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Soviet Union [USSR] Afghanistan
Soviet involvement with Afghanistan goes back to the 1920s. In
1921, as a means to reduce British influence in the region and to
get arms, Afghanistan signed a treaty of friendship with the Soviet
Union. The treaty also called for Amanullah, the Afghan amir
(ruler), to close his northern border. The border had been serving
as a refuge for the basmachi, Muslim insurgents opposed to
the imposition of Soviet power in the khanate of Bukhara (now part
of the Tadzhik, Uzbek, and Turkmen republics). In 1921 and 1931,
the Soviet Union and Afghanistan signed treaties on neutrality and
mutual nonaggression. Afghanistan, however, generally adhered in
foreign policy to the principle of bi-tarafi, or a balanced
relationship with great powers. In 1955 Prime Minister Mohammad
Daoud Khan abandoned this policy when he signed a military
agreement with Czechoslovakia. In December of that year, during a
visit to Afghanistan, Khrushchev signed an economic agreement and
reaffirmed the 1931 Afghan-Soviet neutrality treaty. A major reason
for the shift in Afghan policy was Daoud's interest in gaining
support for his goal of absorbing Pakistan's North-West Frontier
Province into Afghanistan.
In April 1978, Daoud was overthrown and executed by the radical
People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), led by Hafizullah
Amin and Nur Muhammad Taraki. Later that year Taraki, then
president, went to Moscow and signed a twenty-year treaty of
friendship and cooperation with the Soviet Union that encompassed
and revamped commitments contained in the 1921, 1926 (a trade
agreement), and 1931 Soviet-Afghan treaties. In September 1979,
Taraki was ousted by Amin, following an apparent attempt by Taraki
himself to remove Amin. The Afghan populace became increasingly
opposed to Amin's radical policies, and the security of the regime
became endangered. Finding their position in Afghanistan imperiled,
the Soviet leadership decided to invade the country in December
1979. Soviet troops or guards allegedly killed Amin and brought in
Babrak Karmal (who had earlier fled to the Soviet Union during
factional struggle within the PDPA) as the new secretary general of
the PDPA. The invasion resulted in worldwide condemnation of the
Soviet Union. The UN General Assembly, the Nonaligned Movement, the
Organization of the Islamic Conference, NATO, and the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) all called for the withdrawal of
"foreign" troops from Afghanistan. In June 1982, indirect talks
began under UN auspices between the Afghan and Pakistani
governments concerning resolution of the conflict. In May 1986, in
an attempt to win Afghan support for the Soviet-installed regime,
Karmal was replaced by Sayid Mohammad Najibullah as secretary
general of the PDPA, and a campaign was intensified calling for
"national reconciliation" between the Soviet-supported regime and
the Islamic resistance, the mujahidin (literally, holy
warriors) and their supporters.
Gorbachev repeatedly termed Afghanistan a "bleeding wound,"
although he did not admit that the Soviet occupation and the
Soviet-supported regime were opposed by the vast majority of
Afghans. According to a United States Department of State estimate
made in 1987, almost 1 million Afghans had been killed and more
than 5 million had fled the country since the 1979 Soviet invasion.
Partly in support of the "national reconciliation" process,
Gorbachev in his Vladivostok speech of July 1986 announced the
withdrawal of a token number of Soviet forces from Afghanistan.
Despite talk of reconciliation, a major, but eventually
unsuccessful, Soviet-Afghan army offensive against the
mujahidin was launched in Paktia Province in mid-1987. At
the December 1987 Soviet-United States summit meeting in
Washington, Gorbachev proposed that the Soviet Union remove the
115,000 Soviet troops in Afghanistan on the condition that the
United States first cease aid to the mujahidin, a proposal
in accord with the Soviet contention that "imperialist"
interference was the main reason for the initiation and
continuation of the Soviet occupation. In April 1988, Afghanistan
and Pakistan signed accords, with the United States and the Soviet
Union acting as "guarantors," calling for the withdrawal of Soviet
military forces from Afghanistan over a nine-month period beginning
on May 15, 1988. The withdrawal was completed in early 1989.
Data as of May 1989
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