Fahim Hamid-"1971" Documentary Filmmaker

Bengalis of New York

Season 4 - Episode 10: Before the war on terror, America used to support the radicalization of Islam because it used to be seen as "communism taking away your religion." America supported these madrassas, and the Mujahideen because they were seen as anti-communist. Same as what they did in Afghanistan. So for a long time, that was the alignment between the US and Pakistan. So they were friends, naturally. When it came to 1971, and the elections happened, Pakistan rejected it and the genocide broke out. During this time, America had a partnership with Pakistan and the real reason was that at that time, Nixon and Henry Kissinger (who won the Nobel Peace Prize) were trying to create this very famous opening into China. There's a famous photograph of Nixon and Mao, and it was this that won them their legacy, and their Nobel prize. How did one of the greatest achievements in American foreign policy's history happen? It was Pakistan that brokered the backchannel between Kissinger and China. Both Nixon and Kissinger were so desperate to make this happen, and the economic benefits of this happening were huge for Kissinger and Nixon. They wanted this so badly and Pakistan agreed to help the US out. "Yeah, we'll help you out, but we have this insurgency. We have these people in East Pakistan that are winning these elections and, they're taking away our power. We don't want to deal with them, keep giving us money and weapons that you've been continuing to give us. In return, we'll give you your China back-channel" And that's the essential distort. They want their Nobel peace prize, and a bunch of Bangladeshis had to die in order for that to go on and go through.

Listen to the entire conversation with Fahim Hamid on the BoNY Podcast.

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