12 Facts About Archer Blood

Archer Kent Blood was an American career diplomat and academic.

Archer Blood served as the last American Consul General to Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Archer Blood is famous for sending the strongly worded "Blood Telegram" protesting against the atrocities committed in the Bangladesh Liberation War.

Archer Blood served in Greece, Algeria, Germany, Afghanistan and ended his career as charge d'affaires of the US Embassy in New Delhi, India, retiring in 1982.

Archer Blood received a bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia in 1943, then served in the US Navy in the North Pacific in World War II.

In 1970, Blood arrived in Dhaka, East Pakistan, as US consul general.

The Archer Blood Telegram, sent via the State Department's Dissent Channel, was seen as the most strongly worded expression of dissent in the history of the US Foreign Service.

Archer Blood received the Christian A Herter Award in 1971 for "extraordinary accomplishment involving initiative, integrity, intellectual courage and creative dissent".

The Archer Blood Telegram was a precursor to the formation of the State Department 'Dissent Channel' that formed in the following years, a mechanism through which agency officials could express formal critiques of United States foreign policy.

Archer Blood died of arterial sclerosis on September 3,2004, in Fort Collins, Colorado, where he had been living since 1993.

In May 2005, Archer Blood was posthumously awarded the Outstanding Services Award by the Bangladeshi-American Foundation, Inc at the First Bangladeshi-American Convention.

Archer Blood received this Award for his role in 1970 and 1971 for the cause of humanity and his brave stance against the US official policy while the Pakistan army was engaged in a genocidal mission in what is Bangladesh.