The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

“I think that, from the U.S. perspective, Afghanistan and similar Third Worldcountries constitute an area of potential confrontation between two great states. Rightafter World War II, our government tried to engage Afghans in a military alliance for thepurpose of creating a threat near the southern border of the USSR. When strategic bomberswere the main delivery systems for nuclear warheads, we Americans built a modernairport in Kandahar. Afghans benefited from that construction tremendously, and theydidn’t contribute a cent. Some time ago, your media cited Soviet intelligence reports thatAmericans had created caves in the mountains surrounding the Kandahar Airport where itsbombers could be hidden. I wonder, what idiot could have made this up?”Valery personally knew those colleagues who wrote about the existence of thesecaves. They had shared with him the reasons for making up the story. Their intention wasfor their names to be noticed by the Center. As a result of such “important information,”there was a major panic in the Soviet Ministry of Defense. Significant intelligence resourceswere allocated to uncover the cave hangars for American strategic bombers in Afghanistan.In the end, the issue was clarified, identified, and forgotten, and those people who createdthe myth were promoted.“Really, why would you be carving out caves in those mountains?” asked Starostin.“When intercontinental missiles appeared,” continued the Anarchist, “KandaharAirport was neglected. Now, when our countries are locked in psychological warfare, itwould be important for us to compromise Taraki’s Communist regime and set up traps foryou along the way.”Valery recalled that the word “trap” was already mentioned in the report of hiscolleague, written after a meeting with the American diplomat Marik Warren.218