The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

anking foreign diplomats accredited in Moscow. Taraki, who spoke excellent English,elected to address the diplomats in Pashto. The ambassador of Afghanistan in the SovietUnion, Paktin, did a poor job of translating his speech into Russian. It seemed as thoughTaraki didn’t have a very good idea of what he wanted to convey to the diplomatic corps.Perhaps he had experienced a sleepless night. For whatever reason, he got carried away bythe topic of diplomatic immunity. Paktin, who was so tense that he began to quiver,translated into Russian: “Each of you has diplomatic immunity. An ambassador cannot bearrested or put into prison. This is why ambassadors should work well and send accurateinformation to the government.” This comment drew laughter from the audience. Thosediplomats who were familiar with the notion of a Freudian slip understood the underlyingissue immediately. A cruel, repressive regime had been established in Afghanistan, andAmbassador Paktin feared for his life.After the meeting adjourned, a dinner for the members of the Politburo and theAfghan delegation was arranged in the Granovitaya chamber of the Kremlin. Gavrilov,Rurikov, and Kozin were all invited to interpret, just to be on the safe side. Brezhnev placedthe graduate student Kozin directly at his side. Vladimir was shy. He had sustained aninjury while hammering a nail in his apartment right before the dinner. His shyness wasaccentuated by what seemed like a hastily bandaged finger, which was awkwardly exposedwhen he was holding his fork and a knife. Taraki sat across from Brezhnev. Kosygin satacross from Kozin. At the end of the dinner, Brezhnev suddenly noticed that all threeglasses placed in front of the nervous interpreter remained untouched. Kozin hadn’t had asip of red wine, white wine, or vodka.“Why aren’t you drinking?” the general secretary asked Kozin.265