[Genocide/1971] Archer K. Blood / Longtime diplomat who taught at Allegheny College

Archer K. Blood, diplomat in residence and a popular professor at Allegheny College in Meadville, Crawford County, was a foreign service officer whose career was marked by caring, courage and integrity during the Bangladesh war of independence in 1971.

Mr. Blood died Sept. 3 at his home in Fort Collins, Colo. He was 81.

As a much traveled diplomat in Greece, Germany and Afghanistan, Mr. Blood already had a reputation for honesty when he was appointed American consul general in Dhaka, in what was then East Pakistan, in March 1970.

In November of that year, Mr. Blood played a key role in coordinating international aid to the country in the wake of a devastating typhoon. But he won hero status in that part of the Asian subcontinent for criticizing the U.S. policy supporting Pakistan's brutal, ruthless rule of East Pakistan, where imposition of martial law and acts of genocide led to a war of independence and the creation of Bangladesh.

During that conflict, Mr. Blood asked Washington to evacuate about 1,000 Americans from the Bengal region for their safety. Instead, President Richard Nixon and then-National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger took a passive stance, supporting Pakistan.

Mr. Blood and his staff objected on moral grounds to the atrocities committed by the Pakistan military and sent a highly classified memo of dissent to Washington, where it was leaked to the press. The message and publicity it received infuriated Nixon and Kissinger, landing Mr. Blood on Kissinger's blacklist and prompting the president to order Mr. Blood to leave Dhaka.

"I paid a price for my dissent," Mr. Blood said in a 1982 interview with the Allegheny College student newspaper. "But I had no choice. The line between right and wrong was just too clear-cut."

Mr. Blood said he went into "self-imposed exile" at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Cumberland County, as deputy commander for international affairs, and later served two terms as charge d'affaires in the U.S. mission in New Delhi, India, before retiring from the foreign service in 1982.

He received the U.S. Army's Award for Distinguished Civilian Service in 1977 and the Department of State's John Jacob Rogers Award in 1982. His book, "The Cruel Birth of Bangladesh: Memoirs of an American Diplomat," was published in 2002.

College historian Jonathan Helmreich said the diplomatic corps' loss was Allegheny College's gain.

"It was because of Kissinger's maneuvers that the college wound up getting Arch," said Helmreich, who team-taught several courses with Mr. Blood.

"He was a charming, ingratiating person who would always ask you for your opinion and looked you straight in the eye. He was a person of extraordinary integrity, a good deal of insight and verbal acuity who could put into words exactly what he meant to say."

In talking about the events that changed his diplomatic career, Helmreich said Mr. Blood wasn't vindictive.

"He was always balanced. He'd say Kissinger was operating on other agendas he wasn't telling us about," Helmreich said. "He gave the benefit of the doubt to others. It was one of the things that made it possible for him to elicit unusual loyalty and engender great friendship."

Students liked Mr. Blood, too, said Robert Seddig, chairman of the political science department.

"They liked his ability to tell stories from his life as a career diplomat and relate those stories to the more academic study of foreign policies in places like Afghanistan, Bangladesh and India," he said. "It made everything come alive."

Seddig also said the integrity Mr. Blood displayed as a diplomat was evident in his work at the college, where he served from 1982 to 1990.

"From the famous cable to standing up for professors in tenure cases, he had a good sense of justice and what was right," Seddig said. "He stood by what he believed in."

Mr. Blood is survived by his wife, Margaret Millward Blood; two sons, Peter Blood, of Alexandria, Va., and Archer Lloyd Blood, of Shaker Heights, Ohio; and two daughters, Shireen Updegraff, of Fort Collins, and Barbara Rankin, of Denver.

Mr. Blood's funeral will be held in Fort Collins on Friday. He will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

Bangladesh 1971 Genocide Liberation Bangladesh 1971 Genocide Archer Blood telegram Bangladesh 1971 Genocide Liberation
Bangladesh 1971 Genocide Archer Blood telegram 1971 Genocide Liberation Bangladesh 1971 Genocide Liberation
Bangladesh 1971 Genocide Archer Blood telegram 1971 Genocide Liberation Bangladesh 1971 Genocide Liberation
Bangladesh 1971 Genocide Archer Blood telegram 1971 Genocide Liberation Bangladesh 1971 Genocide Liberation
Bangladesh 1971 Genocide Archer Blood telegram 1971 Genocide Liberation Bangladesh 1971 Genocide Liberation
Bangladesh 1971 Genocide Archer Blood telegram 1971 Genocide Liberation Bangladesh 1971 Genocide Liberation

Obituary: Archer K. Blood Longtime diplomat who taught at Allegheny College

Obituary: Archer K. Blood
Longtime diplomat who taught at Allegheny College