by Gary J. Bass
30. Michael Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations (New York: Basic Books, 1977), pp. 90, 101–8; Michael Walzer, “On Humanitarianism,” Foreign Affairs, vol. 90, no. 4 (July–August 2011), pp. 77–79. “America’s Least-Wanted,” The Economist, 16 July 1994, pp. 23–24; “The Nightmare Next Door,” The Economist, 24 September 1994, pp. 19–21. Sibel Utku Bila, “Erdog˘an Sends Turkish FM to Increase Pressure on Syria,” Hürriyet, 9 August 2011.
31. Mark Tully and Satish Jacob, Amritsar: Mrs Gandhi’s Last Battle (London: Jonathan Cape, 1985).
32. NSC Files, Box 573, Indo-Pak War, Nixon to Gandhi, 18 December 1971.
33. MEA, HI/1012/78/71, Jha to Kaul, 11 January 1971. See NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 277, Jha to Haksar, 11 September 1972; MEA, WII/109/31/71, vol. II, “Attitudes in the US Congress,” n.d. December 1971; NMML, Kaul Papers, Subject File 19, part 1, “The New Situation in the Sub-Continent,” n.d. 1972; NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 217, Boudhayan Chattopadhyey report on “Economic Impact of Bangla Desh,” 22–23 January 1972. In 1970, 66 percent of Indians held a good or very good opinion of the United States, with 9 percent having a bad or very bad opinion; by April 1972, it was 27 percent good or very good, against 52 percent bad or very bad (Tharoor, Reasons of State, p. 300). Daniel Patrick Moynihan introduction to Dennis Kux, Estranged Democracies: India and the United States, 1941–1991 (New Delhi: Sage, 1993), pp. xxii–xxiii; Kux, Estranged Democracies, pp. 307–8; C. Raja Mohan, Crossing the Rubicon: The Shaping of India’s New Foreign Policy (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), pp. 83–115.
34. Dhar, Indira Gandhi, the “Emergency,” and Indian Democracy, p. 184. Amberish K. Diwanji, “This Government Talks Big, but Its Knees Are Made of Jelly,” Rediff.com, 6 July 1998. Perkovich, India’s Nuclear Bomb, pp. 165, 170, 372.
35. Perkovich, India’s Nuclear Bomb, pp. 171–72, 146, 156–89. One of the most forceful advocates of an Indian bomb was K. Subrahmanyam, who had also pressed Gandhi’s government to launch a war for Bangladesh, but he was voicing his nuclear ambitions well before Yahya’s crackdown started, and he meant to deter China.
36. Scott D. Sagan, “Why Do States Build Nuclear Weapons? Three Models in Search of a Bomb,” International Security, vol. 21, no. 3 (winter 1996–97), pp. 63, 65–69. Perkovich, India’s Nuclear Bomb, pp. 164–68, 177. Kux, Estranged Democracies, pp. 314–15. For a more skeptical view about domestic support for nuclear testing, as part of a powerful case against nuclearization, see Amartya Sen, The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2005), pp. 253–57. Haksar, Premonitions, pp. 90–94. Jayakar, Indira Gandhi, pp. 193–94. Sumit Ganguly, “Nuclear Stability in South Asia,” International Security, vol. 33, no. 2 (fall 2008).
37. Tharoor, Reasons of State, p. 59. Guha, India After Gandhi, pp. 462–63.
38. Jayakar, Indira Gandhi, pp. 177, 184–85. Guha, India After Gandhi, pp. 468–69, 470–73, 497, 515–16. Coll, Grand Trunk Road, pp. 120–21. See Dhar, Indira Gandhi, the “Emergency,” and Indian Democracy, pp. 232–33. On the judiciary, see Pratap Bhanu Mehta, “The Rise of Judicial Sovereignty,” Journal of Democracy, vol. 18, no. 2 (April 2007), pp. 70–83; and Shylashri Shankar, “India’s Judiciary,” in Paul Brass, ed., Handbook of South Asian Politics (New York: Routledge, 2009).
39. T. N. Kaul, A Diplomat’s Diary (1947–99): China, India and USA (New Delhi: Macmillan India, 2000), p. 111. See Guha, India After Gandhi, pp. 506–8, 514. Jayakar, Indira Gandhi, pp. 189–90. Dhar, Indira Gandhi, the “Emergency,” and Indian Democracy, pp. 233.
40. Jayakar, Indira Gandhi, pp. 184–85, 192–95. By September 1974, her favorability rating had plummeted to 47 percent—a loss of 46 percentage points since the war (Tharoor, Reasons of State, p. 59). Guha, India After Gandhi, pp. 478–79. Ajit Bhattacharjea, Jayaprakash Narayan: A Political Biography (New Delhi: Vikas, 1975), pp. 140–44. Dhar, Indira Gandhi, the “Emergency,” and Indian Democracy, pp. 253–54.
41. Dhar, Indira Gandhi, the “Emergency,” and Indian Democracy, pp. 257–62, 300. She had handily won her seat in the massive state of Uttar Pradesh (Election Commission of India, Statistical Report on General Elections, 1971 to the Fifth Lok Sabha [New Delhi: Election Commission of India, 1973], vol. 1, p. 177), but her opponent had petitioned the court that she had spent more money than was legal, and had used government officials to help her campaign. Guha, India After Gandhi, pp. 486–87, 491–93, 498–99, 506–8. Dhar, Indira Gandhi, the “Emergency,” and Indian Democracy, pp. 257–62. Jayakar, Indira Gandhi, pp. 200–18. Kaul, Diplomat’s Diary, pp. 111–12.
42. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 171, Haksar notes for constitutional debate, August 1971. For later and happier outcomes, see Lloyd I. Rudolph and Susanne Hoeber Rudolph, “Congress Learns to Lose,” in Edward Friedman and Joseph Wong, eds., Political Transitions in Dominant Party Systems: Learning to Lose (New York: Routledge, 2008), pp. 15–39; Ashutosh Varshney, “Is India Becoming More Democratic?” Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 59, no. 1 (February 2000) pp. 3–25; Kanchan Chandra, “The Transformation of Ethnic Politics in India,” Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 59, no. 1 (February 2000), pp. 26–61.
43. Guha, India After Gandhi, pp. 492–93. Mehta, New India, p. 131.
44. NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 173, Haksar to Gandhi, 17 December 1971; MEA, HI/121/13/71, vol. II, Sinai to ambassadors, 12 December 1971; MEA, HI/121/25/71, Gandhi statement in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, 6 December 1971; Narayan to Mujib, 31 January 1972, Narayan, Selected Works, pp. 718–22. MEA, WII/104/21/75, vol. I, Secretary (East) to ambassadors, 21 August 1975. MEA, WII/104/21/75, vol. I, joint secretary for Bangladesh to ambassadors, 21 August 1975. MEA, WII/104/21/75, vol. I, Foreign Ministry to Sen, 20 August 1975. See MEA, WII/104/21/75, vol. I, joint secretary for Bangladesh to ambassadors, 21 August 1975. Jayakar, Indira Gandhi, pp. 219–21. Rahul Gandhi was a few years younger.
45. Nirupama Subramanian, “Pakistan Resents Rahul’s Remarks,” Hindu, 16 April 2007. Suresh Nambath, “ ‘After Rahul’s Gaffes, Congress Hopes Shifted to Priyanka,’ ” Hindu, 27 March 2011. Subodh Ghildiyal and Rajeev Deshpande, “Unravelling the Man Who Will Be King,” Times of India, 13 February 2010. On the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, see Patrick French, India: A Portrait (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011), pp. 37–111.
46. Adam Nagourney, “In Tapes, Nixon Rails About Jews and Blacks,” New York Times, 10 December 2010, p. A13. Walter Isaacson, Kissinger: A Biography (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), pp. 28–29.
47. Kissinger wrote, “For someone who lost in the Holocaust many members of my immediate family and a large proportion of those with whom I grew up, it is hurtful to see an out-of-context remark being taken so contrary to its intentions and to my convictions, which were profoundly shaped by these events. References to gas chambers have no place in political discourse, and I am sorry I made that remark 37 years ago.” (Henry A. Kissinger, “Putting the Nixon Tape in Context,” Washington Post, 26 December 2010.) For Kissinger’s argument for downplaying the White House tapes, see Reeves, President Nixon, pp. 16, 664. White House tapes, Oval Office 477-1, 12 April 1971, 9:10–10:33 a.m. Tad Szulc, The Illusion of Peace: Foreign Policy in the Nixon Years (New York: Viking, 1977), p. 804. Anthony Lake and Roger Morris, “The Human Reality of Realpolitik,” Foreign Policy, vol. 4, no. 4 (fall 1971), pp. 1571–62. NSA, Nixon-Kissinger-Suharto memcon, 26 May 1970, 10:45 a.m. NSA, Kissinger to Nixon, 26 May 1970. NSA, Kissinger to Nixon, 18 July 1969. For Gerald Ford’s and Kissinger’s acceptance of Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor, see NSA, Newsom to Kissinger, 6 December 1975, Jakarta 14946. For the background, see Bradley R. Simpson, Economists with Guns: Authoritarian Development and U.S.-Indonesian Relations, 1960–1968 (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2008). Nixon, In the Arena: A Memoir of Victory, Defeat, and Renewal (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990), p. 71.
48. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, The Final Days (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1976),
pp. 422–24. Szulc, Illusion of Peace, pp. 800–802. Stanley I. Kutler, The Wars of Watergate: The Last Crisis of Richard Nixon (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990), pp. 613–17.
49. Robert Dallek, Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), p. 3. Kutler, Wars of Watergate. J. Anthony Lukas, Nightmare: The Underside of the Nixon Years (New York: Viking, 1976). Nixon, In the Arena, pp. 26–76, 11, 16. James Hohmann, “Watergate’s ‘Last Chapter,’ ” Politico, 19 April 2011. Reflecting how much China overshadows Bangladesh, in Margaret MacMillan’s impressive recent history of the opening to China, she devotes just one sentence to the Bengali atrocities and another to the refugees (Nixon and Mao: The Week That Changed the World [New York: Random House, 2007], p. 220). Richard M. Nixon, Leaders (New York: Warner Books, 1982). Monica Crowley, Nixon in Winter (New York: Random House, 1998), pp. 3–279. For a forceful critique of Nixon’s efforts, see David Greenberg, Nixon’s Shadow: The History of an Image (New York: Norton, 2003), pp. 270–303.
50. Isaacson, Kissinger, p. 13.
51. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, “40 Years After Watergate, Nixon Was Far Worse Than We Thought,” Washington Post, 8 June 2012. See Bob Woodward, Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999); Kutler, Wars of Watergate, pp. 596–98, 603–7. For a portrait of evolving constraints on executive power, see Jack Goldsmith, Power and Constraint: The Accountable Presidency After 9/11 (New York: Norton, 2012).
52. NSC Files, Box 572, Indo-Pak War, Jack Anderson, “U.S., Soviet Vessels in Bay of Bengal,” Washington Post, 14 December 1971. On the Jordanian F-104s, see NSC Files, Box 573, Indo-Pak War, Jack Anderson, “U.S. Moves Give Soviets Hold on India,” Washington Post, 16 December 1971; NSC Files, Box 573, Indo-Pak War, Jack Anderson, “Jungle War Blunders Are Cited,” Washington Post, 30 December 1971; and, later, Malcolm W. Browne, “Pakistan Said to Have Got U.S.-Built Jets from Arabs,” New York Times, 29 March 1972, pp. A1, A3; Jesse W. Lewis Jr., “Jordan Sent Jets to Pakistan Despite Ban, U.S. Confirms,” Washington Post, 19 April 1972, p. A14. John Ehrlichman, Witness to Power: The Nixon Years (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1982), pp. 307–8. See Reeves, President Nixon, pp. 406, 409–12. Mark Feldstein, Poisoning the Press: Richard Nixon, Jack Anderson, and the Rise of Washington’s Scandal Culture (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2010), pp. 3–4, 155–74, 278–90, 339. Stephen E. Ambrose, Nixon: The Triumph of a Politician, 1969–1972 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989), vol. 2, pp. 489–90. Jack Anderson with George Clifford, The Anderson Papers (New York: Ballantine, 1973), pp. 205–69. See White House tapes, Oval Office 655-1, 3 February 1972, 9:18–10:52 a.m.; NSC Files, Box 573, Indo-Pak War, Seelye to Brown, 16 December 1971, State 226297; Nixon, In the Arena, p. 327; Nixon-Haldeman conversation, 26 June 1982, Kutler, Abuse of Power, pp. 72–74; Kutler, Wars of Watergate, pp. 116–19; Reeves, President Nixon, pp. 406, 409–12; Isaacson, Kissinger, pp. 381–85.
53. See NSA, Kissinger-conservatives memcon, 5 January 1972. White House tapes, Oval Office 642-15, 3 January 1972, 9:25–10:04 a.m. White House tapes, Oval Office 658-31, 27 January 1972, 3:13–3:46 p.m.
54. Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994). Richard M. Nixon, RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990), pp. 525–31. Richard Nixon, Leaders (New York: Warner Books, 1982), p. 272.
55. Henry Kissinger, White House Years (Boston: Little, Brown, 1979), pp. 914–15, 911. For a critique, see Kux, Estranged Democracies, p. 307.
56. NSC Files, Box 748, Presidential Correspondence File, Mujib to Nixon, 21 July 1972. See NSC Files, Box 748, Presidential Correspondence File, Mujib to Nixon, n.d. July 1974. NSC Files, Box 748, Presidential Correspondence File, Nixon to Mujib, 17 July 1974.
57. White House tapes, Oval Office 642-15, 3 January 1972, 9:25–10:04 a.m. White House tapes, Oval Office 655-1, 3 February 1972, 9:18–10:52 a.m. FRUS, vol. E-7, White House tapes, EOB 307-27, 8 December 1971, 4:20–5:01 p.m. FRUS, vol. E-7, White House tapes, Oval Office 635-8, 10 December 1971, 10:51–11:12 a.m. NSC Files, Box 748, Presidential Correspondence File, Nixon to Mujib, 4 April 1972.
58. Archer K. Blood, The Cruel Birth of Bangladesh: Memoirs of an American Diplomat (Dacca: University Press of Bangladesh, 2002), p. 258.
59. Blood, Cruel Birth, pp. 291, 323, 331–32, 258. Library of Congress, Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, Foreign Affairs Oral History Project, Archer Blood interview, 27 June 1989.
60. H. R. Haldeman, The Haldeman Diaries: Inside the Nixon White House (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1994), 14 June 1971, p. 300. Blood, Cruel Birth, p. 345. Library of Congress, Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, Foreign Affairs Oral History Project, Archer Blood interview, 27 June 1989.
61. Library of Congress, Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, Foreign Affairs Oral History Project, Archer Blood interview, 27 June 1989.
62. Blood, Cruel Birth, p. 348. Library of Congress, Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, Foreign Affairs Oral History Project, Archer Blood interview, 27 June 1989.
63. Blood, Cruel Birth, p. 348. Judith A. Chammas remarks, Archer K. Blood American Center Library Dedication, 13 December 2005, at http://dhaka.usembassy.gov/12.13.05_american_center_library.html. Joe Holley, “Archer K. Blood, Dissenting Diplomat,” Washington Post, 23 September 2004, p. B4. Library of Congress, Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, Foreign Affairs Oral History Project, Archer Blood interview, 27 June 1989.
Acknowledgments
This book was made by the generosity of many good people. At William Morris Endeavor, Tina Bennett is simply the perfect agent: a resolute champion for this work, always looking to make it smarter. Her intellect and cheer made this book possible, and her friendship kept me going. Svetlana Katz, as usual, was unfailingly superb.
At Knopf, Andrew Miller led the charge for this book and did a virtuoso job of editing it, elegantly improving its argument, structure, and line. It is an honor that Sonny Mehta believed in this project, as well as enhancing it with his peerless knowledge of South Asia. Mark Chiusano, a real young literary talent, skillfully steered the manuscript to completion. Meru Gokhale at Vintage India expertly refined the narrative, and made sure this book was properly launched in South Asia. Chip Kidd designed a spectacular jacket, while Knopf’s editing and production team made a beautiful book. And all of us mourn the loss of the great Ashbel Green, a paragon of his craft.
The manuscript had the benefit of wise advice and close reading by extraordinary writers: Peter Baker, Peter Canellos, Thomas Christensen, Michael Grunwald, Robert Keohane, Atul Kohli, Rahul Sagar, Amy Waldman, and John Fabian Witt.
For help with my research and travels in South Asia, thanks to Kanchan Chandra, Niraja Gopal Jayal, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Uday Mehta, David Rohde, Madhuri Sondhi, Shivaji Sondhi, Alexander Star, and Sabrina Tavernise. Srinath Raghavan deserves particular praise both for his kindness and exemplary scholarship. And I’m especially grateful to the participants in these events who patiently shared their recollections and double-checked their records.
At the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, one of India’s towering liberal institutions, my thanks to Mridula Mukherjee, Deepa Bhatnagar, Bhashyam Kasturi, Neelam Vatsa, and Sanjeev Gautham. The new director, Mahesh Ranagrajan, was most helpful. At the National Archives of India, another splendid institution, thanks to Mushirhul Hasan, the director general, and to Jaya Ravindran, G. A. Biradar, Jagmohan Singh and his team, and all the staff in the research room.
In California, my gratitude to Timothy Naftali, Paul Wormser, Jon Fletcher, and the other helpful staff at the Nixon Presidential Library. I’m also grateful to the hardworking staff at the U.S. National Archives. Nate Jones at the invaluable National Security Archive helped with continuing adventures in the Freedom of Information Act. And Keri Matthews at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia assisted in tracking down elusive White House tapes.
Throughout the long writing p
rocess, I learned from the wisdom of David Armitage, Michael Doyle, Noah Feldman, Martha Finnemore, Aaron Friedberg, John Lewis Gaddis, Jack Goldsmith, Ryan Goodman, Oona Hathaway, Stanley Hoffmann, John Ikenberry, Stathis Kalyvas, Devesh Kapur, Stephen Krasner, Thomas Laqueur, Andrew Moravcsik, Joseph Nye, Nathaniel Persily, Kal Raustiala, Stephen Peter Rosen, Scott Sagan, Kathryn Sikkink, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Jack Snyder, and Michael Walzer. At the New York Times, Katherine Bouton, Barry Gewen, Pamela Paul, Clay Risen, and Sam Tanenhaus graciously let me try out some of these ideas in their pages.
In Beijing, Evan Osnos provided Cultural Revolution biographies, good counsel, and jiaozi. Alastair Iain Johnston, Roderick MacFarquhar, and Wang Jisi explained the Chinese parts of the puzzle. Gao Wenqian provided background on Zhou Enlai.
Laura Schiller and Laura Sullivan at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee searched for congressional records. Bill Emmott and the staff at the London Library in St. James’s gave a wonderful place for research and writing. Sean Wilentz and David Kinney guided me to lore on the Concert for Bangladesh, and Mark Feldstein kindly offered help to a complete stranger.
I was lucky to have the help of intrepid research assistants. In Delhi, Ravindra Karnena, a gifted scholar, helped to hunt down some wayward files. In Princeton, Anna Schrimpf organized thousands of pages of documents. Princeton’s University Committee on Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences gave a welcome grant to hire superb undergraduates to help me through the morass of the White House tapes. Stephanie Jordan, Joie Hand, Eric Levenson, and Shaina Watrous ably made preliminary transcriptions of scratchy tape recordings, as well as interpreting them with astute psychological insights into Nixon and Kissinger.