The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

The papers also published Comrade Taraki’s speech from the plenary session. Themain message of the speech dealt with the plotters who had been expelled from the party.Taraki’s rhetoric echoed that of Stalin’s, who destroyed his opposition as “hired hands andagents of imperialism.” Taraki asserted that, “Imperialism has organized a plot against theApril Revolution, and the imperialist circles in Kabul have established contacts with theiragents. Our security services have received information that indicates our comrades’participation in this plot, under the leadership of Babrak Karmal, Qadir, and others. Inorder to resolve the situation, and to uncover the role of imperialist circles…the decisionwas made to appoint as ambassadors B. Karmal to Prague, N. A. Nur to Washington, Vakil toLondon, Anahita to Belgrade, Najib to Tehran, and Baryalai to Islamabad. After the arrestsof Qadir, Ali Akbar, and Shahpur, we were able to obtain a number of documents thatimplicated Sultan Ali Keshtmand and Raffi in the plot. The ambassadors were recalled. Notonly did they fail to return, they embezzled state embassy funds.”Information about the uncovered plot was received with enthusiastic applause.Those in attendance shouted appeals to punish the plotters severely. All of this echoedsimilar events in the Soviet Union during the thirties and fifties.***It is well known that every revolution devours its children. The April Revolution wasa classic example. Having completed a military coup, Afghan revolutionaries first killed theremaining allies of the former regime, continued on to eliminate their personal enemies,and then moved against the opposition within their own ranks. Seemingly intoxicated bybloodlust and encouraged by the perception of impunity, the country’s new leaders254