811.42790H/53: Telegram
The Minister in Afghanistan ( Engert ) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 2—11:58 p.m.]
75. In considering the request of the Afghan Government in my telegram 74 immediately preceding I should like to stress the tremendous influence the right kind of Americans could exercise here both during and after this war. They should therefore be selected with great care and bearing in mind the observations in the second paragraph of my telegram 160, December 28, 194272 as well as the contents of my airgram A–2 of January 24, 1943.
The Afghans are in the process of creating privately only a political and social organization. The entire structure of their life is still largely patriarchal with a highly developed sense of tradition. Like other Oriental peoples they are seeking to find salvation by copying foreign systems but the ignorant masses still view the West if not with hatred at least with deep suspicion. These changes are being effected amid much confusion and many stresses both from within and from without and many people regret the passing of the old and are perplexed by the advent of the new.
We therefore have a rare opportunity not only of access to a new nation in the making but of helping and guiding it in connection with the intimate problems of mental and moral adjustment which the pressure of modern forces have created. If the presence of tactful and intelligent teachers can add to the merely superficial modernization of the country a sincere effort to adapt the old Islamic creed and tradition to a new way of living we shall not only render a great service to Afghanistan but we shall make American idealism and justice and vision a positive and constructive force in the whole of Central Asia.