Sardar Mohammed Daoud Khan

Sardar Mohammed Daoud Khan, also romanized as Daud Khan or Dawood Khan, was an Afghan statesman who served as the 5th Prime Minister of Afghanistan from 1953 to 1963 and as President of Afghanistan from 1973 to 1978. Sardar Mohammed Daoud Khan, also romanized as Daud Khan or Dawood Khan (18 July 1909 – 28 April 1978), was an Afghan statesman who served as the 5th Prime Minister of Afghanistan from 1953 to 1963 and as President of Afghanistan from 1973 to 1978. Born into the Musahiban royal family, Khan started as a provincial governor in the 1930s and later a commander before he was chosen as prime minister in the monarchy of his first cousin, Mohammed Zahir Shah. Ten years after his resignation as prime minister, Khan overthrew the monarchy with the backing of Afghan Army officers and declared himself as the first President of the Afghan republic in 1973, renouncing his royal title. News sources in the 1970s claimed that Daoud Khan said he was happiest when he could "light his American cigarettes with Soviet matches Mohammad Daoud Khan was retrospectively described as an "old-fashioned statesman, compassionate yet reserved and authoritarian" by The Guardian's Nushin Arbabzadeh. Then-President Hamid Karzai hailed Khan's courage and patriotism in comments after his 2009 state funeral. Some Afghans fondly consider him to be the best leader their country has had in modern times.