The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

armed forces, as well as the head of the Afghan State. Taraki would be removed from allpositions.It seemed that the Soviet guests didn’t exactly understand what Amin had told them.They responded to his proclamation by referring to the opinion of their leadership, whichstated that everything was to remain at the status quo, with Taraki as the head of state andAmin the second man.“If Comrade Amin has taken it upon himself to remove Comrade Taraki, his actionswill not be understood,” said Puzanov vaguely, referring to either Moscow or the PDPA.“You Soviets are the ones responsible for everything in Afghanistan,” Aminsarcastically replied. “That’s why I am prepared to accept your advice and to realize it, evenif I disagree. But in this case we cannot ignore the opinion of our party. The party knowsthat I was shot at over a hundred times. The party knows that our dear Comrade Tarun, aswell as other comrades, has been killed. The party is indignant and demands revenge forthe blood that has been spilled. This is why a plenary session of the Central Committee willbe called in the next few days. Taraki will cite his poor health as an excuse for hisabdication of the position of general secretary. He will, however, remain the chairman ofthe Revolutionary Council.”This was Amin’s pretense of a compromise in regards to his Soviet friends’ appeal.They persisted in attempting to convince him to keep everything as-is and took turns withdifferent arguments: That unity was necessary to overcome a difficult domestic situation;that there was a need to demonstrate solidarity in the face of an intensifying counterrevolution;that any feud would reflect poorly upon the country in the international arena;that their enemies would take advantage of a perceived weakness; and that Taraki was the551