The following CPSU Central Committee document, dated 1 April 1979 and signed by Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, Defense Minister Dmitrii Ustinov, KGB chief Yurii Andropov, and CC International Department head Boris Ponomarev, provides a strikingly candid assessment of the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan that the Soviet Politburo confronted in spring 1979. The report attributes the increasing success of the Islamic opposition (i.e., the Afghan Mujaheddin) to the “miscalculations and mistakes” of the PDPA (People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan) regime that seized power following the April 1978 “revolution.”

CPSU CC Politburo Member Chernenko states that Soviet invervention in Afghanistan will lead to accussation of Soviet aggression

This document provides information for the leaders of the progressive Afghan political parties; and results of the CC elections.

CPSU CC Plenum meeting (excerpt) concerning the deterioration in relations with the US and NATO countries. Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko describes the altruistic nature of Soviet intentions in aiding Afghanistan.

The violent actions by the DRA, led by H. Amin, to de-stabilize the Afghan government, dissolving the gains made in the April Revolution, causes the Soviet Union to place military detachments in Afghanistan.

Meeting of Kosygin, Gromyko, Ustinov, and Ponomarev with Taraki in Moscow to discuss the deterioration of the situation in Afghanistan and expressing Soviet support for Afghanistan.

Record of Conversation between Soviet Ambassador to Afghanistan A.M. Puzanov and Taraki in which Taraki thanks Puzanov for Soviet aid and discusses conversation held with Soviet leaders

Soviet letter to US President Jimmy Carter responding to the US position on the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The CC CPSU Politburo informs the White House that the Soviet leadership desires to maintain detente with the US and that the intervention of Soviet troops was done at the request of the Afgan leadership, under Article 51 of the UN charter.

This memo includes the response of Brezhnev to President Carter's address concerning Afghanistan and US-Soviet relations.