The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

services, which we are currently investigating. This person, I repeat, is insincere,treacherous, and cruel. To have such an ally means to be sitting on a mine that is liable toexplode at any moment. It is possible that Amin is considering the possibility of siding withour enemies and betraying us.”Andropov didn’t have to continue. All of them remembered the accounts of recentbetrayals very well. Those stories stuck like splinters in their minds. They all rememberedhow Egypt, once considered to be a loyal ally, took a sharp turn towards the West. Theyremembered how the Somali leader Barre had switched sides to ally with the Americanstwo years earlier, and, to serve his new masters, immediately began a war against Ethiopia,which was then loyal to the Soviet Union. Once a loyal communist, he became an extremeanti-communist overnight. Enemies were working tirelessly against the Soviet Union on allfronts. Who said that the Third World War had yet to begin? It had been going for manyyears, since the mid-forties, and had not stopped for one single day during all of theseyears. All of these stories about détente, the reduction of nuclear arms, and mutual trustshould be reserved for ordinary public discourse. The nature of the situation was that wedefeat them, or they defeat us. There was nothing else. It was entirely possible that Aminhad been collaborating with the Americans for a long time, but even if this were to beproved false, he could not be trusted, and would surely betray the Soviets eventually.“He would not turn to the enemy on his own,” asserted Ustinov. “He would dragAfghanistan behind him. That’s where the problem lies.”“That would be a big problem for us,” agreed Gromyko. “We cannot afford to loseAfghanistan.”628