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A review by socraticgadfly
The Vortex: A True Story of History's Deadliest Storm, an Unspeakable War, and Liberation by Jason Miklian, Scott Carney
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
5.0
Fantastic book of a series of mainly disgusting human events piggybacking on a natural disaster.
Before reading, I'd heard of the Great Bhola Cyclone, and knew that it was believed to be the world's greatest natural disaster, though I didn't realize the death toll was that bad.
I knew the bare bones of Pakistan's President Yahya Khan being Nixon's secret emissary to China. I knew the Cold War tie-ins with Pakistan and India. I knew that East Pakistan was restless and would eventually achieve independence, in fair part with the help of the Indo-Pakistani War.
I had no idea that West Pakistan was that racist toward the Bengalis of East Pakistan (as well as "religionist" toward the Hindu portion of its population). Nor did I realize that a full genocide was committed toward it, along with a sabotaged parliamentary election.
The authors interview many people who were on the ground, whether teens or full adults, in the Ganges Delta and Dacca, at the time. This is what really brings the book to life and makes it more than just a couple of Americans writing a history book.
They also talk about 1970-state hurricane monitoring, whether West Pakistan deliberately undercut warnings for the East, and then at the end, loop this back to climate change, and how the guy who went on to lead the National Hurricane Center not too long after this, and went to Pakistan in the aftermath of the cyclone, became a climate change denier.
Sidebar: No, George Harrison and Ravi Shankar didn't save Bangladesh. Most that money didn't get there for more than a decade. And, while a tragic nation, post-independence Bangladesh is little better than Pakistan in many political ways.
That's enough. I won't get close to spoiler alerts on this book. Suffice it to say that Nixon and Kissinger deserve to rot in hell for their role in this even more than for bombing Cambodia.
Before reading, I'd heard of the Great Bhola Cyclone, and knew that it was believed to be the world's greatest natural disaster, though I didn't realize the death toll was that bad.
I knew the bare bones of Pakistan's President Yahya Khan being Nixon's secret emissary to China. I knew the Cold War tie-ins with Pakistan and India. I knew that East Pakistan was restless and would eventually achieve independence, in fair part with the help of the Indo-Pakistani War.
I had no idea that West Pakistan was that racist toward the Bengalis of East Pakistan (as well as "religionist" toward the Hindu portion of its population). Nor did I realize that a full genocide was committed toward it, along with a sabotaged parliamentary election.
The authors interview many people who were on the ground, whether teens or full adults, in the Ganges Delta and Dacca, at the time. This is what really brings the book to life and makes it more than just a couple of Americans writing a history book.
They also talk about 1970-state hurricane monitoring, whether West Pakistan deliberately undercut warnings for the East, and then at the end, loop this back to climate change, and how the guy who went on to lead the National Hurricane Center not too long after this, and went to Pakistan in the aftermath of the cyclone, became a climate change denier.
Sidebar: No, George Harrison and Ravi Shankar didn't save Bangladesh. Most that money didn't get there for more than a decade. And, while a tragic nation, post-independence Bangladesh is little better than Pakistan in many political ways.
That's enough. I won't get close to spoiler alerts on this book. Suffice it to say that Nixon and Kissinger deserve to rot in hell for their role in this even more than for bombing Cambodia.