Pakistani violence: Ted Kennedy calls it genocide
Amid Washington’s controversial backing of Pakistan in 1971, Senator Edward Kennedy broke ranks, condemning the crackdown in East Pakistan, pressing for investigations into US arms transfers, and became one of the most influential foreign supporters of Bangladesh’s liberation
Senator Edward Kennedy stood at the forefront of American political support for Bangladesh in 1971. He wrote, "The world is yet to grasp the full extent of this terrible tragedy. I can tell you that until you see it with your own eyes, you cannot comprehend its depth and magnitude."
Kennedy was in India at the time. The dispatch filed by Sidney Schanberg to The New York Times on 16 August 1971 was published the following day.
Schanberg's report is presented below.
The New York Times report (Sidney Schanberg, 16 August 1971)
Senator Edward Kennedy declared that the Pakistani Army's brutal crackdown on East Pakistani civilians amounted to genocide, and described the secret trial of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as a complete mockery of international law.
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The Democrat from Massachusetts, speaking at a press conference after a week-long tour of India, said the Nixon administration's continued military support for Pakistan had seriously damaged US–India relations.
Kennedy spent most of his time visiting the squalid refugee camps along India's border with East Pakistan, where the number of arrivals had reached nearly seven million. "The pitiful condition of the people I have seen, caused largely by Nixon's policy, has stunned me. I believe the magnitude of the disaster is far greater," he said.
Commenting on the recently signed Indo-Soviet Friendship Treaty, Kennedy said it did not contradict India's policy of non-alignment and posed "no barrier to the US–India relationship." He added that India's Foreign Minister, Swaran Singh, had even expressed interest in a similar treaty with the United States.
He has no solution: The immediate purpose of the Indo-Soviet treaty was to deter Pakistan from declaring war on India, a threat Pakistan had repeatedly issued. The treaty committed both nations to consultation and appropriate action should either face an attack or threats to their security.
Kennedy, visiting India as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Refugees, said he believed a political solution to the East Pakistan crisis was possible, though he would not pretend to know what that solution should be.
The crisis erupted on 25 March, when the Pakistani Army, composed mainly of West Pakistani soldiers, launched a sudden assault to crush the Bengali independence movement. Diplomatic observers estimated that at least 200,000 Bengalis had been killed. Thousands more continued to flee to India each day.
The pitiful condition of the people I have seen, caused largely by Nixon's policy, has stunned me. I believe the magnitude of the disaster is far greater.
Bengali guerrillas, aided by Indian training, arms, and sanctuary, had intensified their resistance and inflicted heavy casualties on the Pakistani forces. President Yahya Khan repeatedly warned that Pakistan would declare war if India did not halt its support for the guerrillas.
Indian journalists pressed Kennedy on the nature of the "political solution." The official Indian view was clear: the only viable solution was the independence of East Pakistan under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Kennedy replied, "Mujib's only crime was winning the election."
Kennedy had originally planned to visit both East and West Pakistan and had obtained a visa. But the Pakistani government abruptly cancelled it upon his arrival in India on 10 August, accusing him of being influenced by "Indian propaganda."
Regarding the enormous burden on India, Kennedy estimated that caring for the refugees would cost between $500 million and $1 billion annually. The international community's response, he said, had been "grossly inadequate."
While the United States had provided more aid to India than to any other nation facing a similar crisis, it was still far from sufficient. Kennedy said that upon his return to Washington, he would work to suspend US economic assistance to Pakistan until a political resolution was reached.
The Telegraph report (David Loshak, New Delhi)
David Loshak's dispatch to The Telegraph added several details absent from Schanberg's piece.
Kennedy appeared visibly distressed after touring the refugee camps, observing injuries, trauma, and disease. While staying at the US Embassy in New Delhi, he asked to see certain official documents, specifically, diplomatic telegrams on Pakistan. The request was denied under presidential orders, and Kennedy reacted angrily.
Loshak reported that Kennedy was considering raising the question of whether surplus US arms from Vietnam were being diverted to the Pakistani forces in East Pakistan. He had received multiple reports suggesting so.
Kennedy said he believed "the refugees all want freedom from Pakistan".
The Washington Post report (17 August 1971)
A Washington Post article noted that although reports of arms being shipped from South Vietnam to Pakistan existed, no concrete evidence had yet been found. Nonetheless, Kennedy, still in New Delhi, insisted that the matter demanded an investigation by Congress and the General Accounting Office.
Observers arriving from East Pakistan said they had seen increasing amounts of US-made weaponry in the hands of Pakistani soldiers. If proven, the controversy around American arms supplies to Pakistan would reignite sharply.
In June, Indian Foreign Minister Swaran Singh was assured in Washington that the US had halted arms deliveries to Pakistan after the military crackdown began. But Nixon's administration later clarified that the halt applied only to contracts signed after 22 March 1971.
A State Department official stated, "To the best of our ability to investigate, we have found no evidence of any trans-shipment from Vietnam to Pakistan."
Kennedy's Visit to Bangladesh (February 1972)
Senator Edward Kennedy became the first major foreign dignitary to visit independent Bangladesh. He arrived at Tejgaon Airport on 14 February 1972, accompanied by Robert Kennedy's son and his wife, Victoria Kennedy.
At Dhaka University, Kennedy delivered a speech now etched into Bangladesh's political memory, "Although the government of America was not with you, the people of America have supported you. We are brothers in liberty; no person, no policy, no government can change this truth."
His words underscored the gap between the Nixon administration and the American public. Standing at the heart of the movement, he declared that the world had recognised the Bangladeshi struggle against tyranny.
He told students that the Pakistani junta had cancelled his visa in 1971 because they feared the truth of their atrocities would be exposed to the world.
Drawing parallels with America's own revolutionary history, he said the American struggle for freedom did not end in 1776, nor with the deaths of Washington or Jefferson. Freedom, he argued, meant building equality, regardless of race or colour. Bangladesh's liberation struggle, he said, would inspire oppressed peoples across the world.
Biography of Edward Moore 'Ted' Kennedy
Edward Moore Kennedy, better known as Ted Kennedy, was born in Boston on 21 February 1932 and died on 25 August 2009. He served as a Democratic Senator from Massachusetts for 47 years, earning a reputation as "The Lion of the Senate" for his eloquence and legislative influence.
Son of diplomat Joseph Kennedy Sr., and brother of President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert Kennedy, Ted Kennedy graduated from Harvard University and the University of Virginia School of Law before being elected to the Senate in 1962.
He opposed the Vietnam War and survived the political fallout from the 1969 Chappaquiddick incident to win re-election in 1970. By 1971, he had emerged as one of the strongest American voices condemning Pakistani atrocities in East Pakistan. His leadership helped shape American public opinion and embarrassed the Nixon–Kissinger administration.
He authored eight books, including the 2006 children's book My Senator and Me: A Dog's-eye View of Washington, DC. Diagnosed with brain cancer in 2008, he died the following year.
Although Ted Kennedy never became President, he repeatedly received presidential-level affection from ordinary Americans, and Bangladesh continues to remember him as a steadfast friend in its darkest hour.
Kennedy's moving testimony, titled A Mosaic of Misery, was a plea to the world to recognise the scale of the catastrophe unfolding in South Asia. He wrote of camps overflowing with women, children, and the elderly, many starving, many dying.
He described children with loose skin hanging from their bones, mothers unable to lift their babies, elderly men sitting motionless from trauma, and families who had walked for days through monsoon rain only to watch their children die beside them.
The tragedy, Kennedy insisted, was not India's alone, nor Pakistan's alone. "It is the responsibility of the global community," he wrote. "Common humanity demands that the burden be shared."
