The following summer Pakistan accused Afghanistan of aiding the Pashtun revolt in its western territory—Daoud’s Pashtunistan. Daoud, in turn, accused Pakistan of imprisoning hundreds of Pashtun tribal leaders and sending troops into Afghanistan. When Daoud demanded self-determination for the Pakistan Pashtuns, Pakistan closed the Khyber Pass, shutting off the main route for supplies to Jalalabad and Kabul. U.S. president John F. Kennedy offered to help resolve the crisis. Russia agreed to provide Afghanistan military aid, including Russian jets, tanks, and artillery. Afghanistan severed all diplomatic ties with Pakistan.
With no food supplies crossing the border, the people of Afghanistan began starving. The United States forced Pakistan to allow the United States to deliver humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. That summer, again at the urging of the United States, the Shah of Iran mediated the dispute between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and diplomatic ties were restored. Once again trucks rolled through the Khyber Pass, and the new Great Game between the United States and Russia (rather than Great Britain and Russia) continued as the United States and Russia competed for influence by building power stations, irrigation channels, highways, airports, and schools—including Nangarhar University, only the second university in all Afghanistan.
Baba, no longer able to tolerate Daoud’s continued obsession with Pashtunistan and his dangerous alliance with Russia, told Zahir Shah he would no longer serve as an advisor. Zahir Shah reluctantly accepted Baba’s decision. That night Uncle Ali marched into our house at dinner, demanding to know why my father was no longer advising the king.
“What’s the use?” Baba said. “My greatest desire is to see Afghanistan become peaceful, modern, prosperous, and truly independent. But I see only foreign dependence, ancient tribal ways, and religious fanaticism. The country is falling apart. Daoud’s desire to wrest Pashtunistan from Pakistan will be the end of us. I told the king this, but he can do nothing against his hardheaded cousin. Nay, I will no longer be a part of this.”
“If you keep on this course,” Ali said, “you will get us all in trouble.”
“The only way to avoid making enemies in Afghanistan is to say nothing: ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’—that is a monkey law, and I will not follow a monkey law. I will speak the truth when it needs to be spoken, even to Daoud and even if he doesn’t want to hear it.”
Uncle Ali, who always looked very tough, now looked broken.
“If good people like you refuse to work in the government, that is a very bad sign,” he said.
Baba shrugged. “These are bad times, and I’m afraid things will only get worse.”