This is Post #50 in the new Series “Going to Afghanistan”.

~ The roots of a $1 Trillion Dollar “discovery” and a little about oil from the gulf.

I know you probably find it a little hard sometimes to see things “my way”.  A little documentation is always nice.  You can get your own copy of this from the Agency for International Development (AID) (archives - it was ICA in 1958) if you don’t believe me; if you think I photo-shop things myself.  These documents are real.

So I am posting a few “family mementos” - papers from the past to show that “what’s new” is maybe not so new.

Exhibit ‘A’ is a simple list from Fred’s Division (not military, but maybe a little like military just the same) - maybe like the first American Invasion of Afghanistan (circa 1958; not the 2001 one at all).

I didn’t see it as an invasion then; I saw it more like “doing good”, like “a trip”, like “my life” in Afghanistan - a nice place (then).  But looking back on the documents (from now) makes them seem a little more disconcerting.  The projects, but more - the priorities - are clear.  You don’t need it spelled out with big numbers, starting with “one”, to make the point.  You don’t need a document deliberately without a date to make the point.  But here it IS and it is so abundantly clear (now).

10 of the Projects of ICA in Afghanistan - circa 1958.

Clayton Family Document from the Donald Clayton collection - This image is contributed to the Public Domain under the parameters of Qala Bist Blue.

This list shows the project ID numbers and the ICA USOM/A person in charge of the specific project.  Actually, several projects often fell within the parameters suggested by this list; and as you will see by subsequent documents the “scope” of the parameters was often changing.

Projects pertinent to the identification of and development of (exploitation of) Mineral Resources and coal production in Afghanistan was in the hands of Robert Davis in 1958.  This is perhaps interesting to consider in light of the release two days ago of the U.S. Military assessment of the potential (in 2010) of the Mineral Resources of Afghanistan.

This thing goes a long way back folks!

In case it is not as clear to YOU as it is to me let’s look at this list a bit with fresh eyes.  The exploitation of Afghanistan’s natural resources is #1.  #2 is reconnaissance and mapping; there were no satellite surveillance systems then, no ground penetrating radar; but a good geologist (like Fred) could see things just the same (and did; and so did many others).

The Helmand Valley was first about electric power (not agriculture, more the ruse).  Fred was an engineer that built dams and airports; irrigation was act two - “power” always precedes food on THIS planet.  Which brings us to “industry” and Industrial Districts (in Kandahar); industry needs power (back to #3).

#5 is “Educational Facilities” the battle for the “hearts and minds”.  Kabul University (an American project) was not about philosophy, theory, religion and good government - it was there to teach science (nuclear engineering, chemistry - things like that).  #6 brings us finally to “food”; but not food in the old way (old ways) - this is “new food” folks, maybe not genetic engineering “GM” (yet, but not too far from it.  Lashkar Gah was an American community (per design), tractors and chemicals all made in the U.S.S.A. - Whoray!

#7 is the “Air Power” thing.  KIA was the first “Jet Port”; Bagram came close behind; then the Russians built Kabul (International Airport) and the war was on.  #8 is of course about the OIL!  Roads to replace camel trails and caravans, trucks burning fossil fuels always coming in; you’ve seen the pictures, the trucks - Fred’s car; all the other “American” cars there (mostly just for show) - a real CAR SHOW with all the American models and the model of America - America using Oil!

#9 - always “number nine” - more oil folks.  Oil for asphalt, oil for trucks, oil for cars - make Afghanistan dependent on oil.   And then we have the “Code 10″ “Ten code” #10.  It means everything from “fight in progress” to “bomb threat” to “off-duty”.  You take your pick, we’re talking “Afghan regional transit” here; sounds like a roadside bomb to me; or maybe just neglected infrastructure - this country ain’t going nowhere under the Americans baby (not maybe).

Let me make it CLEAR.  I never saw all of this this way until today!  This list was made before Fred came along; Fred (my father) did not make this list.  He was given this list by someone “higher up” the chain.  I’m not convinced he even understood at the time “the plan”, the “stakes”; what someone was really after.  He loved Afghanistan and the people; but too - he had a job to do - let’s put that job to an end - a real end - like let’s stop that JOB right now!

Stop the drilling!  Take down the walls and dams and damn walls!  Let the people free!

Note:  For more documents and documentation check the monthly posts under 1958; the document list is growing.  I will try to make a “click here” list; but you know that I’m still looking for pictures of two old cars and columns east of Beirut (so don’t hold your breath).  Maybe I should create a new catagory “Documents” and make it real(ly) easy.

[First posted  2010.06.16 / Wednesday ]  11:35 P.M. Mountain War Time

The arch at Qala Bist - Qala Bist / Qala Bost, Afghanistan - April 1959.

Clayton Family Photograph by Fred W. Clayton from the Donald Clayton collection - This image is contributed to the Public Domain under the parameters of Qala Bist Blue.

The remains of the city of Qala Bist can be seen above the arch.  The man in white gives a sense of the scale of the Arch at Qala Bist (Afghanistan).

The arch at Qala Bist - Qala Bist / Qala Bost, Afghanistan - April 1959.

Clayton Family Photograph by Fred W. Clayton from the Donald Clayton collection - This image is contributed to the Public Domain under the parameters of Qala Bist Blue.

The arch in detail at Qala Bist - Qala Bist / Qala Bost, Afghanistan - April 1959.

Clayton Family Photograph by Fred W. Clayton from the Donald Clayton collection - This image is contributed to the Public Domain under the parameters of Qala Bist Blue.

This photograph shows the partial restoration and repairs to the “right side” of the arch at Qala Bist in Afghanistan.   The geometry of the underlying arch is a ten pointed matrix that yields to a randomly repetitious orbit of ten five pointed stars. The arch is composed of mud brick, fired mud brick, glazed brick, and incredibly beautiful glazed tile.

The Arch at Qala Bist before the restoration - Qaleh Bist / Qala Bost, Afghanistan - April 1959.

Afghanistan - Ancient Land with Modern Ways - page #30 photograph from the Donald Clayton collection - This image is contributed to the Public Domain under the parameters of Qala Bist Blue.

This photograph shows the remarkable arch at Qala Bist in Afghanistan.  The caption for this picture says, “Remains of the massive arch of Qaleh Bist near Lashkargah date back over 1000 years”  The date that this photograph was taken is unknown.  But if you read the article linked here carefully you will notice two things.  One, the “fort at Bost” dates to 500 B.C.  Two, there was a Kushan presence here and “the round concrete plug” does not seem to yet exist; or is it the photographs that I am talking about (or both)?

“Under” the Arch at Qala-i-Bist Afghanistan - August 22, 2007.

Photographic image by “Nathan” - taken while stationed with the U.S. military in Afghanistan.  This image is used to safeguard this extremely important world cultural site information.

There are only two official World Cultural Sites in Afghanistan - there probably should be twenty (20).  However, Qala Bist is the one (not on the list) that I am most interested in.  “Nathan” took this picture; he had a blog and posted it (the picture).  There has been no public word from Nathan since February 16, 2009.  I pray that he is OK; that everyone he comes in contact with stays OK - being in the military is usually a hard, hard thing.

What impresses me most about Nathan is his posting of a quote (in his last post) from April 23, 1910, “Man in the Arena”.  These are the words Fred (my father) always said about his  work in Afghanistan - history full circle once again.

The point about the small picture from “Bost” that Nathan brought us is that it seems that the cover (the concrete plug) to underneath the arch has been lifted since the major U.S. military presence there.  This raises many, many questions.

But before I point them (the questions) out it should be noted that this could be another “tunnel down” into the recesses of Qala Bist.  The recess (tunnel) at the arch may still remain (plugged).  I do not know; maybe someone with a camera in Afghanistan (at Bost) could clarify all this for me (and you).  But to continue…

This “shaft” does lead eventually to water, to tunnels and to more tunnels - perhaps to 10,000 miles of tunnels underneath the sands of Qala Bist and halfway north to Bamiyan and way over to near Kandahar, even north toward Ghazni.  I’ve been in these tunnels, “crevasses” (as they are called in Afghanistan) - they’re called “Qanat” in Iran.  In the southern half of Afghanistan they are everywhere - I’ve mentioned this long, long before.

So it would be a “military necessity” to open up these tunnels and send some bodies in.  A thousand military operatives maybe; maybe two thousand or even three.  It is the “underground” war in Afghanistan; win that one or ONE will lose!  But, it’s not so much the “sand-hogs” that I might think about.  It is the “other” tunnels - niches - caves and their contents that interests me more.  You see the “lid” on Afghanistan has been blown open (quite literally) as you can see.

So watch the content of those caves and caverns and cravasses folks.  The contents ARE important.  Their truth could save the world; or kept concealed - destroy it.  Meanwhile; I’ll just carry on with my bit and my pieces because like the tunnels, it all connects you know.

[First posted 2010.06.05 / Saturday  Three pictures of Qala Bist]

[Re-posted 2010.06.07 / Monday  Four pictures of Qala Bist]  7:45 P.M. Mountain War Time

[Add-a-post 2010.06.09 / Wednesday  Five pictures of Qala Bist]  3:10 P.M. Mountain War Time

Noon gun (noon Cannon) firing in Kabul - November 7, 1958.

Photograph taken by Fred W. Clayton - This photographic image is copyrighted by Donald Clayton, all rights reserved - first published 2010 on QalaBist.com.

November 7, 1958:

No one is ever ready for the first blast from any cannon going off.  It’s all nice in theory.  Load, aim… fire.  The reality is always quite different, unexpected.  Hence we see the fussiness, the blur, the shock value caused by the shock of the weapon fired (and here only blanks) and not in anger as in a real war.  Hold your ears or hold the camera; maybe Fred’s ears are ringing still.

[First posted:  2010.05.26 / Wednesday  November 7, 1958]

This is Post #48 in the new Series “Going to Afghanistan”.

November 18, 1958

AIR LETTER
If anything is enclosed this letter will be sent by ordinary mail
Red, green, and black aviation letter outline - 5 Af stamp of DC-3 over Kabul (blue)

Addressed to:
Mrs. Fred W. Clayton
405 N. Roop St.
Carson City,
Nevada U.S.A.

Senders name and address:
F. W. Clayton
USOM / A
Kabul, Afghanistan

Kabul
18 Nov. ‘58

My Beloved,

Just a note for today.  Back in Kabul at 9:30 A.M. yesterday with meetings most of the day.  Too tired to write last night.

Two meetings this morning.  One with the Ambassador.

No mail today so far.  Hope to get some letter in the day.

The rope tow is underway.

All my love
Your Fred.

Notes:  This letter sets a new record, 48 words.  Even Heinlein thought he could fit 68 words on a post card.  But post cards did not qualify as light weight air mail so Fred uses his rare and precious stamps on brevity of thought, or at least a brevity of expression.

I wonder if the American experience in Afghanistan is today like Fred’s two days.  Meetings, more meetings; talks with the Ambassador; skiing (or is it just skating, thin ice, the rope tow is “underway” - not finished yet).  Can it pull everyone “up the hill” to Kabul when it’s finished?

The news from Kabul yesterday was not good.  Another 48 words (about) about the officers that died; not the Ambassador of course, but the Taliban is working its way up through the ranks - crested eagles do make such good targets - am I sounding like Tokyo Rose?

Tokyo Rose (actually there were several, I’m talking the main one here) was from Hawaii.  Probably had a Hawaiian “Certificate of Live Birth”; nothing about being Japanese, the Japanese records part were in Japan (like she was) when she was caught (or captured) and encouraged to go on the radio and talk to the troops and play music from like You Tube but earlier.

Anyway, the woman who’s daughter opened Disneyland (cut the ribbon circa 1955) was a very good friend of “Miss Rose” (not her real Hawaiian name).  So was Disney (Walt) cavorting with aliens, or friends of aliens, or aliens with friends?  Maybe Ronald Reagan should have turned Walt in like he turned others in to the good Senator Joseph McCarthy and Joseph’s good friend and aide Robert F. Kennedy.  “Trust no one”, is the watch phrase of the X Files (series, and the movie).

Maybe.  The point again is that the history that you don’t know IS the history that will kill you; it’s the cosmic efficiency thing, smart parents don’t like to teach every lesson twice; it gets boring, is a bore, makes people wonder why children think it is so cool to act so dumb.  “You heard me the first time, now didn’t you?”  A pause, a look, an honest, “Yes, mam.”, or  “Yes, mom.”  “NOW, be on your way.”

So “be on your way” today.  Look back, remember - learn once, not twice.  More tomorrow.

[Post originally written:  2010.05.21 / Back in Kabul]

This is Post #45 in the new Series “Going to Afghanistan”.

The complete series can now be read (or reviewed) from the beginning - beginning from Post #1 by clicking on “Going to Afghanistan Series” on the sidebar.  It is a “read down” format.  The only important point is to remember to select “Previous entries” not “Next entries” when you reach the bottom of a page. 

Note:  I realize that the number of posts in the Going to Afghanistan Series makes it difficult to access photographic updates - like the new photographs at “21 years” and “Information on rope tows”.  The solution is an index that links Post Names to Posts, alas Wordpress for not auto-generating one.  Alas, another project.  I should start with Posts with pictures - aha!, I can make a new catagory - “Afghanistan in Pictures”.

LETTER

Addressed to:
Mrs. Fred W. Clayton
405 N. Roop St.
Carson City,
Nevada U.S.A.

Senders name and address:
F. W. Clayton
USOM / A
Kabul, Afghanistan

Kandahar
Sunday night
16 Nov. ’58

My Darlings,

Today I wrote a note at the airport and asked a friend to mail it in New York.

As Tues. 11 Nov. was a holiday they sent the pouch on Monday and I missed getting a note to you Monday.  As I was here Saturday I missed the pouch again so now I’m in a “crash program” to get a letter to you.

Jack Bennett and Ray Burrus are carrying this to New York where they will mail it next Friday.  You should receive it by Monday, a week and a day from now.

Ray and Jack are also bringing your Christmas presents, Lloydine.  I bought them only after I knew they would reach you in time.  There are three stones - perhaps for a ring and ear rings or anything else you want.  I hope the other items will be enjoyable this winter.  Things for the boys are not as easily shipped so you’ll have to take care of their Christmas as well as for the rest of the family as originally agreed.

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and part of Saturday were spent in meetings on the airport problem.  Wednesday and Thursday we met with M. K. (Morrison Knudsen) in Kabul - Mr. Greenleaf, Vice-President came out from San Francisco.  Friday morning we transferred the meetings here to Kandahar - the construction site.  The details of this problem could fill a book which I don’t have time to write now.

Friday afternoon I went from Kandahar to Spin Baldak and return in order to look at the road.  It was an interesting trip and coming home after dark we saw several foxes with beautiful tails!

Saturday afternoon I took a drive and went to Lashkar Gah and stayed overnight.  While there I looked at the Helmand River Bridge problem.

Another problem here is the Kandahar electric supply and distribution.  Again I’m in the middle of this.  Progress is being made however.

As stated before I think your Christmas plans are excellent and hope you could include New Years on Market Street.

I thoroughly enjoyed your three letters covering your Nevada Day activities.  I lived every minute of it as I read it.  Wish I could have seen it and been there.

I have been invited to the Shooks for Thanksgiving.  Mr. Shook went to school and worked for Jim Jennison!  Jim’s wife is Mrs. Shook’s best girl friend!  This is my latest “Small World Story”.

For Christmas I’ve been invited to the house of Mr. Rafique (sp?), a member of the R.G.A. Foreign Office.  I consider this a great compliment.

Boys, congratulations on your excellent report cards.  Keep up the good work.

I’ll try to answer a few of your questions.

The pictures of the Taxi Stand and the Tonga Stand were taken at the railway station at Amritsar, India.

The Hong Kong suit is beautifully done.  The tailor was Chinese trained in San Francisco about 1911 and has his certificate on the wall.  He took complete measurements and never wrote anything down while doing it.  He memorized everything as he went along.  Later I asked about ordering clothes by mail and was told that I could as they had all my measurements recorded.

I’ll try to review the Amritsar incident in toto later as it is very detailed.  We finally flew into Kabul from Amritsar arriving about 3:30 P.M. Kabul time.

The enclosures are for your records to aid in filing the income tax.

I must close now and get to bed.  Tomorrow morning at 7:00 A.M. I’ll go back to Kabul.

Good night
Beloved Darlings,
All my love
Your Fred
and
Father

Notes:  Fred has been a month and a half in Afghanistan and he is still writing about Hong Kong and Amritsar.  Time seems not to be moving, the consciousness is now thinly stretched across half the world; but wait, Bennett and Burris are on their way (the other way round) to New York, with Christmas presents - so the consciousness is clearly stretched all around the world.  It’s Christmas in May, Afghanistan in April; do you really know where your parents are?

Fred was always buying stones.  It started in Burma; exotic lands, exotic rocks.  He bought rubies and sapphires, perhaps a bloodstone or two.  They sold them on the “black market”, he did not believe in such things, but he did believe in geology which he knew a thing or two about.  Hemme (Lloydine’s mother) was a gemologist, a Rock Hound, a maker of jewelry of sorts.  We’re not talking diamonds here; we’re also not talking glass.  Hemme’s forte was semi-precious stones, big samples of Chalcedony, sulphur, sometimes silver - the kind of rocks that rock rockhounds - trips to the desert, that sort of thing.

Hemme discovered a whole petrified forest once, on her own, never noticed before; or at least there was no record.  So Fred had a hard act to follow, he had to find rocks and stones that Hemme had never found, halite after “whatever” crystals, arguments with the experts at the Smithsonian and Stanford, synthetic diamonds when they were new, that was the life of Hemme - like Fred said, he was sending a few rocks.

The rocks (the stones) from Afghanistan were lapis lazuli, blue birthstones of the gods.  The blue is as blue as blue can get without being the cobalt blue of Nevada skies (and Nevada cobalt rocks).  The blue stones are flecked with gold, gold embedded in the blue rocks midst.  The rocks are as old as the mists of time, mined (then) in the small mines of Afghanistan, legendary stones carrying legends of all time.  The legends are all caught up in the origins of all things, the birth of worlds, the beauty and purity of God.  Lapis lazuli as a stone is not just a rock - it’s history;  it too carries with it a part of the history of Afghanistan.  Rings, pendants, earrings - you decide what to do with these stones now - just as Lloydine had to once.  Dig them out, cut them, carve them, polish them, wear them - or just leave the rocks and stones alone.  Mining in Afghanistan?  Mining for what?

This post might have been called “The Foxes of Afghanistan” (allusion to women maybe, with beautiful tails) the sex factor, the smut factor, the sexualization of all things American.  But Fred was not interested in foxes, he was noticing the real animal life; foxes, hyenas, bald eagles, snow leopards - where are they all now.  Aren’t you glad that Fred could see them (in Afghanistan in the wild, not just a zoo).  Don’t you wish you could “go there” too?

This post might have been entitled “The problems of Afghanistan” (illusions of winning over the Afghan people, giving them everything they need, getting out someday in better shape than when one went in).  It’s not going to happen.  It didn’t happen 50 years ago and it isn’t going to happen now.  America can spend 500 years in Afghanistan, it will never make a difference.  Afghanistan is older, wiser, more knowledgeable and educated about what it is in life that really matters.  The Afghans may not get everything right, but there is so much that they don’t always get wrong - like America does with its intervention;  America has never gotten it right even once.

The point is made by the fact that you didn’t know what the R.G.A. was.  It was the Royal Government of Afghanistan; the kings men, if not too, the kings horses.  When did you last have a Muslim man over to your house for a Muslim holiday (assuming you are Christian)?  That is the point here.  It is why Afghanistan is strong and America is weak.  America (as a country) lacks the courage to embrace things that are foreign, to honor foreign perspectives and customs in the sanctity of ones own home - “my house is your house”, but in Afghanistan it means to tolerate all your guests prejudices and predilections to the point where the “my” is no longer part of the equation.  Then (and only then) the whole thing snaps shut.

It is like the seat at the Christian table, the guest that forgets they are a guest is lost.  The parable too has been lost on most all “Christians”, so why post about it on another day?

Finally, Fred reminds us that America is NOT the nation of all aspirations and all dreams.  It is the parable of the tailor from Hong Kong, came to America, learned something, then went back.  He lived happily ever after in Hong Kong, not in America - in China, not in the U.S.A.  The “stop the emigrants” campaign is a sign of our hubris, our self love for the country that “we got”.  It does not address the needs of others; it does not address the fact that most of the “others” do not want to live (or stay) in America at all.  It is an American dream to build walls to keep people out that don’t even want in.

In the very divisive ’60’s the patriots said, “America, love it or leave it”.  Since then many millions (of Americans) have done just that.  They’ve left there “precious” country, left all the “freedoms and the rights” , left the long gone wide open spaces, the factory towns, the bullsh** and the grief.  There are a million blogs from the ex-pats in every nation; happier now than they ever were then (or before).  Americans in Afghanistan; it’s not just the troops, real Americans live there too - but now they think of themselves as more the Afghan.  I could have easily been one of them too.

[First posted: 2010.05.04 / A week and a day from now.]

H.A. Swanson memorandum to Fred W. Clayton in - Kabul, Afghanistan - December 31, 1958.

Clayton Family Document from the Donald Clayton collection - This image is contributed to the Public Domain under the parameters of Qala Bist Blue.

This 1 page memorandum clarifies the scope of the Continental-Allied contract, but provides evidence for a “nation-wide” survey of “industrial development” and the related “power grid component”.  The Afghan Industrial Development Bank (proposal) is referenced.

[First posted  2010.06.17 / Thursday ]

Jack Bennett letter to Fred W. Clayton in - Kabul, Afghanistan - December 24, 1958.

Clayton Family Document from the Donald Clayton collection - This image is contributed to the Public Domain under the parameters of Qala Bist Blue.

This is the cover letter for the two letters from Continental-Allied dated December 23, 1958.  Note that the cable address for this company is “Money”.

For more insight into the history of Continetal-Allied refer to the “Development Banking Bibliography” (a PDF file)” here.

[First posted  2010.06.17 / Thursday ]

Jack Bennett letter to Fred W. Clayton in - Kabul, Afghanistan - December 23, 1958.

Clayton Family Document from the Donald Clayton collection - This image is contributed to the Public Domain under the parameters of Qala Bist Blue.

This 2 page letter discusses the Kandahar Electric Company and the Helmand Valley Authority in relation to stock (options) and the Development Loan Fund and other matters.

[First posted  2010.06.17 / Thursday ]

Ray Burrus memorandum to Fred W. Clayton in - Kabul, Afghanistan - December 23, 1958.

Clayton Family Document from the Donald Clayton collection - This image is contributed to the Public Domain under the parameters of Qala Bist Blue.

This 2 page letter discusses the Kandahar Electric Company and the Arghandab Dam turbines in addition to references to the Kandahar International Airport (project) and the Tarnak Canal.  All of which are in conjunction with development of the Kandahar Industrial District and the power generation needs of the City of Kandahar.

[First posted  2010.06.17 / Thursday ]

Commissary Card - Kabul, Afghanistan - December 22, 1958.

Clayton Family Document from the Donald Clayton collection - This image is contributed to the Public Domain under the parameters of Qala Bist Blue.

This membership card is for the American Embassy Commissary in Kabul, Afghanistan circa 1958 and 1959.  Most food was purchased in the bazaars locally, usually by ones cook or houseboy.  Commissary “privileges” expanded on the local “fare” to include such things as cans of American soda, pre-packaged cake mixes, powdered milk (there was no whole milk available), and cranberry sauce for the holidays.

[First posted  2010.06.16 / Wednesday ]