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training? How then, I asked him, can we
support you? Almost without realizing it,
Comrade Taraki responded that almost no-
body does support the government. In
Kabul we have no workers, only craftsmen.
And the conversation again turned to Herat,
and he said that if Herat falls, then the revo-
lution is doomed. And on the contrary, if it
holds out, then survival of the revolution is
assured. In his opinion, the army is reli-
able, and they are depending on it. How-
ever, uprisings have emerged throughout the
entire country, and the army is too small to
be able to pacify the insurgents everywhere.
Your assistance is required, Comrade Taraki
again declared.
As far as Kabul is concerned, there, it
is obvious from the telegrams we received
today, the situation is basically the same as
in Iran: manifestos are circulating, and
crowds of people are massing. Large num-
bers of persons are flowing into Afghani-
stan from Pakistan and Iran, equipped with
Iranian and Chinese armaments.
KIRILENKO. In Herat the 17th divi-
sion numbers 9 thousand men. Can it re-
ally be that they are all in a state of inaction
or have gone over to the side of the
government’s opponents?
KOSYGIN. According to our data, the
artillery and one infantry regiment have
gone over, although not entirely, and the rest
continue to support the government.
USTINOV. As far as the Tajiks are
concerned, we don’t have separate [deleted]
KOSYGIN. An antiaircraft battalion
located in Herat has also gone over to the
side of the rebels.
USTINOV. Amin, when I talked to
him, also requested the deployment of forces
to Herat to quell the insurgents.
KOSYGIN. Comrade Taraki reports
that half of the division located in Herat has
gone over to the side of the rebels. The re-
maining portion, he thinks, also will not
support the government.
USTINOV. The Afghan revolution has
encountered major difficulties along its way,
Amin said in his conversation with me, and
its survival now depends totally on the So-
viet Union.
What is the problem? Why is this hap-
pening? The problem is that the leadership
of Afghanistan did not sufficiently appreci-
ate the role of Islamic fundamentalists. It is
under the banner of Islam that the soldiers
are turning against the government, and an
absolute majority, perhaps only with rare
exceptions, are believers. There is your rea-
son why they are asking us to help drive
back the attacks of the insurgents in Herat.
Amin said, albeit somewhat uncertainly, that
there is support for the army. And again,
like Comrade Taraki, he appealed for assis-
tance.
KIRILENKO. It follows that they have
no guarantee in respect to their own army.
They are depending on only one outcome,
namely, on our tanks and armored cars.
KOSYGIN. We must, obviously, in
adopting such a determination in respect to
assistance, seriously think through the con-
sequences that will flow from this. The
matter is really very serious.
ANDROPOV. Comrades, I have con-
sidered all these issues in depth and arrived
at the conclusion that we must consider very,
very seriously, the question of whose cause
we will be supporting if we deploy forces
into Afghanistan. It’s completely clear to
us that Afghanistan is not ready at this time
to resolve all of the issues it faces through
socialism. The economy is backward, the
Islamic religion predominates, and nearly
all of the rural population is illiterate. We
know Lenin’s teaching about a revolution-
ary situation. Whatever situation we are
talking about in Afghanistan, it is not that
type of situation. Therefore, I believe that
we can suppress a revolution in Afghani-
stan only with the aid of our bayonets, and
that is for us entirely inadmissible. We can-
not take such a risk.
KOSYGIN. Maybe we ought to in-
struct
our
ambassador,
Comrade
Vinogradov, to go to Prime Minister of Iran
[Mehdi] Bazargan and inform him that in-
terference in the internal affairs of Afghani-
stan cannot be tolerated.
GROMYKO. I completely support
Comrade Andropov’s proposal to rule out
such a measure as the deployment of our
troops into Afghanistan. The army there is
unreliable. Thus our army, when it arrives
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