The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

second truck would monitor the intersection and control approaches to the residence. Thewhole operation would not take more than ten minutes to carry out.The success of the operation was predicated on the element of surprise. By then we hadstudied the Afghan mindset, and we knew that they were liable to panic and lose control inunexpected situations. We were certain of success.We would take Amin to the Bagram Airbase sixty kilometers from Kabul. A readyairplane would be waiting for us there. We would drive up to the airplane with our trophy andfly home to the Soviet Union.As far as I know, the plan was approved by the Center. We were only waiting for theorder.Only after Moscow learned about the treacherous removal of Taraki from his position,as well as the threats to his life, did people in the Kremlin begin to make decisions. OnSeptember 15 we were put on high alert to carry out the operation to capture Amin. We hadbeen prepared internally for the operation for a long time. It didn’t take long for us to getready.Around 10 a.m. we received additional instructions and clarified some details. An oldacquaintance of ours, Security Officer Bakhturin, the one who was so concerned about ourmorality, had arrived. He brought several bottles of vodka along with him. We drank some, asone should before a battle. Then we waited. Evening came, and still we waited for the order. Iwas later told that the issue had been decided “at the very top,” with Brezhnev himselfparticipating. It was a grave matter. KGB special forces would be attacking the residence of aprime minister of a friendly country in an attempt to capture him. Our senior leaders had a lotto think about.564