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Pursuant to the Geneva Accords of 14 April 1988, the Soviet Union conducted a total military withdrawal from Afghanistan between 15 May 1988 and 15 February 1989. [2] Headed by the Soviet military officer Boris Gromov, the retreat of the 40th Army into the Union Republics of Central Asia formally brought the Soviet–Afghan War to a close after nearly a decade of fighting.
Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev decided to withdraw from Afghanistan a year before the Mujahideen fired their first Stinger missiles; Gorbachev was motivated by U.S. sanctions, not military losses. The Stingers did make an impact at first but within a few months flares, beacons, and exhaust baffles were installed to disorient the ...
Of the 620,000 Soviets who served in Afghanistan, 14,500 were killed or died from wounds, accidents or disease--a low rate of 2.3%, plus 53,800 (11.4%) were wounded or injured. However, the rate of hospitalization was unusually high, as the 470,000 personnel hospitalized represented almost 76% of the men.
The Kremlin responded to the whole incident by blasting Thatcher's "provocation aimed at stirring up anti-Soviet hysteria." Five years later two prominent Mujahideen, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Abdul Haq, met Thatcher in Downing Street. [99] MI6 helped the CIA by activating long-established British networks of contacts in Pakistan. [100]
Because of the success made by the first plan, Stalin did not hesitate with going ahead with the second five-year plan in 1932, although the official start date for the plan was 1933. The second five-year plan gave heavy industry top priority, putting the Soviet Union not far behind Germany as one of the major steel-producing countries of the ...
[3] [4] [5] A 2020 review of declassified U.S. documents by Conor Tobin in the journal Diplomatic History found that "The small-scale covert program that developed in response to the increasing Soviet influence was part of a contingency plan if the Soviets did intervene militarily, as Washington would be in a better position to make it ...
The Soviets began a major economic assistance program in Afghanistan in the 1950s. [15] Afghanistan's strained relations with Pakistan over the Pashtunistan issue, as well as the 1954 military pact between Pakistan and the United States, was another large reason of the closer relations (but whilst maintaining non-alignment). [16] [17]
On 10 November the Taliban ambushed a patrol in eastern Afghanistan. This attack brought the US death toll for 2007 to 100, making it the Americans' deadliest year in Afghanistan. [134] The Battle of Musa Qala took place in December. Afghan units were the principal fighting force, supported by British forces. [135]