Having lived in Kabul, Afghanistan, from 1974 to 1976, I must say that the arguments of Selig S. Harrison in the December 1979 Letters section [in a discussion of Francis Fukuyama’s article, “A New Soviet Strategy,” October 1979] are simply false. Mr. Harrison says: “The Kabul coup . . . [was] the tragic culmination of a cycle of challenge and response set in motion by the Shah with U.S. encouragement.” But Russians were already everywhere in Kabul during these years—as “advisers,” soldiers, etc. In fact, my first and lasting impression was: here goes another country—Afghanistan will never get rid of all those Russians.

Vlado Ruži?
San Francisco, California