The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

On March 17, in view of the worsening situation, a group of KGB operatives headedby Lt. General B.S. Ivanov was sent to Kabul. General Ivanov was the first deputy ofKryuchkov in PGU. He was in charge of political intelligence. His position corresponded tothat of Frank Carlucci, the second man in the CIA, who would later become a nationalsecurity adviser and secretary of defense in the Reagan Administration. Boris Semyonovichwas considered to be a prominent expert in U.S. and European affairs. He served two longterms in the United States as a KGB resident. He worked in the official Soviet delegationsduring negotiations with Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Carter. It was Ivanov who developedand implemented the exchange of the Chilean communist Luis Corvalan. He participated inOperation “Dunai” (Danube), the regime-changing Soviet invasion in Czechoslovakia.General Ivanov was also the one who created “special economic intelligence” and brieflyheaded the most secretive department of PGU, Department Thirteen. But perhaps BorisSemyonovich’s most important achievement was the fact that by the late 1970s, he hadbecome one of the most trusted colleagues of the chairman of the KGB. Ivanov was able tocontact Andropov, as well as some other members of the Politburo, directly, bypassing hisimmediate superior, Kryuchkov.Perhaps that was the most important factor when the decision was made regardingthe appointment of the person in charge of all KGB activities in Afghanistan, who wouldinform the political leadership of the Soviet Union about the real situation in the country.Andropov needed a man in Kabul whom he could fully trust, a man who could rise abovethe petty rivalries of the Soviet colony, and who had a high degree of authority amongdiplomats, politicians, and military officials. Andropov needed a man who could make391