1959 During Independence Week celebration, the wives and daughters of the Royal Family and dignitaries appear unveiled. When the mullahs protest to Daoud, he has them thrown in jail.
1961 On August 23, Pakistan and Afghanistan break diplomatic relations, and the Pakistan-Afghanistan border is closed. Various skirmishes occur in the N.W.F.P. over the Pushtunistan question.
1962 Amin becomes a translator for the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.
1963 Prime Minister Daoud resigns (March 9). He is succeeded by the commoner Dr. Muhammed Yousuf. The border with Pakistan is re-opened, and diplomatic relations re-established.
1964 A liberalized Islamic constitution is promulgated. Women are given equality under the law. Zaher Shah remains king, but the Royal Family is prohibited from entering politics. (This bars Daoud, for instance, from returning to power, because he is a member of the Royal Family.) The Doshi-Jabal Us-Seraj road is completed between Kabul and the Soviet border.
1965 The first national elections are held. (With what ironic sadness does one remember this now!) Political parties appear on the scene: conservatives, centrists, liberals and leftists. In July, the newspaper Khalq (The Masses) first appears. Its publisher is a man named Nur Muhammad Taraki, about whom Louis Dupree remarks: “The novel as found in the West is rare in the Middle East and virtually unknown in Afghanistan. One well-known leftist journalist, Nur Muhammad Taraki, is considered to be a budding Persian-language novelist, however.”† Khalq is the organ of the Democratic People’s Party, formed by Taraki on January 1. A more extremist wing of the D.P.P. publishes Parcham (The Flag), a magazine to which Mr. Babrak Karmal is a frequent contributor. Babrak calls for the formation of a “United Democratic Front” to achieve socialism by evolution from within the system. (Both wings, Parcham and Khalq, are politically right of a third group within the D.P.P. called Shu’la-yi-Jawed, “the Eternal Flame.”) Babrak and a woman deputy of the D.P.P., Dr. Ananhita, are elected to Parliament. Babrak urges the students to come and demonstrate, which they do with such vigor that Parliament must be adjourned. On October 25, government troops fire on student demonstrators, killing three. On October 29, Mohammad Hashim Mawamdal succeeds Dr. Yousuf as Prime Minister.
The Soviet-Afghan Treaty of Neutrality and Non-Aggression of 1931 is renewed. Meanwhile, U.S. assistance to Afghanistan continues to average $22 million a year.
1966 Khalq is closed by the government.
1967 Prime Minister Mawamdal is replaced by Nur Ahmad Etemadi. A split occurs in the D.P.P. between the Khalq and the Parcham (which remains affiliated with the Shu’la-yi-Jawed).
1968 The share of socialist countries in the total foreign trade turnover of Afghanistan reaches 47 percent. Some conservative members of Parliament propose that Afghan women be prohibited from studying abroad. A demonstration of Afghan women students makes them change their minds. The Parcham and the Shu’la-yi-Jawed split apart.
1969 Parcham is closed by the government. In a melee in Parliament, Babrak is severely injured and sent to the hospital. His and Ananhita’s terms expire.
1970 The magazine Mujalla-i-Shariat (Shariat Journal) appears, edited by Professor Rabbani.
1971 Pakistan and India go to war. Pakistan loses. As a result, East Pakistan becomes the sovereign state of Bangladesh. In Afghanistan, Dr. Abdul Zahil becomes Prime Minister, and a student strike begins which lasts until 1972.
1972 Rabbani becomes head of the Jamiat-i-Islami.
1973 Supported by the Parcham and others, Daoud overthrows the monarchy while Zaher Shah is in Italy (July 17).‡ Daoud becomes both President and Prime Minister. He declares martial law. Over the next half-decade he strives to continue the policy of gracious nonalignment, but with increasingly less success. The Soviets improve the border routes of Afghanistan and strengthen the roads between major Afghan cities. Some Cassandras say that the roads are being given a much greater weight capacity than the Afghans require. It is almost as if (ignoble thought!) the roads had been designed to accommodate Soviet tanks. Daoud meanwhile sends 1,600 Parcham cadres to the country to assist in modernization. This effort fails, and many of them leave their posts, convinced that a more radical approach is needed.
On October 20, former Prime Minister Mawamdal, convicted of a plot against Daoud, “commits suicide” in prison.
1975 Dissatisfied with what they see as increasingly anti-Islamic tendencies of the government, Gulbuddin et al. begin to build up their own political organizations in the provinces and in Peshawar, where they are given support by Pakistan’s Bhutto government in retaliation for Afghan-supported subversive activities in Pakistan. On the night of July 21–22, religious leaders launch the “Panjsher Insurgency,” which is not limited to Panjsher but includes Paktiya, Jalalabad and many other areas. Ninety-three people are brought to trial, and three executed. In September, a military plot against Daoud is uncovered.
1976 Daoud and Bhutto exchange visits.
1977 In February, a new constitution is passed, and the country officially becomes the Republic of Afghanistan. In July, the Parcham and the Shu’la-yi-Jawed reunite. General Zia seizes power in Pakistan and arrests Bhutto, who is imprisoned for two years. Zia visits Daoud for consultations in October. In December, another plan for a military coup against Daoud is discovered, and the perpetrators arrested.
1978 On April 17, Daoud tells confidants that he will soon announce sweeping reforms. But ten days later he and his family are efficiently liquidated. Nur Muhammad Taraki accepts the call of the nation and becomes President and Prime Minister.§ The Soviet Union expresses congratulations; the United States does not. Surviving members of the Royal Family are arrested and deprived of citizenship. The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan is now governed by a coalition of Khalq and Parcham members. Babrak Karmal becomes Deputy Prime Minister for a little while, and Hafizullah Amin, who had set the coup in motion through his party contacts in the army, becomes Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs. Taraki signs a treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union, kindly reaffirms the equality of women in a Decree Number Seven, and then gets to work. In July, when he feels secure, he reduces the Parcham leadership to ambassadors and packs them off — Babrak to Prague, Ananhita to Belgrade, etc. In August, the remaining Parcham members are arrested on charges of conspiring against the government. Babrak, Ananhita and the other ambassadors are stripped of their powers and recalled home, but they wisely go to Moscow instead.
1979 (January) 12,000 Afghan troops are moved to Konar Province to fight 5,000 guerrillas.
(March) Radio Kabul claims that Iran has sent 4,000 troops in disguise across the border, along with 7,000 Afghan dissidents, in order to unseat Taraki. Iran denies this. The Afghan government also accuses Pakistan of harboring and supporting the Mujahideen (as of course it is doing). A new all-Khalq cabinet is announced. Amin becomes Prime Minister, and thereby takes on responsibility for pacifying the countryside. Nuristani rebels commence operations. In Herat, rebels kill Soviet technicians and their wives and children.
(April) Bhutto is hanged in Pakistan.