The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

When I speak of the opposition leaders, I mean prominent figures from both factions. Weare working in this direction.”“What does this mean, to ‘step forward against the regime?’” Brezhnev’s interestwas piqued. “They are in Europe, aren’t they? How do you imagine this would everhappen?”“Well, Leonid Ilyich…” began the KGB chairman. He didn’t want to overload thegeneral secretary with routine details of the preparation for the coup d’etat. “Even in exilethey maintain close ties with their allies in Afghanistan. When the time is right, we willassist them, transfer them to Kabul, and provide additional support as needed.”“So, Yura, you are trying to tell me that the healthy elements in the party can resolvethis problem by themselves?”“They can, Leonid Ilyich,” Andropov asserted, before adding, “with a bit ofassistance.”“Well, this is very good!” Brezhnev cheered up. “Let’s work more actively in thisdirection. By the way, whom would the Afghan army support? Dmitry Fedorovich,” headdressed Ustinov, “why are you so quiet?”The minister of defense had no intention of remaining silent. On the contrary, hewas tracking the arguments mentally and waiting for his turn to speak. He had plenty tosay.Throughout his life, Ustinov had been at war. At the age of thirty three, he becamethe people’s commissar of armaments. He fought against the Nazis and was in charge ofproviding armaments for the Western front. Later, when the Cold War began, he fought theAmericans by building up an adequate Soviet response to U.S. development of the atomic631