The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

On December 20, the long-awaited move of the head of state and party into thenewly renovated Tajbeg palace took place. Vasily Safronchuk turned out to be one of thefirst guests in the new palace. He asked to meet with Comrade Amin on the occasion ofcompletion of his tour in Afghanistan.Safronchuk, as well as Ambassador Tabeyev, was unaware of the forthcoming secretoperation. Otherwise he certainly would not have reported the overall positivecharacteristics of the Afghan leader in his final cable to Gromyko. The adviser concededthat the head of state used a bit too much leftist phraseology, and was a Pashtunnationalist. “However, while he is in charge,” he continued, “we shouldn’t be concernedabout the deterioration of relations with Afghanistan.” Safronchuk concluded that Aminwas a reliable partner. Safronchuk wrote to the minister that he could consider his missionin Kabul to be accomplished, and asked for the minister’s permission to leave for Moscowbefore the new year. “Agreed,” Gromyko wrote on the cable, allowing Safronchuk to returnto Moscow.Then Minister-Counselor Safronchuk paid Amin a final visit. Amin put his routineagenda aside and showed off his new residence to Safronchuk with obvious pleasure:luxurious halls for official receptions, offices, personal apartments with expensivefurnishings, even his personal bathtub that had been carved from a single piece of greenonyx.“If Comrade Brezhnev were to arrive here, we would be proud to receive him in thispalace,” concluded Amin after the grand tour.“Certainly,” the diplomat assured him. “Everything has been made according to thehighest world standards.”701