After Dhaka was liberated, Kissinger told Nixon he had saved West Pakistan

A day after Dhaka was liberated on December 16, 1971, the then President of the US, Richard Nixon was told by his strategic advisor Henry Kissinger that he had saved West Pakistan, according to confidential papers since declassified by the US department of state.

The journey to this ironic compliment in the midst of a defeat for US diplomacy came eight and half months after leaders of the worlds most powerful nation said in a secret meeting that they believed their protege General Yahya Khan would be able to subdue the rebellion in East Pakistan with naked military might.

Congratulations Mr President. You saved West Pakistan, said Kissinger over the phone to his boss Nixon, about 16 hours after Gen AAK Niazi signed the surrender of East Pakistan and about the time Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared the unilateral ceasefire on the Western front on December 17 Indian Standard Time.

Explaining the strange conversation, Ambassador Pinak R Chakravarty, former High Commissioner to Bangladesh, who is currently writing a book on the 1971 liberation of Bangladesh, said Kissinger was playing a “dubious role”. “Their (US administrations) main objective was to befriend China using the Pakistanis as middlemen during the conflict months. His comments should be read as both an attempt to take credit with the Pakistanis in the face of a hopeless situation and a bid to please a difficult boss, Chakravarty told

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