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19. THE SETTLING IN OF THE COLD WAR

SERIOUS PROBLEMS ARISE ELSEWHERE

CONTENTS

The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971

Political turmoil in the Middle East

Greek and Turkish Cypriot hatreds flare
        up again (1974)

Liberal democracy in retreat in the Third
        World

South Africa ... and its deep racial
        tensions

A bright spot in the dark world: Mother
        Teresa in Calcutta

THE INDO-PAKISTANI WAR OF 1971

The Pakistani Government's war on its own people in East Pakistan
(March-December 1971)

When British India was turned over to Asian locals, the extreme western and eastern portion, heavily Muslim in culture, were given their own independence as the state of Pakistan.  But the link of Islam was not enough to keep together the two regions (separated by 1000 miles, with the state of India between them).  The Punjabi culture of West Pakistan was Middle Eastern – Arabic.  The Bengali culture of East Pakistan was Southeast Asian.  The government of Pakistan, including the army, was dominated by Arabs from the West, even though the population  of the East greatly exceeded that of the West.

In the December 1970 Pakistani elections, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and his Pakistan People's Party won 88 of the 144 seats held by West Pakistan.  But in East Pakistan (on the opposite side of India), Sheikh Mujib-ar-Rahman and his Awami Leage won 167 of East Pakistan's 169 seats ... deeply indicative of the social-cultural and thus political divide between the two Pakistans (East and West).

Then Pakistani President (and dictator) Muhammad Yahya Khan shut down the National Assembly and arrested Sheikh Rahman ... causing rebellion to break out in East Pakistan.  This then brought a stiff reaction from the national government ... which on the following March 25th, sent soldiers (mostly West Pakistani Muslims) into East Pakistan to begin the program of bringing East Pakistan back under governmental control.  Consequently, in April of 1971 Awami leaders declared the independence of the eastern portion of Pakistan as the new state of Bangladesh.

But Khan's program immediately turned into a campaign of terror against the population of East Pakistan, involving the rape, beating and ultimately massacre of civilians (actual numbers are highly disputed ... though certainly they numbered in the millions) which in turn drove ten million East Pakistanis (future Bangladeshis) into India.



East Pakistanis (Bangladeshis) fleeing East Pakistan (Bengal Province) - 1971

The Indo-Pakistani War (December 3-16 1971)

After much hesitation (Indian Prime Minister Indra Gandhi was not sure of what involvement in the matter might lead to in larger terms), Gandhi had enough ... and ordered a military assault into East Pakistan (former Bengal Province) to stop the carnage. 

The action began on December 3, 1971 ... and within thirteen days, the Indian army brought the Pakistani army to full defeat (December 16th) ... also birthing the newly independent nation of Bangladesh.



Largely Hindu East Pakistani rebels (Mukti Bahani)
training to fend off a largely Muslim West Pakistani military ... in response to a regime of terror begun in March of that year

East Pakistani Bengals holding a West Pakistan Punjabi supposedly loyal to the Western government


Indian artillery firing on Pakistani positions - December 1971


Pakistani General Nianzi signing a document of surrender in Dhaka ... thus agreeing to the lost of "East Pakistan" (and thus now-independent "Bangladesh")


Bangladeshis celebrating their newly acquired national independence

India and Bangladesh form a close relationship


Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi signs an agreement
with Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheik Mujibur Rahman - May 16, 1974

Bangladesh nonetheless did not have an easy time with independence.  The disruption of life during the war of independence had proved so deep that the economy had a very difficult time recovering.  Political stability was just as difficult. Mujibur Rahman was assassinated in 1975; his successor, Zia-ur-Rahman was also assassinated six years later (1981).
POLITICAL TURMOIL IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Yasser Arafat conducting fedayeen operations from a cave along the Israeli border – 1970

Tragedy occurs when Middle East hostilities spill over into the Munich Olympic Games - 1972

Masked Palestinian terrorist - part of a group that seized Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games - 1972.  7 Israeli hostages and 5 Palestinian abductors were killed at the Munich airport as the Palestinians tried to leave Germany

Libya comes under the bizarre dictatorship of Muammar Gaddafi ... who has aspirations of becoming the most important politician in the Middle East

1972:  Col. Muammar Gaddafi, three years after his seizing power in Libya

GREEK AND TURKISH CYPRIOT HATREDS FLARE UP AGAIN

Cyprus contained a confusing blend of Greek and Turkish ethnic communities (1960 census map) living together cautiously because of a tradition of Greek-Turkish hostilities (though both were NATO partners)

Greeks protesting the growing nationalism drawing Greeks and Turks into hostilities in Cyprus – 1974

The resultant division of Cyprus into two distinct political entities

LIBERAL DEMOCRACY IN RETREAT IN THE THIRD WORLD

For instance, there is the slide into dictatorship of the Philippines ... the supposed master showpiece of the American democratic legacy in Asia!

Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial law in the Philippines in January of 1973. He held power from 1965 until deposed in 1986 ... moving the country from relative prosperity to deep economic hardship

Ferdinand Marcos with his wife Imelda. They may have stolen as much as $10 billion from the Philippine public treasury to finance their wildly extravagant lifestyle

Africa – rather than becoming a continent of post-colonial democracy – is becoming the setting for increasingly brutal regimes

Nigeria becomes the setting for a brutal civil war (1967-1970) in which the Nigerian government kills over 1 million Ibo tribesmen when they attempted to split from multi-ethnic Nigeria and form their own state of Biafra


Hungry Biafrans - 1967

Emeka Odumegwa Ojukwu leading the Biafran rebellion - June 1968

Uganda's dictator, Sgt. Idi Amin, who claimed to be the conqueror of the British Empire and heir to the throne of Scotland.  His regime was so brutal that the world would no longer be able to ignore the failure widespread in sub-Saharan Africa of the democratic hopes it once had for the subcontinent

Idi Amin forcing white Ugandans to pledge alliegance to him with bowed head and bended knee

Although about to be defeated in a coup against him, Amin poses with remnants of his army - 1979

Self-anointed Emperor of the Central African Republic Sgt. Jean-Bedel Bokassa - 1977. His crowning ceremony cost $22 million - paid for mostly by France. He would be deposed two years later by French troops for his butchery of schoolchildren protesting against his regime.

But by far the worst case of human oppression occurred in Ethiopia, under the Marxist regime of Col. Haile Mariam Mengistu

Col. Haile Mariam Mengistu, enforcer of a Marxist regime in Ethiopia ... which succeeded in starving his population

Mengistu with his friend Fidel Castro, who sent 17,000 Cuban troops to Ethiopia to defend Mengistu's Marxist program

Likewise ... military dictatorships grip of much of Latin America. The election of a Marxist regime in Chile (which the CIA tried to block) stirs thoughts in America of another Cuba – and America intervenes to put aside a democratically elected regime (this would not be the first time this has ever happened)

Indeed, most of Latin America seems to continue to pursue "business as usual" with the economies run by a few wealthy families with close ties to the American business community, the military running the country with a mandate to keep everyone in line with this economically-based class system, the traditional Catholic Church investing everything with its religious endorsement, and would be revolutionary reformers in the wings waiting for the opportunity to throw out the whole corrupt system – and introduce a new "revolutionary" system of their own design.  

Marxist Salvador Allende elected Chile's President – despite CIA efforts to disrupt the elections September 1970

Pro-Salvador Allende demonstrations in Chile – just prior to his overthrow by the Chilean military (with help of the US CIA)

Chile's President Salvador Allende under attack
by CIA-backed Pinochet forces – September 11, 1973 (he committed suicide that night)

Gen. Augusto Pinochet who took control of Chile after ousting Pres. Allende – September 11, 1973

And in Argentina another conservative military government has taken control of the country – and imposed an ever-heavier repressive regime over the people – with horrible results.

Isabel Peron, who succeeded to the Presidency of Argentina after the death of her husband in 1974 – until she was removed from power in 1976 when the military took control of the country

Mothers of the desaparecidos [disappeared ones] protesting against Argentina's military regime – 1976

Argentine mothers protesting the disappearance of their children by the military dictatorship – December 1979

Rafael Trujillo (left) – dictator of the Dominican Republic

Peru – National Day celebrations
SOUTH AFRICA ... AND ITS DEEP RACIAL TENSIONS

And racial conflict in South Africa, which has the added quality of White on Black oppression – with all of its highly charged symbolic value in post-colonial Africa ... and in an America still struggling with its own race relations – creates an eyesore for the Western hope for democracy.

The Soweto Uprising – June 16, 1976

Soweto – June 16, 1976
BUT IN INDIA A VERY BRIGHT LIGHT APPEARS IN THE DARKNESS:  MOTHER TERESA



Mother Teresa and an Assamese orphan – awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979



Mother Teresa (Agnes Gonsha Bouaxhiu) in Calcutta (Koltata) India


Go on to the next section:  The Glory of Global Peace


  Miles H. Hodges