Archer Blood

Archer Kent Blood (March 20, 1923 – September 3, 2004) was an American career diplomat and academic. He served as the last American Consul General to Dhaka, Bangladesh (East Pakistan at the time). He is famous for sending the strongly worded "Blood Telegram" protesting against the atrocities committed in the Bangladesh Liberation War. He also served in Greece, Algeria, Germany, Afghanistan and ended his career as charge d'affaires of the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India, retiring in 1982. Born in Chicago, Archer Blood graduated from high school in Lynchburg, Virginia. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia in 1943, then served in the U.S. Navy in the North Pacific in World War II. In 1947, he joined the Foreign Service, and received a master's degree in international relations from George Washington University in 1963. In 1970, Blood arrived in Dhaka, East Pakistan, as U.S. consul general. When the Bangladesh genocide began, his consulate regularly reported events as they occurred to the White House, but received no response due to America's alliance with West Pakistan, fuelled in part by President Nixon's personal friendship with the then-President of Pakistan, Yahya Khan, as well as by National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger's desire to use Pakistan's cordial relationship with China as a pathway to resuming American relations with China. Although Blood's initial cables failed to elicit a response from his government, they caused a stir with the American public when they were leaked, prompting Pakistan's foreign ministry to complain to the American government. With tensions in East Pakistan rising, Blood saw the independence of Bangladesh as an inevitability, remarking that "the ominous prospect of a military crackdown is much more than a possibility, but it would only delay, and ensure, the independence of [sic.] Bangla Desh.