The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

KGB colleagues, exiting the embassy compound. In order not to waste any time, he turnedto the massive, detailed map of Kabul hanging on the wall of the common room. As hetraced the route outlined for him and his partner, he tried to imagine which landmarksalong the route would be of most interest to the reconnaissance operation.Thinking that his partner would be the one driving, Valery suggested that they lookover the route together while they had the map before them. His partner brushed Valeryaside, saying, “to hell with the route.” It’s possible that he and the other colleagues standingby the window watching the events unfold in Kabul were more interested in how the airforce attack on the presidential palace was proceeding. Valery turned away from the mapand joined his comrades by the window.The hour-and-a-half wait before their departure seemed an eternity. To kill time,Valery went downstairs to the first floor, stopped by the embassy’s protocol department,and then continued towards the entrance hall. On his way there, Valery checked hismailbox. He had received a postcard from his former boss in the Center, in Moscow. Thepostcard contained May Day congratulations. Valery read the kind words of his severe, butfair, former boss and, without thinking, slid the postcard into the pocket of his sportsjacket.Valery then stopped by the protocol department to chat with his “clean” diplomatfriends. Their discussion about the events in the city was very general. Perhaps as ademonstration of their diplomatic tact, or perhaps because the situation appeared selfevident,not one of them asked him any specific questions. Perhaps they well understood,without Valery’s explanation, who was shooting whom in the city at the moment.One of the diplomats, Mikhail, offered to put up Valery and his family in his small52