The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

discussion with him. Anyway, I knew in advance what Frye thought about the events, andcould only watch his reaction to my story about the April Revolution.“Based on those observations, I can suppose that the U.S. government is notmourning Daoud’s overthrow. Daoud was an authoritarian ruler who was not shy aboutopenly expressing his distaste for the principles of American democracy. Constitutionally,Daoud established a one-party political system like you have in the Soviet Union. He was anAfghan nationalist, crazy about the idea of re-unification of Pashtuns, who lived on bothsides of the Durand Line. It’s quite possible that it was because of Daoud’s pressure on KingZahir Shah that Afghanistan didn’t join the Baghdad Pact. That happened not because thecrown prince of the Afghan royal dynasty was in love with you Soviet Communist-Marxists.He never understood you and never liked you or your Lenin, Stalin, and Khrushchev. Heonly saw you as a political ally who was capable of helping to strengthen the Afghan state.By strengthening his state and, most importantly, his army, Daoud was attending to hisnationalistic ambitions.“We Americans became hostages of British politics in Afghanistan. The Britsdismembered the Afghan state at the time, creating a big problem for Afghan and Pakistanileaders. As Frye confided to me, the White House still remembers that it was Daoud, in theposition of the prime minister of the royal government, through his resident inPashtunistan Akhtar Mohammad, * who organized the powerful armed rebellions ofPashtun tribes in the northwestern provinces of Pakistan. The goal of those rebellions wasto destabilize the situation in Pakistan. Daoud was an experienced politician who couldprecisely calculate his strengths and deliver cruel blows. Frye had no doubt that if Daoud* Akhtar Mohammad was one of the leaders of the Ahmadzai tribe and the father of the future generalsecretary of the Central Committee of the PDPA and president of Afghanistan, Najibullah.215