The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

were in their place and engaged in regular scheduled activities. Then the telephone rang. Qadirtook the phone, saying: “I understand. I’m coming.” He turned to the advisers. “The presidentasked me to come. If you want, you can wait here until I return.” A minute of silence followed.Looking sideways, Qadir added, “Just in case, I will say farewell to you.” He returned the secretSoviet maps to Gorelov and left the office.One hour passed after another. Finally, Qadir’s aide-de-camp entered the office andreported, “The minister of defense was arrested and charged with treason.”Gorelov exploded: “What are you talking about? How dare they! He is my friend. He is ahero of the revolution!” He burst into expletives referring to the leaders of Afghanistan.Zaplatin had a hard time calming him down. In a minute, Gorelov continued: “They are allcrazy there. Every minister of defense is either a spy or a plotter, according to them. We should gosee Amin immediately.”“Not now,” said Zaplatin, trying to calm his colleague down. “You are not yourself now. Youare overly emotional and can say things that will cause a scandal. Let’s take a break. After lunch wecan go to Comrade Amin.”Amin met them as if nothing had happened. He was demonstratively addressing Zaplatin,but not Gorelov, who was more senior in rank and position. The first thing he said was: “I knowwhy you came, my dear Soviet friends. It’s true,” he lamented with a mournful expression on hisface, “we overlooked the enemy, who was acting right under our nose. I want to inform youofficially that the former minister of defense Abdul Qadir was a traitor who was masterminding aplot against the revolution.”“Aren’t there too many plotters here?” objected Gorelov emotionally. “Two days ago, youarrested the head of the General Staff on the same grounds.”197