Conflicted: A History Podcast
Untangling history’s greatest controversies. Every month, we take a hard look at the historical conflicts that raise difficult questions, stoke controversy, and send our moral compasses spinning.
The 1971 Bangladesh War – Part 3: A Man Named Blood
On March 25th, 1971, President Yahya Khan launches Operation Searchlight in East Pakistan, a brutal military crackdown intended to snuff out Bengali separatism and restore West Pakistani authority. Meanwhile, an American diplomat in Dacca named Archer Blood begins reporting and documenting the slaughter, hoping to convince his government to step in and restrain Yahya. In Washington, D.C., President Richard Nixon and his national security advisor Henry Kissinger weigh the political costs of intervening in the atrocities, while secretly planning a groundbreaking outreach to Communist China.
SOURCES:
Bass, Gary K. The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide. 2013.
Bennet-Jones, Own. The Bhutto Dynasty. 2020.
Carney, Scott. Miklian, Jason. The Vortex: A True Story of History’s Deadliest Storm, an
Unspeakable War, and Liberation. 2022.
Chang, Jung. Halliday, Jon. Mao: The Unknown Story. 2005.
Frank, Katherine. Indira: The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi. 2001.
Gewen, Barry. The Inevitability of Tragedy: Henry Kissinger and his World. 2020.
Hiro, Dilip. The Longest August: The Unflinching Rivalry Between India and Pakistan. 2015.
Hitchens, Christopher. The Trial of Henry Kissinger. 2001.
Hoodbhoy, Pervez. Pakistan: Origins, Identity and Future. 2023.
Jalal, Ayesha. The Struggle for Pakistan. 2014.
James, Lawrence. Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India. 1997.
Jayakar, Pupul. Indira Gandhi: A Biography. 1975.
Khosa, Faisal. The Making of Martyrs in India, Pakistan & Bangladesh. 2021.
K.S. Nair. December In Dacca. 2022.
Keay, John. India: A History. 2000.
Mookherjee, Nayanika. The Spectral Wound. 2015.
Raghavan, Srinath. 1971: A Global History of the Creation of Bangladesh. 2013.
Rose, Leo. Sisson, Richard. War and Secession. Pakistan, India, and the Creation of Bangladesh. 1990.
Saikia, Yasmin. Women, War, and the Making of Bangladesh. 2011.
Schendel, Willem van. A History of Bangladesh. 2009.
Schwartz, Thomas Alan. Henry Kissinger and American Power. 2020.
Sengupta, Nitish. Land of Two Rivers: A History of Bengal. 2011.
Tudda, Chris. A Cold War Turning Point: Nixon and China, 1969-1972. 2012.
Walsh, Declan. The Nine Lives of Pakistan. 2020.
Zakaria, Anam. 1971: A People’s History from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India. 2019.
Secure your privacy with Surfshark! Enter coupon code CONFLICTED for 4 months EXTRA at https://surfshark.com/conflicted
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Podcast Episodes
The Partition of India – Part 2: Two Blind Eyes
As the British Raj crumbles, old animosities begin to stir in the subcontinent’s communities. Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru face a formidable new adversary in the form of Muhammed Ali Jinnah, who calls for the cre…
The Partition of India – Part 1: End of Empire
In the summer of 1947, the British Raj relinquished its hold over the Indian subcontinent. In its wake, two new nations were created: India and Pakistan. The hastily-drawn border between the countries slashed through com…
Human Error: The Destruction of KAL Flight 007
On September 1st, 1983, a South Korean commercial airliner inexplicably drifted 200 miles off course into restricted Soviet airspace. In response, a Soviet fighter plane intercepted the aircraft, fired two missiles, and…
The Stock Market Crash of 1929 – Part 3: The Music Stops
After weeks of uncertainty and fear, the Great Crash finally arrives on October 24th, 1929. While America’s financial infrastructure burns, Jesse Livermore makes $100 million in a single week. Wall Street’s great cheerle…
History Daily (Special Featured Podcast): “The Start of the Cuban Revolution”
In this special featured episode of History Daily, host Lindsay Graham gives an atmospheric retelling of the events of December 2nd, 1956. On that day, the communist revolutionary Fidel Castro launched the Cuban Revoluti…
The Stock Market Crash of 1929 – Part 2: Age of Illusion
As economic disaster looms in the Fall of ‘29, the American public is blissfully unaware, entranced by stratospheric share prices and the sunny proclamations of Wall Street cheerleaders. Jesse Livermore, the infamous “Bo…
The Stock Market Crash of 1929 – Part 1: To The Moon!
One of the worst financial disasters in history unfolded on Wall Street in late October of 1929. Within a week, 30 billion dollars had disappeared into thin air, leaving the global economy in tatters and heralding the be…
Gore: The Brutal History of Bullfighting
Some revere it as an art form, others revile it as a blood sport, but no matter where you stand, few traditions stir up strong emotions quite like the centuries-old ritual of bullfighting. Born in the villages of rural S…
Ghosts in the Mountains: The Mujahideen Civil War (Part 4)
It’s 1992. The 40th Army is long gone and the Soviet Union has collapsed, but war still rages across Afghanistan. As the Afghan communist regime crumbles, Ahmed Shah Massoud and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s forces clash in Kabu…
Ghosts in the Mountains: The Soviet-Afghan War – Part 3
As the CIA wages a covert proxy war against the Soviet 40th Army, the Mujahideen are showered with billions of dollars and cutting-edge weaponry. An old animosity between two prominent Mujahideen commanders – Ahmed Shah…
