We explain what the Afghanistan War (1978-1992) was and who faced each other. In addition, how and why the Soviet Union and the United States intervened.
What was the Afghanistan war?
The Afghanistan War (1978-1992) was a military conflict that He faced the communist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (supported by the Soviet Union) against different anti -communist groups . The conflict is also known as the Russian-Fgana war or as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and should not be confused with the Afghanistan war that happened between 2001 and 2021.
The conflict began in 1978, when the country's communist forces with support from the Soviet Union made a coup d'etat and overthrew the government of President Mohammed Daoud. Instead, they founded the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. Different opposition groups joined against the Prosotavic regime and began a guerrilla war that lasted more than a decade thanks to the economic and military support of the United States and Pakistan.
Among the most important opposition groups were the Mujahideins, who were guerrilla communities that preached radical Islamism. With the crisis and the fall of the Soviet Union, the communist forces in Afghanistan ended up weakening and were defeated by the Mujahidines. In 1992, the Islamic State of Afghanistan was founded, which established a system of government based on religious fundamentalism.
The intense and long civil war decimated the Afghan population. Of the thirteen millions of people who integrated the Afghan society at the beginning of the war, More than one million people died and more than five million were exiled as refugees in neighboring countries and in Europe.
On the other hand, the new fundamentalist regime established a dictatorial government based on religious law that established strict population control and annulled elementary freedoms.
Background of the Afghanistan War
Since the 1940s, Afghanistan was governed by King Mohammed Zahir Shah. During his reign, Zahir Shah established a constitutional monarchy and his cousin, General Mohammed Daud Khan, exercised as prime minister.
In 1973, with the support of Afghan communist groups and the Soviet Union, Daud overthrew the king, established a republican government and became president of Afghanistan. During his government, he nationalized the most important industries in the country, which harmed some of the best accommodated sectors of society.
Within the framework of the Cold War, the Soviet Union began to have more and more influence within the country through the Popular Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). Daud sought to neutralize communist forces and sought other allies to try to control the situation. However, he failed to consolidate his power permanently.
April 17, 1978, Mir Ali Akbar Kaibar (one of the main communist leaders) was killed by the police . His funeral became a public demonstration against the Daud government. In the following days, communist leaders were persecuted and arrested. However, on April 27, the PDPA carried out a coup d'etat, murdered Daud and established the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
The new PDPA government immediately promulgated a series of radical measures focused on land reform and political institutions (such as women's rights).
These measures were repudiated by several social groups, which saw them as an attack on the social and religious customs of Afghan society. The opposition to the Government integrated heterogeneous groups: Islamic fundamentalists, tribal, intellectual features and accommodated classes .
On the other hand, during the first year of government, different communist factions faced the leadership of the PDPA. The political instability, the internal weakness of the PDPA and the unpopularity of the reforms led to different armed opposition spotlights against the new government.
In December 1979, Soviet troops entered Afghanistan with the aim of deposing President Hafzullah Amin and replace it with another pro-Soviet communist leader, Babrak Karmal. The presence of a foreign army within Afghanistan led to the different opposition groups joining the resistance to the communist regime.
Development of the Afghanistan War
With the entry of Soviet troops to Afghanistan, in December 1979, the resistance against the communist government took other dimensions. The war against a central government that threatened the conservative values of Afghan religious society became a war against a foreign invasion .
In a short time, the Soviet Union entered Afghanistan more than 100,000 war troops. Within the framework of the Cold War, the United States government decided to act immediately. He began sending armaments and other resources to attend the different resistance groups.
The resistance to the regime was not organized centrally, but integrated dozens of groups of different origin and defended different interests. The groups were related through tribal ties, religious networks and political alliances. In addition, with the invasion of Soviet troops, Many of the officers and soldiers who were part of the government army deserted and turned to the resistance struggle .
Among the most important opposition groups were the “Mujahideins”, which were Islamic fundamentalist groups that promoted religious war (called “jihad”). Each group was constituted as an independent military faction and their alliances were varying with the course of the conflict.
During the Afghanistan War, the Afghan Mujahideins received international military and economic assistance. It is estimated that more than 35,000 jihadists arrived from different parts of the world and that, many of them were trained by the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency of the United States Government).
Among the best -known Mujahidines were Gulbudin Hekmatiar (founder of Hezbi Isami), Burhanuddin Rabbani (leader of Jamiati Isami), Muhammad Mohaqiq, Abdul Rasul Sayyaf (Islamic Union for the Liberation of Afghanistan) and Osama Bin Laden (which in those years founded al qaeda, a paramilitary organization which was then known for his terrorism against the United States).
For more than a decade, the war stagnated in a guerrilla situation. The official government and the Soviet occupied most cities while the different resistance groups maintained control over rural and mountainous areas. The resolution of the war was linked to the changes in the international policy of the Soviet Union and, then, in the final crisis that led to its dissolution and at the end of the cold war.
End of Afghanistan War
In 1985, negotiations between the different forces involved in the conflict began: the communist regime, the Afghan rebels, the Soviet Union, the United States and Pakistan. The government demanded that the United States and Pakistan stop attending the rebels while Pakistan demanded the withdrawal of the Soviet troops of Afghanistan and the return of the millions of Afghan refugees to their country.
In 1986, the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, decided to replace Babrak Karmal with Mohammad Najibullah and foster the creation of an Afghan government that included some leaders of the most moderate opposition. However, these initiatives did not have enough support. Finally, The United States and the Soviet Union began negotiations which ended at the signing of the Geneva agreements on April 14, 1988. In them the gradual withdrawal of Soviet troops was agreed.
Between May 1988 and January 1989, Soviet troops retired definitively from the country. However, the Afghan communist government war against the rebels continued, the Soviet Union continued to support the Najibullah regime with economic and military assistance, as well as the United States with the Mujahideins.
In 1991, before the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the communist government in Afghanistan stopped receiving foreign support. Finally, the Najibullah regime fell in April 1992 and the Government was taken by an alliance of the Mujahydines leaders, known as the Peshawar agreement.
Consequences of the Afghanistan War
After the fall of the communist regime in 1992, Mujahidines leaders formed a brief alliance known as the Peshawar agreement and established the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
However, in the following years, the different factions faced each other in another civil war that lasted until 1996. The faction of the Taliban, which imposed an Islamic fundamentalist regime in Afghanistan that was overthrown in 2001 by the United States.
The Afghanistan war generated a huge displacement of the Afghan population. It is estimated that almost five million Afghan citizens were exiled as refugees in Pakistan, Iran and other Arab countries . On the other hand, it is estimated that as a result of the war about one million people died.
Agreement for the withdrawal of the USSR of Afghanistan
Foreign intervention in the Afghanistan war led to it impossible to finish the conflict without the cooperation of all involved. In short, until foreign troops (both Soviet and American) did not withdraw from the territory, the two facing factions faced would continue to obtain resources and support to continue their struggle.
The negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union to withdraw from the conflict began in 1985, but it was only when the relationship between the two countries improved in other aspects that began to reach an agreement. In December 1987, Ronald Reagan (president of the United States) and Mikhail Gorbachov (USA leader) met in Washington to discuss different issues, including, how to finish the Afghanistan war.
In February 1988, Gorbachev issued a unilateral statement in which he announced a date for the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. The purpose was to accelerate the diplomacy that had begun in Washington and achieve the signing of a multilateral agreement in March with the different countries involved.
Gorbachev's statement about the withdrawal of the USSR of Afghanistan
March 1988
The military conflict in Afghanistan continues for a long time. This is one of the most painful and painful regional conflicts. Now, judging by everything, certain conditions were created for their political arrangement. For this reason, the Soviet address considers it necessary to express its considerations and clarify its position until the end. (…)
Wanting to contribute to the rapid and successful term of the Afghan-Pakistani conversations of Geneva, the governments of the USSR and the Republic of Afghanistan agreed to establish the concrete date of the beginning of the withdrawal of the Soviet troops on May 15, 1988, and end the withdrawal of them during the ten months. This date was established based on the fact that the signing of the agreement on the arrangement will take place not later than March 15, 1988 and, correspondingly, all of them will enter into force at the same time within two months. If the signing of the agreement takes place before March 15, correspondingly will also begin the withdrawal of the troops. (…)
The question of the withdrawal of our Afghanistan troops was already raised in the XXVII PCUS Congress. (…)
On the occasion of what is related to the beginning of the withdrawal of the Soviet troops there is a need to clarify our attitude in another aspect: is the withdrawal with which the efforts to create in Afghanistan a coalition government, new, that is, with that the national reconciliation policy have been taken to the end have been linked? As we are convinced, it is not linked.
One thing is the withdrawal of Soviet troops, in combination with other aspects of the arrangement, including the guarantee of non -intervention. Various countries participate in this. By the way, as we imagine, the neighbor will also be left from political arrangement.
Another thing is national reconciliation and the creation of a coalition government. This is a purely internal Afghan issue. They can only decide the same Afghan, although belonging to different fields even faced. (..) Geneva's commitments will close the paths of foreign aid to those who are entrusting to impose their will for the force of weapons on a whole people. (…)
Now, regarding our boys, our combatants in Afghanistan. They have fulfilled and fulfill their duty, revealing self -denial and heroism. Our people deeply respect those who had to do military service in Afghanistan. The State guarantees them the primary possibility of acquiring good instruction, decent and interesting work.
It is sacred to us the memory of those who as brave died in Afghanistan. Soviet and supporters are obliged to worry that the families of the fallen, their relatives and relatives are surrounded by unveiled, attention and good wishes. And finally, when the Afghan knot is unleashed, this will exert the deepest influence also in other regional conflicts. (…)
Who is winning these conflicts? No one, except the merchants of weapons, various genres of reactionary and expansionist circles, accustomed to slice and enrich themselves in the calamities and misfortunes of the peoples.
Bringing to the end of the political arrangement in Afghanistan will be a strong break in the chain of regional conflicts.
Gorbachev Mikhail
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References
- Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia (2023). “Afghan War”. Britannica Encyclopedia. https://www.britannica.com/
- Rueda, FM (2006). “Agreements for the withdrawal of the USSR of Afghanistan.” MATERIALS FOR THE HISTORY OF THE CURRENT WORLD Yo. Isthmus editions.
- Palmowski, J. (2000). “Afghanistan.” To Dictionary of Twentieth-Century World History. Oxford University Press.
- Van Dijk, R., Gray, WG, Savranskaya, S., Suri, J., & Zhai, Q. (eds.). (2013). “Afghanistan.” Encyclopedia of the Cold War. Routledge.
