afghanistanposition became increasingly untenable. Shortly after he returned home,
Afghan Millat published an article based on a report in the Californian
magazine Ramparts, in which an Afghan student at Berkeley University
alleged that the cia had tried to recruit him and other Afghan students. 48
Afghan Millat used this allegation to accuse Maiwandwal and other
American-educated ministers of being in the pay of the cia. Maiwandwal
denied the allegations, but faced a barrage of hostile questions from the
Wolusi Jirga. In response the government shut down Afghan Millat, which
alienated influential Pushtuns and monarchists, including Da’ud and
Na‘im. In an attempt to support the government, Neumann persuaded
the State Department to announce an emergency food aid package for
Afghanistan and a loan of $12 million for a generator for the Kajaki Dam.
In private Neumann noted that Maiwandwal was probably ‘past saving’, a
judgement that turned out to true. 49 In October 1967 Maiwandwal, who
had been undergoing treatment for cancer, resigned.
In a desperate attempt to put the genie back into the bottle, King Zahir
Shah appointed Nur Ahmad ‘Etimadi as the new prime minister. This
decision was probably one of the worst of Zahir Shah’s reign. ‘Etimadi
was a grandson of Sardar ‘Abd al-Quddus Khan and, like his grandfather,
‘Etimadi was stuck in the old, autocratic model of government. He was
also incompetent and his cabinet was packed with ageing Muhammadzais
from the era of Hashim Khan and ’Aman Allah Khan as well as a few
supporters of Da’ud, who by this time was barely on speaking terms with
the king. ‘Etimadi’s solution to the civil unrest was repression. In the spring
of 1968 transport workers and employees of state-run factories, fed up with
rampant inflation and subsistence-level salaries, went on strike, whereupon
college and university students staged a series of demonstrations in support
of their demands. The government once more closed Kabul University
and schools, only for more violent demonstrations to break out on the
anniversary of the 3 ‘Aqrab. Student protests and strikes resumed when the
new academic year began in the spring, fuelled by the announcement of
new elections. When the results were announced most of the opposition
factions had lost their seats and the Wolusi Jirga was packed with govern-
ment loyalists. Claims that the government had rigged the election led to
more protests and by June 1969 the situation was so out of hand that the
government again closed Kabul’s schools.
In April 1970 the ideological war between Islamists and Communists was
inflamed following the publication in Parcham of a poem in praise of Lenin
and the October Revolution, employing religious terminology traditionally
reserved for panegyrics about the Prophet Muhammad. Niyazi and Sibghat