Office of the Historian

69. Intelligence Information Cable Prepared in the Central Intelligence Agency1

[cable number not declassified]
Washington, October 2, 1979, 1652Z

COUNTRY

  • Afghanistan/USSR

SUBJECT

  • General Contents of a Personal Note From President Amin to Soviet Head of State Brezhnev. [1 line not declassified]

SOURCE

  • [5 lines not declassified]

1. After the ousting of Nur Mohammad Taraki from the Afghan Presidency in mid-September 1979, Hafizullah Amin sent Dastigar Panjshiri, Minister of Public Works to the Soviet Union with a personal message from Amin to Soviet Head of State, Leonid I. Brezhnev. In the message, Amin made the following points:

A. Amin claimed that he was not responsible for the 14 September crisis which resulted in the removal of Taraki and the three military members of the Cabinet. The events of that day had been forced upon him.

B. Taraki’s fall has not affected the relationship between Afghanistan and the USSR; Afghanistan continues to require the full support of the USSR in order to carry out Afghanistan’s revolution.

C. The fall of Taraki has not affected the historical outlook of Afghanistan, an outlook that is shared by the USSR.

D. The message concluded with Amin sending his personal regards to Brezhnev.

2. (Source comment: Since the 14 September episode, relations between the Afghan Government and the Soviet Union do not appear normal. Contacts between Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) officials and officials from the Soviet Embassy have decreased sharply since 14 September.)

3. ACQ: [2 lines not declassified]

4. [less than 1 line not declassified] Dissem: [2 lines not declassified]

  1. Source: Department of Defense, Afghan War Collection, Box 4, USSR in Afghanistan (October 79). Secret; [handling restriction not declassified].↩