The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

Chapter 7:Chronicle of the Coup d’EtatSeptember 11On September 11, 1979, Nur Mohammad Taraki, along with members of anaccompanying delegation, was returning to Kabul from Moscow. Soviet advisers and staffmembers of different ministries and organizations flew with their families in the samegovernment-chartered plane as the Afghan leader. Naturally, they were not seated in thespecial salon reserved for top officials, but rather were closer to the rear of the aircraft. Atthe time, as is the case today, it was considered a great honor to travel in the same plane asthe top leader of a country.Many important officials arrived at the Kabul airport to greet Taraki. Members ofthe PDPA Central Committee, ministers, and leaders of the security services, as well asambassadors, were all eager to pay their respects to the returning head of the Afghan state.The diplomats who were present at the greeting ceremony were also eager to receiveinformation about the situation in the top ranks of the Afghan government. At the time,Kabul was buzzing with incredible rumors that Amin was a CIA agent and would soon bedemoted, that Taraki’s tenure was nearing its end, and that a coup d’etat was imminent.Alexander Mikhailovich Puzanov, the doyen of the diplomatic corps accredited inKabul, also arrived at the airport. Several ambassadors and senior diplomats from differentcountries, all eager to hear Puzanov’s take on the situation in Afghanistan, immediatelysurrounded him. The ambassador’s responses were vague and indirect; it was impossibleto gain anything other than generalities from him.513