Fahim Hamid-"1971" Documentary Filmmaker

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.





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