Word: taraki
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Making his first trip out of his isolated, primitive country since he seized power in a military coup seven months ago, Afghanistan's leftist President Noor Mohammed Taraki naturally headed for Moscow, which was the first foreign capital that recognized his regime. After a warm greeting from Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev, Taraki, 61, happily signed a 20-year "treaty of friendship, good neighborliness and cooperation" that is sure to increase concern in the West (as well as in Peking) that Afghanistan has become a new base for Soviet adventurism, one that spells particular trouble for the country...
...alarmism may be self-fulfilling. Iranians and Pakistanis are convinced that Afghanistan is a dagger pointed at their hearts, and they are deeply annoyed by Washington's cautious, wait-and-see attitude toward the regime of President Noor Mohammad Taraki in Kabul. An official of the new Iranian Cabinet argues that it is "naive" of the U.S. not to recognize Afghanistan as the Russian bear's paw in the region...
...title at least, it appeared that the top man in the new regime would be the Prime Minister, Noor Mohammed Taraki, 61. He is a soft-spoken novelist and journalist who was once (1952-53) an attaché at the Afghan embassy in Washington. More recently, as leader of the 15,000-member Khalq (Masses) Party, Afghanistan's principal Communist faction, Taraki led a campaign against the domination of the long powerful Mohammed Zahir family, to which both Daoud and the cousin-King he had deposed belonged. Taraki was periodically imprisoned for his activities; indeed, he was in jail...
...three military men who actually led the putsch got important portfolios in Taraki's 21-member Cabinet: Air Force Colonel Abdul Kadir became Defense Minister; Lieut. Colonel Mohammed Rafi, whose tanks spearheaded the palace assault, was named Public Works Minister; and Major Mohammed Aslam was designated Communications Minister and Second Deputy Prime Minister. The remaining appointees were civilians, among them Hafisullah Amin, a onetime Columbia University student, who was named Foreign Minister, and Amahita Pratebsad, who as Director of Social Welfare becomes Afghanistan's first woman minister. To broaden the new faction's base outside Kabul...