An Internal Matter: The stories of those who campaigned in the US for the Liberation War

The history and geopolitics of the United States government's involvement during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 are well-documented. 

In a nutshell, to use Pakistan as a diplomatic conduit to China and check the influence of communism, the Nixon administration, with Henry Kissinger leading from the front, actively supported the West Pakistan military regime, with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of military and economic aid, while simultaneously writing off the atrocities being committed in Bangladesh as an "internal matter." 

However, what is sparsely known is that despite the Nixon administration's pro-Pakistan stance, both ordinary Americans and later the Congress too were outraged by the US propping up Yahya Khan's regime and the widespread injustice being carried out by the military in the then East Pakistan. 

Many Americans raised their voices and campaigned alongside the disaffected Bangali  diaspora in the US to raise awareness about the ongoing bloodshed (which some of them witnessed first-hand while living in Dhaka) in Bangladesh, raised funds to help the people of Bangladesh and actively lobby the Congress, and later the Senate, to end US economic and military aid to West Pakistan. 

On the night of Operation Searchlight, 26 March 1971, in Dhaka, an American doctor (who later provided shelter to Professor Rehman Sobhan and 26 others during the military crackdown) and activist, John Rhodes, recalled in an interview, "We can hear planes take off for bombing sorties, and shrink with shame and anger, knowing our country is the major supplier of arms for the Pakistan Army." 

Like him, many other Dhaka-based Americans felt compelled to share the horrors they witnessed being committed in Bangladesh after being evacuated by their embassy, which would prove crucial in the later stages of the grassroots campaign in Bangladesh as they rushed to reveal the truth to the US public and Congress.

"An Internal Matter: The US, Grassroots Activism, and the Creation of Bangladesh" by Samuel Jaffe tells the story of the pro-Bangladesh campaign in the US, from Operation Searchlight to the US' recognition of an independent Bangladesh on 4 April 1972, through the eyes of the formers activists themselves. 

The book is one of the first to provide such a comprehensive description of pro-Bangladesh grassroots activism in the US during 1971, spanning seven chapters that try to explore how Americans and the Bengali diaspora reacted to the crisis in East Pakistan, how they worked and campaigned side-by-side for Bangladesh and how successful they were in influencing the perceptions of the American public, media and foreign policy, and raising funds for relief.

The author expertly weaves the recollections of around 70 former pro-Bangladesh activists, with historical anecdotes, into a compelling chronological narrative, with the developments of the Liberation War as the backdrop. 

The chapter exploring the reactions of the Americans being evacuated from Dhaka during and after Operation Searchlight was especially poignant in capturing the feeling of hopelessness, fear, anger and uncertainty associated with the tragedy. 

There were many interesting facets of the pro-Bangladesh campaign in the US which is little known, which that the book extensively talks about; like the lobbying of both the Senate and the Congress by campaigners to pass an amendment to end economic and military aid to Pakistan; or the naval canoe blockade of Pakistani ships (Al Ahmadi and the Padma) coming to collect weapons from the US carried out by radical pacifists to raise awareness about the genocide in Bangladesh. 

Similarly, many are unaware of how challenging it was for aid and food relief to reach the Bangladeshis trapped in the conflict, despite the presence of the United Nations East Pakistan Relief Operation (UNEPRO), due to its reliance on the Pakistani military to distribute aid, who often engaged in discrimination and misappropriation in the process, something which the grassroots activists ardently tried to raise awareness about in the US.

Moreover, it was also quite insightful to see how the grassroots activists dealt with the many obstacles to their campaign, like disinformation, spread by the West Pakistan embassy, the indifference of the US State Department to the realities in East Pakistan and the initial lack of proper awareness about the conflict among the American public and policymakers, with few exceptions.  

Finally, it was also fascinating to learn how the ad hoc and informal structure of the pro-Bangladesh campaign, comprising of students, defecting diplomats, grassroots activists, academics and professionals, were all able to come together in different ways to support the overarching goal of Bangladesh's independence, despite the differences in objectives of the supporting groups like the Bangladesh League of America (BLA), Bangladesh Defense League (BDL), Bangladesh Information Centre (BIC), Friends of East Bengal (FEB), the Movement for a New Society, etc. 

In fact, in the book, referring to his American supporters, the first Ambassador to the US and Mexico of the Bangladesh Government in exile, Mustafizur Rahman Siddiqi said,  "[they] did more for Bangladesh than even we have been able to".

However, despite the rich trove of information, the book can feel pedantic and drawn-out at times due to its scholarly nature, which may cause casual readers to stay clear. The book covers an important yet niche aspect of the history of Bangladesh's independence, which may not appeal to readers who are not interested in history. 

Nonetheless, if you are interested in Bangladeshi history and in how the struggle for the independence of Bangladesh evolved overseas - in the most powerful country in the world - through shifting perspectives, this 300-page book is worth the read. 

The book is a story about those who raised their voices against the injustice happening towards the Bangladeshi people in 1971, despite the stance of the Nixon administration.