To U.S. in ’70s, a Dissenting Diplomat. To Bangladesh, ‘a True Friend.’

[Recursion]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/28/world/asia/bangladesh-archer-blood-cable.html

Just read this book. It's an amazing piece of history, though it might be a little obscure if you aren't familiar with Bengali history.

On a recent visit to Bangladesh, around the anniversary of its hard-fought war of independence from Pakistan, I conducted an experiment.

Stopping a group of teenage boys at a museum devoted to the 1971 war, I asked them which American leaders had played an important role in that conflict. Henry A. Kissinger? They looked at me with blank faces. Edward M. Kennedy? Nothing. Richard M. Nixon? Crickets.

I was running out of names when I tried one more: That of a midlevel Foreign Service officer stationed in Dhaka, the capital, during that war. It was the name of a man who was recalled to Washington hastily and whose career would falter on his way to an ambassadorial post. What about Archer K. Blood, I asked? And one of the teenagers gave me a big, delighted smile of recognition.

“Archer Blood,” he said, “was a true friend of Bangladesh.”