going to save the situation. They bigged him up tremendously referring to him by his nickname of "Tiger" - Tikka Khan I assume. Looking back on it now after all these years I have the impression of some pro-wrestling event with the fighters being introduced and with all the trash-talking. Thats all very low-brow but this was the Telegraph so it was all tinctured for their readership. Looking up Khan, he served half his career under the British and I guess this would have been true of the commanders on the Indian side as well. It is kind of tragic to think about this. From what was said in the first episode, some of the opinions expressed would have been learned from the British who, I imagine, would not have liked the Bengalis at all - the black hole of Calcutta and all that. Your comments about the Americans having the ability to stop the Pakistanis in their tracks by just stopping the supply of spare parts reminded me of Yemen. Regarding the Jewish Indian commander reminded me of an article in my Colliers Encylopedia (1968) about the B'nai Israel (Bene Israel?) community in India. They speak Marathi and tend to come from the area around Mumbai and their Judaisim is influenced by Islam. They are very much assimilated in Indian culture and tend to have Indian names. The article states that (as of 1968) they were prominent in the Indian Army. Your comments about Kissinger declaring victory were (to me) indicative of the shape of things to come. Ancient Romans would have fallen on their swords but now we can just spin our way out of trouble and declare any disaster to be a victory or at least someone elses fault.