The Archives

1971

 Pakistan’s civil war left “a quarter of a million Bengalis dead, and another 6 million or more driven into, and ”the realities of geopolitics have confronted the U.S. with the thankless task of choosing between strategic and humanitarian considerations.” The U.S. sided with China for a united Pakistan, but within months, an independent Bangladesh emerged victorious, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as its first prime minister. Rahman was assassinated by military officials in 1975, and one of his killers was arrested and executed in Bangladesh earlier this year.