The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

Akhromeev, the deputy head of the General Staff, with a group of generals and laterthe first deputy minister of defense, Marshal Sokolov, was sent to Termez. There theformation of the 40th Army, a full-fledged war machine with a number of headquarters,reconnaissance centers, rear support services, and other infrastructure components, wasunderway.High-level KGB apparatchiks continued to arrive in Kabul. There were so many ofthem that the old guard—Ivanov, Bogdanov, and Osadchiy—began to grow indignant anddeeply frustrated. Not only did the new arrivals require housing, every general was tryingto introduce his own agenda, ideas, and needs. The atmosphere at the embassy grewincreasingly tense by the day.Bogdanov still nourished hopes that Amin would be eliminated without unnecessarynoise or fanfare, which would allow the USSR to avoid large-scale troop involvement.Bogdanov, Ivanov, and Kirpichenko spent a long time discussing various options forremoving Amin. Leonid Pavlovich remembered that in the summer, Soviet dentists treatedTaraki’s teeth, to the former head of state’s delight. He called Bakhturin.“Tell me, what is Amin’s dental situation? Does he have any problems? Perhaps hewould like to get dentures in our embassy’s clinic?”“I can look into it,” responded the security officer. An accompanying instructionfollowed.“Well, look into it, and ask our dentists about the possibility of planting a capsulewith poison into his tooth during the treatment.”Once again, they visited the scenario involving a sniper. Kryuchkov suggestedarranging an ambush in the mountain roads near the Tajbeg and opening fire on the704