Telegram
From the Consulate General in
/1/
Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Files
1970-73, POL 1 PAK-US. Confidential;
Priority; Limdis. Sent as a
joint State/AID/USIS message. Also sent to
1138.
Subj: Dissent From
1. Aware
of the task force proposals on "openness" in the Foreign Service, and
with the conviction that U.S. policy related to recent developments in East
Pakistan serves neither our moral interests broadly defined nor our national
interests narrowly defined, numerous officers of AmConGen
Dacca, USAID Dacca and USIS
Dacca consider it their duty to register strong dissent with fundamental
aspects of this policy. Our government has failed to denounce the suppression
of democracy. Our government has failed to denounce atrocities. Our government
has failed to take forceful measures to protect its citizens while at the same
time bending over backwards to placate the
/2/ The text of President Podgorny's
message to Yahya Khan, as released to the press by TASS on April 3, was transmitted to
/3/
Apparent reference to the contingency study on Pakistan prepared by the
Interdepartmental Group for Near East and South Asia on March 2; see footnote
5, Document 5.
Private Americans have expressed disgust. We, as professional public servants
express our dissent with current policy and fervently hope that our true and
lasting interests here can be defined and our policies redirected in order to
salvage our nation's position as a moral leader of the free world.
2. Our
specific areas of dissent, as well as our policy proposals, will follow by septel./4/
/4/ The
dissenting members of the Consulate General sent a follow-on telegram to the
Department on April 10 in which they characterized the martial law regime in
East Pakistan as being of "dubious legitimacy" and took further issue
with the view that the "current situation should be viewed simply as
'constituted' government using force against citizens flouting its
authority." They concluded that it was "inconceivable that world can
mount magnificent effort to save victims of last November's cyclone disaster on
one hand, and on other condone indiscriminate killing of same people by
essentially alien army defending interests different from those of general populace."
Telegram 1249 from
3. Signed:
Brian Bell
Robert L. Bourquein
W. Scott Butcher
Eric Griffel
Zachary M. Hahn
Jake Harshbarger
Robert A. Jackson
Lawrence Koegel
Joseph A. Malpeli
Willard D. McCleary
Desaix Myers
John L. Nesvig
William Grant Parr
Robert Carce
Richard L. Simpson
Robert C. Simpson
Richard E. Suttor
Wayne A. Swedengurg
Richard L. Wilson
Shannon W. Wilson/5/
/5/ On
April 6 seven specialists on South Asian affairs from the NEA
bureau, one from INR, and another from AID/NESA sent a letter to Secretary Rogers associating
themselves with the views expressed in telegram 1138 from Dacca. (National
Archives, RG 59, NEA Files:
Lot 73 D 69,
4. I
support the right of the above named officers to voice their dissent. Because
they attach urgency to their expression of dissent and because we are without
any means of communication other than telegraphic, I authorize the use of a
telegram for this purpose.
5. I
believe the views of these officers, who are among the finest U.S. officials in
East Pakistan, are echoed by the vast majority of the American community, both
official and unofficial./6/ I also subscribe to these views but I do not think
it appropriate for me to sign their statement as long as I am principal officer
at this post.
/6/
Ambassador Farland supported the principle that
members of his mission had the right to express their views on the problems
facing the
6. My
support of their stand takes on another dimension. As I hope to develop in
further reporting, I believe the most likely eventual outcome of the struggle
underway in
/7/ The
Department responded on April 7 in telegram 58039 to
Blood