The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

Central Committee should be introduced in a timely fashion to the Politburo.Implementation of all of these measures should be assigned to Comrades AndropovY.V., Ustinov D.F., Gromyko A.A.2. To task Comrades Andropov Y.V., Ustinov D.F., Gromyko A.A., to inform themembers of the Politburo of the Central Committee regarding the implementation ofthe planned actions.Secretary of the Central Committee, L.I. BrezhnevFew details about that fatal Politburo meeting are known. What is known is that thehead of the government, A.N. Kosygin, who appealed to his colleagues for a more balancedposition towards Afghanistan and who consistently rejected the idea of Soviet militaryintervention, was not present at the meeting because of illness. It is interesting to imaginehow he would have voted if he had been in the Kremlin on that day. All of the otherPolitburo members unanimously approved the document. It is also known that on thatparticular day, December 12, the Americans and their allies announced their plans todeploy new intermediate-range missiles in Europe, which upset strategic parity and wastherefore of great concern to the Soviet leadership.One might inquire as to the whereabouts of the note with the “considerations andactions” that were purportedly narrated by Ustinov, Andropov, and Gromyko. It is quitepossible that such a note never existed. Most probably, they narrated their argumentsorally. The cautious functionaries in those days tried not to leave any traces of their activityon paper, such as decrees, plans, and working notes. Even Afghanistan in that handwrittendocument is hidden shamefully under the letter “A.”But for Kryuchkov it was a clear signal that it was time to act, and he issued an orderto Kabul.687