Nixon was least bothered with 1971 genocide: Tim Weiner

''Former US president Richard Nixon did not give a fig for the genocide that was happening in present-day Bangladesh during 1971," says Pulitzer award winning New York Times journalist Tim Weiner.

Weiner's latest book "One Man Against The World: The Tragedy of Richard Nixon" contains many interesting revelations, which he discussed in some detail in a 'Times of India' interview on Sunday.

Weiner has authored four books and co-authored a fifth.

He won the 1988 Pulitzer award and later the National Book Award in Nonfiction for his 2007 book Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA.

His 'Enemies: History of the FBI' has also won critical acclaim.

Weiner discounted Nixon's fear of communism as being responsible for turning his back on the Bangladesh genocide .

"Nixon repeatedly calls the people of India savages and cannibals. He repeatedly mourns the fact that Yahya is going down and Indira Gandhi will emerge stronger. 

“He didn't give a fig for the genocide that was being committed in present-day Bangladesh, for which people are still being tried and convicted. The origin of this is simply loyalty for Yayha for smuggling Kissinger to China." 

Weiner pins it all to Nixon's irrational hatred of India, despite knowing that India would surely win the war.

He says Nixon was actually risking a world war when he and Kissinger started pushing the Chinese to attack India a la 1962 to stop the Indian army from entering Bangladesh.

"They start staring down the barrel of World War three in the name of Yahya Khan facilitating the opening to China," says Weiner in his interview. "They do this despite knowing who is going to win the next India-Pakistan war."