The Technical Aspects of the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan

By the summer of 1979, the rebels had control of the Afghanistan countryside.  In September, Taraki was killed in a botched assassination
attempt meant for Amin.  Amin, who became Taraki's successor, tried to quell the rebellion and disregarded the Soviet attempts to make
him moderate his policies.  On December 23, 1979, three days before Amin's death, 85,000 Red Army troops began entering Afghanistan.
On December 27, 1979, Barbrak Karmal, a long time KGB spy and leader of the Parcham faction of the PDPA, came to Kabul, the capital city,
and was installed as the new president.  Karmal made promises to implement social and economic reform with respect for Islam and
Afghan traditions.  He tried to convince the people that Amin was the on to blame for all the crimes and cruelty that took place in
Afghanistan, and that Russia actually felt remorse for these deeds.  Barbrak's "dirty face" was familiar to the Afghanis.  They readily
disregarded his allegations, and were deeply angered by the Russian troops that had invaded their land.  They immediately proclaimed 
Jihad (holy war), and attacked the Red Army, brandishing all available arms, including sticks and stones.
     This uprising by Afghanistan's people surprised the troops and they opened fire 
from the air and ground. Tens of thousands of women,children, and elderly people were 
brutally massacred.  Thousands of young men fought tanks and planes empty handed and 
hundreds of villages were destroyed. The antigovernment guerrilla forces that were present          
in Afghanistan were composed of many factions that operated from bases
in Pakistan and Iran. They received support from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Iran,           
and China in the form of weapons and money.  The United States was spending hundreds           
of millions of dollars annually by the mid-1980s to support the Afghan rebels based in
Pakistan.  By 1986, about 118,000 Soviet troops faced 50,000 Afghan troops and around 
130,000 guerrillas.  The guerrillaswere armed, although not as substantially as the 
Soviets, who employed the use of modern equipment that included tanks and bombers.
However, the guerrillas had the advantage of local support and familiarity with 
mountainous terrain.  The United States then began supplying Stinger missiles to the rebels.
     Numerous attempts were made to initiate a withdrawal of Russian troops from Afghanistan but they fell on deaf ears.  Soon, however, the Russian
occupation grew to be too expensive for the wavering Soviet economy and too unpopular for a government trying to lift repression for itself.  The
last Soviet troops pulled out of Afghanistan on February 15, 1989, following more than 10 years of occupation.



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