The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

Alexander Victorovich puffed his pipe a couple of times and said: “They don’t understandus there, in Moscow, at any rate. We should think about the people to whom we’re addressing ouranalyses more often. Whether they will or won’t understand us. Let’s not put pressure on theirpsyche. And you, Valera,” he said, puffing on his pipe, “save these stories of yours until the timewhen you’ll be writing your memoirs—if you survive…”Having finished his soliloquy, he smiled. The phone rang. Vilior Gavrilovich was calling.Orlov-Morozov, Volodya, and Valery immediately proceeded to a meeting with Osadchiy.Having entered the chief’s office, Khotyaev gave the new cable to the resident to sign. ViliorGavrilovich focused on the text while his colleagues settled in the chairs around the table. Then henodded with approval and signed off, authorizing the cable to be sent to the Center.Osadchiy looked at the operatives across the table from him. He didn’t detect that any of hiscolleagues were hung over, despite the fact that the last twenty-four hours were among the moststressful of their entire lives.“Yesterday we couldn’t convene because of the events in the city,” the resident began tospeak in a voice reinforced with an authoritative tone. “Everybody was working in the‘autonomous regime.’ However, now we must do some planning. I just returned from a meetingwith the ambassador. While I was there, he received a call from Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev. This iswhy the meeting at Puzanov’s went longer than planned. Now, the Politburo’s main concern is theissue of recognizing the new regime in Afghanistan. My recommendation to AlexanderMikhailovich was to tell Moscow not to rush in recognizing the new authorities. We should letother countries make the first move. For example, Bulgaria, Vietnam, or the GDR. India would beeven better. In your opinion, was that the correct recommendation?” Osadchiy peered at hiscolleagues. There were no objections. “Today is Friday. There will be very few meetings with96