Victory Point - Ed Darack [11]
In 1955, Nikita Khruschev traveled to Afghanistan and signed a ten-year extension to the Soviet-Afghan treaty of neutrality and nonaggression, first ratified in 1931. But this signing was more than a mere extension of an old agreement; it marked the beginning of an era of Soviet investment in construction, education, and military expansion. During the following decades, the Soviets built numerous roads and highways—the vital Salang Tunnel giving an all-weather connection between the north and south of Afghanistan—high-rise living quarters, a massive state farm outside of Jalalabad, and the enormous Bagram Airfield, among many other projects. The Communists also brought to Afghanistan a full spectrum of military equipment, from AK-47 rifles to T-series tanks, armored troop carriers, Mig-17 jets, and MI-8/17 “Hip” multirole helicopters, which they instructed the Afghans to both fly and maintain. Interestingly, Afghanistan also established limited ties with the United States in the 1950s; the U.S. military even undertook some training exercises with the Afghans over a number of years, but never transferred large stocks of weapons to them as the Soviets had done. When the Soviets inevitably crossed paths with the Americans during their respective military training missions, they reportedly cooperated with each other, albeit quietly.
Of course, along with their financial, educational, and military aid, the Soviets brought their Communist ideology and propagandizing tools, too, and in 1973, Afghanistan took yet another hairpin turn on its historical pathway when Mohammad Sarder Daoud seized control of the government from King Zahir Shah (who was Daoud’s cousin) during a July 17 coup d’état, ending decades of lackluster and corrupt monarchical rule. Daoud installed himself as the country’s first president and declared Afghanistan a republic. Having gained power with the help of the subversive, pro-Marxist People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), members of which expected big political payoffs once he took authority, he shocked the party when he ordered a crack-down on the group as soon as he assumed power.
Daoud immediately instituted massive social and political change in Afghanistan, but his attempts failed miserably and most of the country spiraled into turmoil. Then the PDPA returned, with a vengeful bloodlust, killing Daoud and most of his family on April 27, 1978. The country was declared the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, led by Nur Muhammad Taraqi, the secretary general of the now-hard-line-Communist PDPA. Taraqi announced the institution of an array of liberal economic and social changes, key among these the replacing of laws founded on Islamic tradition with those based on Marxism, forcing men to cut their beards, and a push to introduce girls into the education system.
But the people, particularly those of the distant Hindu Kush, immediately resisted what they felt to be a monumental threat to their traditions and way of life. While most simply disobeyed the new laws, others became agitated, particularly those in areas that held the most conservative of Islamic beliefs. And then on June 22, 1978, the first shots of a conflict that would ultimately explode into the Soviet-Afghan War rang out—in Nangalam, at the western end of the Pech River Valley, just a few miles from the Chowkay and the Korangal valleys, fired by the descendants of the infidels-turned-Muslim purists, the Safi. The Communist government immediately responded with tanks, artillery, and aerial bombing. As the residents fled into