Word: politburo
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...Politburo decided to back Taraki because Mr. Brezhnev said he knew Taraki personally. He was sure Taraki would do a good job! Things started going off the rails almost at once. Taraki shipped Karmal off to Prague as ambassador. He then set about killing Karmal's supporters (many of whom were our own informers...
Despite our warnings, and to our complete amazement, Mr. Brezhnev backed Amin. Taraki was invited to Moscow. Secretly, Mr. Brezhnev and his Politburo colleagues had agreed with Amin that Amin would arrange for Taraki to step down as President on his return to Kabul. Amin carried out the agreement in spirit, if not to the letter: Taraki stepped straight from the presidency to his grave. Moscow was willing to turn a blind eye to that. It was only weeks, however, before the smooth-talking Amin made the KGB argument seem correct. Amin did not honor specific promises made...
...Politburo now really was convinced that the KGB argument had been right: Amin was planning to turn Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. So the Politburo decided Amin had to go. Preferably quietly-but certainly dead. At first, we-that is, the KGB-were given the job. We had an officer, an illegal who passed as an Afghan and had for some time been one of Amin's personal cooks. He was ordered to poison Amin. But Amin was as careful as any of the Borgias. He kept switching his food and drink as if he expected to be poisoned...
...failures annoyed Moscow. The Politburo accepted a less quiet way of getting rid of Amin. This time special Soviet troops were to storm the presidential palace. The day after Christmas 1979, Soviet paratroopers began arriving at the Kabul airport. They strengthened the substantial garrison we had quietly been building up there. The next day an armored column moved out of the airport toward the palace. It consisted of a few hundred Soviet commandos, plus a specially trained assault group of KGB officers-rather like the U.S. Green Berets. They were all in Afghan uniforms, and their vehicles had Afghan markings...
What moved the Politburo was the thought that the Muslim revolution in Afghanistan could succeed and that, as a result, the Soviet Union would actually be thrown out of Afghanistan. The repercussions of such a blow to our prestige would be unpredictable. The Soviet Union could not run such a risk. The Politburo was determined to show that the Soviet Union would not be pushed about...