TRYING TO SEIZE POWER IN AFGHANISTAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81M00980R000600230064-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 24, 2004
• Sequence Number: 64
• Publication Date: April 28, 1978
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2004/07/08 : CIA-RDP81 M00980R000606230064-1
Power in Afghanistan
r Trvinto Seize
hat ' Daoud had taken
was a rumor t
refuge in the French embassy com-
pound.
What triggered the coup was unclear
late last night. However, on Wednes-
day, the government radio announced
that seven Communist politicans had
been arrested following an antigov-
ernment demonstration several` days
earlier.
They had led some 15,000 people in
Vital Juncture
spot where the Indian subcontinent,
Central Asia and the Middle East
meet. Once a center for Buddhism,
it is now dominated by Islam.
ECONOMY-With an estimated
per capita annual income of $80, the
economy has suffered for years
under recurring drought. The two
most important exports are fresh
and dried fruits and sheepskins.
E- GOVERNMENT - Following the
V. abolition of the monarchy, Daoud
C established a 13-member central
a' committee with himself as presi-
7 dent.
E
H
d r
a funeral procession bearing the body
of Communist leader Mir Akbar Kha-
bir, who was killed April 17, past the
U.S. embassy, denouncing the Central
Inte'T1 igenee 'A`gency..
Khabir was the leader of the Khalq,
(Masses) Communist faction. One of
yesterday's broadcasts said that the
coup had been carried out "in the
name of the masses."
As far as could be determined, the
head of the Afghan armed forces,
Gen. Haider Rasuli, who was also
Daoud's defense minister, remained
loyal to the president throughout the
fighting. His fate was not yet known.
The outburst came as a surprise to
U.S. diplomats, who believed that Ra-
suli was in complete control of the
armed forces, largely armed and
trained by the Soviet Union over the
years. The State Department also be-
lieved, as one department source put
it, "that Daoud had his act together."
However, the anti-Communist gov-
ernment of Iran's Shah Mohammed
Reza Pahlavi has been warning for
some time that the Soviet Union was
agitating for a way to remove the
neutralist Daoud. Iran has long feared
that a pro-Communist government in
Afghanistan could lead to tribal un-
rest on the Afghan-Iranian frontier.
Pakistan's fundamentalist Moslem
government would also be expected
to be upset by any move toward Mos-
cow by Kabul. Afghanistan and Pakis-
tan have long been embroiled in a
border dispute.
The Soviet Union has a long history
of intrigue and deep involvement in
Afghanistan. In czarist days, the Rus-
sians played what Rudyard Kipling
referred to in "Kim" as "The Great
Game," struggling with Britain for
influence in Afghanistan. The Rus-
sians' goal was to win control of an
overland route to a warm-water port
on the Arabian Sea coast.
Even before Daoud came to power,
Afghanistan had successfully played
off the Soviet Union against the
United States. At times swaying closer
to Moscow and at times seemingly
moving toward Washington, the Af-
ghans managed to squeeze maximum
economic assistance from the two
superpowers.
U.S. Ambassador Theodore Elliot
reportedly called on all Americans in
Kabul to remain indoors during the
fighting. No casualties among resident
Americans have been reported. Kabul
airport was reportedly closed and a
curfew imposed on the city.
Former vice president Nelson Rocke-
A 25
feller, his wife, Happy, and a party of
nine were spending the night at the
Pakistani frontier town of Peshawar,
adjacent to the fabled Khyber Pass
leading into Afghanistan. The Rocke-
fellers, who dined Tuesday night with
Pakistani leader Gen. Zia ul Haq,
were supposed to travel through the
pass to Kabul today.
Washington Post correspondent Ber-
nard D. Nossiter in Rawalpindi, Pakis-
tan, and special correspondent William
Branigin in Tehran contributed to this
article.
Approved `For Release 2004/07/08 : CIA-RDP81 M00980R0006002300 4-1