The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

complained to him, “Your trade representative is forcing us to buy useless and expensivegoods like window glass on top of things that we really need, like matches, galoshes.”“Too bad,” thought Valery ironically. “If you had agreed to buy those windows, youcould have made a fortune overnight.”A crater caused by an aviation bomb in the street in front of the ministry had begunto fill with water. The impossibility of driving around it forced the officers to find analternate route towards the Kabul Polytechnic Institute. On the way, they passed a batteryof howitzers loyal to Daoud aimed towards the city. Armored vehicles blocked the highwayto Karga and Paghman. The blue Toyota continued driving along the highway to Gazni andKandahar before it came to a roadblock set up by Daoud’s allies. Victor and Valery decidedto drive back home past Kabul University.Valery and Victor said little during their assignment. They didn’t compare theirimpressions or conclusions. Upon returning to the embassy, however, they found that theirreports on the situation for Moscow were consistent.One can only imagine how nervous Osadchiy must have been awaiting hiscoworkers’ return from the battle-torn city. He was very relieved to see them enter theoffice. Victor was given a fresh stack of blank forms for encrypted cables and told to go toOrlov-Morozov’s office to write a cable to the Center immediately. He asked Victor to give adetailed description of what he’d seen in the city and analyze each side’s prospects forvictory. Possibly that was a wise move by a very experienced resident. After Valerycompleted his cable, Osadchiy would have the opportunity to compare its contents withVictor’s story.Twenty minutes later Valery had finished writing his four-page report. The most60