In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan

4. Rufus, History of Alexander, book 2, vol. 7, p. 147. Also see, for example, Lewis V. Cummings, Alexander the Great (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1940), pp. 280– 81.

5. Eric Newby, A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush (London: Martin Secker, 1958), p. 243.

6. See, for example, Frank L. Holt, Into the Land of Bones: Alexander the Great in Afghanistan (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2005).

7. Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo, translated by Ronald Latham (New York: Penguin Books, 1958), p. 77.

8. Sir George Lawrence, Reminiscences of Forty-Three Years in India (Lahore, Pakistan: Sang-e-Meel Publications, 1981), pp. 308–9. The appendix includes a copy of William Brydon’s account, provided on arrival in Jalalabad in 1842.

9. Holt, Into the Land of Bones, p. 4.

10. Holt, Into the Land of Bones, pp. 4–5.

11. Author interview with Ambassador Ronald Neumann, April 16, 2008.

12. Rory Stewart, The Places in Between (Orlando, FL: Harcourt, 2006).

13. Marco Polo, Travels of Marco Polo, p. 80.

14. Author interview with Ambassador Ronald Neumann, March 25, 2008.

15. Henry Kissinger, Memorandum for the President, “Private Conversations with the King and Prime Minister of Afghanistan,” January 26, 1970. Released by the National Security Archive.

16. U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Research Study, “Afghanistan: Both Government and Political System Face Trial,” March 30, 1973. Also see U.S. Embassy Kabul to Department of State, Airgram A-90, “King Zahir’s Experiment: Some End-of-Tour Observaions,” August 1, 1970. Released by the National Security Archive.

17. U.S. Embassy Kabul to Department of State, Cable 4745, August 2, 1971, “Audience with King Zahir.” Released by the National Security Archive.

18. U.S. Embassy Kabul to Department of State, Airgram A-77, “Afghanistan’s Clerical Unrest: A Tentative Assessment,” June 24, 1970. Released by the National Security Archive.

19. Ambassador Ronald Neumann, Airgram A-90, “King Zahir’s Experiment: Some End-of-Tour Observations,” August 1, 1970. Released by the National Security Archive.

20. U.S. Embassy Kabul to Department of State, Cable 1806, March 21, 1972, “Afghanistan—Political Uncertainties.” Released by the National Security Archive.

21. Department of State to U.S. Embassy Kabul, Cable 74767, April 29, 1972, Political Situation.” Also see, for example, Memorandum from Robert A. Flaten, NEA/PAB (Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, Office for Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh), to Bruce Laingen, Office Director, NEA/ PAB, “Afghan Politics—the Creeping Crisis,” May 21, 1972. Released by the National Security Archive.

22. The KGB in Afghanistan—Geographical Volume 1, Vasili Mitrokhin Archive. Released by the Cold War International History Project.

23. U.S. Embassy Kabul to Department of State, Cable 4728, “King Zaher Travel to London for Medical Therapy,” June 26, 1973. Released by the National Security Archive.

24. Memorandum, Harold H. Saunders and Henry A. Appelbaum, National Security Council Staff, to Dr. Kissinger, “Coup in Afghanistan,” July 17, 1973. Released by the National Security Archive.

25. Author interview with Graham Fuller, August 19, 2008.

26. Decree of the Secretariat of the CC CPSU—An Appeal to the Leaders of the PDPA Groups “Parcham” and “Khalq,” January 8, 1974; CC CPSU Information for the Leaders of the Progressive Afghan Political Organizations “Parcham” and “Khalq” Concerning the Results of the Visit of Mohammed Daud to the USSR, June 21, 1974. Released by the Cold War International History Project.

27. Barnett R. Rubin, The Fragmentation of Afghanistan: State Formation and Collapse in the International System, 2nd ed. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002), p. 115.

28. The Delivery of Special Equipment to the DRA, CC CPSU Politburo meeting, April 21, 1978. Released by the Cold War International History Project.

29. Author interview with Graham Fuller, August 19, 2008.

30. Quoted in David B. Edwards, Before Taliban: Genealogies of the Afghan Jihad (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2002), p. 36.

31. Alexander Lyakhovskiy, Plamya Afgana (Moscow: Iskon, 1999). Released by the Cold War International History Project.

32. Eric Pace, “Babrak Karmal, Afghanistan’s Ex-President, Dies at 67,” New York Times, December 6, 1996.

33. Anatoly Dobrynin, In Confidence: Moscow’s Ambassador to America’s Six Cold War Presidents (1962–1986) (New York: Times Books, 1995), p. 435.

34. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Power and Principle: Memoirs of the National Security Adviser, 1977– 1981 (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1983), p. 413.

35. CC CPSU Politburo Session March 17–18, 1979, Deterioration of Conditions in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and Possible Responses from Our Side. Released by the National Security Archive.

36. Transcript of Telephone Conversation between Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin and Afghan Prime Minister Nur Mohammad Taraki, March 18, 1979; Conversation of the chief of the Soviet military advisory group in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Gorelov, with H. Amin, August 11, 1979. Released by the Cold War International History Project.

37. Transcript of A. N. Kosygin-A. A. Gromyko-D. F. Ustinov-B. N. Ponomarev-N. M. Taraki Conversation on March 20, 1979. Released by the National Security Archive.

38. CPSU CC Politburo Decision and Instruction to Soviet Ambassador in Afghanistan, May 24, 1979. Released by the Cold War International History Project.

39. Excerpt from Politburo meeting, March 18, 1979. Released by the Cold War International History Project.

40. Tanner, Afghanistan, pp. 231–32.

41. Andropov-Gromyko-Ustinov-Ponomarev Report to CC CPSU on the Situation in Afghanistan, June 28, 1979. Released by the Cold War International History Project.

42. On the Soviet Union’s dossier on Amin, see Alexander Lyakhovskiy, Plamya Afgana.

43. Andropov-Gromyko-Ustinov-Ponomarev Report to the CC CPSU on the Situation in Afghanistan, October 29, 1979. Released by the National Security Archive.

44. Dobrynin, In Confidence, p. 436. Personal Memorandum from Andropov to Brezhnev, December 1, 1979. Released by the Cold War International History Project.

45. Author interview with Graham Fuller, August 19, 2008.

46. Alexander Lyakhovskiy’s account of the meeting from Alexander Lyakhovskiy, The Tragedy and Valor of the Afghani (Moscow: GPI Iskon, 1995), pp. 109–12. Released by the Cold War International History Project. Lyakhovskiy was a major general in the Russian Army. During the war in Afghanistan, he served as assistant to the commander of the Operative Group of the USSR Defense Ministry.

47. Georgy Kornienko’s Account of the Politburo Decision to Send Soviet Troops into Afghanistan, from Georgy M. Kornienko, The Cold War: Testimony of a Participant (Moscow: Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya, 1994). Released by the National Security Archive.

48. Lyakhovskiy, The Tragedy and Valor of the Afghani, pp. 109–12.

49. Georgy Kornienko’s Account of the Politburo Decision to Send Soviet Troops into Afghanistan.

50. On growing concerns of Islam in Afghanistan, see Soviet Communication to the Hungarian Leadership on the Situation in Afghanistan, March 28, 1979. Released by the Cold War International History Project.

51. Directive No. 312/12/001 of December 24, 1979, signed by Ustinov and Ogarkov, December 24, 1979. U.S. President Jimmy Carter sent a letter to Brezhnev arguing that the Afghan government—especially Amin—had not requested Soviet assistance. On Brezhnev’s response, see Reply to an appeal of President Carter about the issue of Afghanistan through the direct communications channel (Excerpt from the Minutes of the CC CPSU Politburo