পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (ত্রয়োদশ খণ্ড).pdf/৫১২

484 ংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খন্ড শিরোনাম সূত্র তারিখ পুর্ব পাকিস্তানের সাম্প্রতিক বিপর্যয়ের প্রেক্ষাপটে | ----- ২৪ মে, ১৯৭১ যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের নীতি পরিবর্তনের আবেদনঃ মিসেস নিক্সনকে লিখিত এম. এফ, ডানহাম-এর চিঠি Mary Frances Dunham 520 East 86th Street New York, New York 10028 May 24, 1971 Mrs. Richard S. Nixon The White House Washington, D.C. Dear Mrs. Nixon: Like funerals, the recent disasters in East Pakistan (the cyclone and revolution) have brought together Americans who once lived and worked there. We arc deeply concerned that our country not repeat past mistakes and that we act more wisely and more firmly than we have in the past in view of the present tragedy. Widely scattered geographically, informally silenced by organizations for whom we work, it has been especially difficult to make ourselves heard. Yet we have insights and information which only persons who have lived for some length of time in Bengal can have. We are educated and intelligent Americans, former employees of the U. S. Government, of International agencies, of a wide variety of missions, private foundations and companies-professors, doctors, specialists. Some of us have been taking time from our work and risking our chances of ever returning to Pakistan in our efforts to counter-balance the readily accessible representatives of West Pakistan in Washington. Bengalis themselves are not permitted to speak through official channels. Most official Americans who are specialists in Pakistan are, in effect, specialists in West Pakistan and ill-informed on the vastly divergent Eastern province. We who have lived in there have witnessed the chronic misunderstanding between the West and East Pakistanis and the over-simplified aid pattern from America which only encouraged an economic rift between them. We were not heeded in Pakistan, and we desperately want to be heeded now. The lives of many million people and one of the world's richest cultures hang in the balance. Today, thanks to press coverage of the present tragedies, Bengal has appeared on the horizon of informed Americans. However, there very few foreigner who know this region well and still many who have difficulty in understanding the Pakistan consists of two different countries. Americans in charge of apportioning funds were generally stationed in Washington or in West Pakistan. They visited the East infrequently and briefly, and were generally unaware or misinformed about conditions there which are too complex to appreciate in a short stay. Policies involving millions of dollars were formed in