In 1988 Gorby proved Gates wrong. Rather than agree to cut support for the rebels once the Soviets left, the United States sped up arms deliveries. In Moscow the new policy of glasnost, or openness, allowed longtime dissident Andrei Sakharov to publicly denounce the Afghan war as a criminal adventure. Gorby’s cool draft of honesty had turned into a cyclone of white heat. Other parts of the Soviet Empire took note.
Once the Russians started pulling out, the issue became who would run postwar Afghanistan. The CIA predicted the Soviet-backed leader Najibullah would quickly collapse. To prepare for this they did nothing. Even after Zia died in August 1988, the CIA continued to support his pro-Islamic policies while the Islamic radicals stood poised to snatch power in Afghanistan.
October 1988 saw a leading CIA officer from Afghanistan, Ed McWilliams, deliver his critique to Washington. The report stated that all the money the United States had spent had been hijacked by the Pakistani ISI and used to create a powerful Islamic fundamentalist movement ready to seize Afghanistan and turn it into an anti-American Islamic state. The CIA leaders, angered at his conclusions, recalled McWilliams and tried to sabotage his career.
Soviet troops continued to roll north out of Afghanistan throughout that year. By February 1989 only a handful remained. On February 15, the final vehicles stopped on the Termez Bridge, and Gen. Boris Gromov, commander of the Fortieth Army, left his tank and walked to the Soviet Union into the arms of his son while the international media watched. What began secretly in the dark rooms of the Kremlin died in the open, a stunning display of the changes Gorby’s cyclone had wrought. The trusted playbook had been torn up, the Brezhnev Doctrine shredded, and those living under the thumb of the Soviet army everywhere no longer feared the tanks.
Once the Soviets left, the Americans followed, quickly losing interest in the venture without the fun of killing Russians. They abandoned Massoud and the other rebels, and mentally blackholed the entire area. After dominating the CIA’s thinking for years, once the Soviets pulled out the United States left the whole situation for Pakistan to deal with. Najibullah hung on for three years without his Soviet backers.
By the end of 1989, the Russians soon realized they had lost more than Afghanistan. Throughout Eastern Europe, people who had lived in fear of Soviet tanks stood astride the Berlin Wall, whacking it with sledgehammers. The invincible Red Army and the Soviet empire died in the snowy mountains of Afghanistan, and the Soviet Union slipped under the waves two years later. Meanwhile, champagne flowed at CIA headquarters, its leaders too drunk on success to understand the danger of the mujahideen factory they had built. Massoud planned his attacks on Kabul. Bin Laden trained his troops at American-built bases and honed his recruitment videotapes. The final struggle of the Cold War was over.
Two superpowers fought. The Russians knew they had lost. The Americans thought they had won.
WHAT HAPPENED AFTER
In 1986 William Casey suffered a brain seizure and died. Robert Gates claimed Casey’s final words were argh… argh… argh. Two years later Zia, still firmly in control of Pakistan and now one of the most important allies of the United States, died when his private plane crashed, also killing the head of Pakistan intelligence and the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan. While initially foul play was suspected, it was later shown to be an accident.
The Lion survived the war and became a major figure in postwar Afghanistan. Massoud held on as one of the most powerful leaders, and when the Taliban began their sweep through the country in 1994, he retreated to the north where he became the military commander of the Northern Alliance and the sole effective fighter against the Taliban and their al Qaeda allies. Then, during an early weekend in September 2001 he entertained some journalists who turned out to be assassins sent by Osama bin Laden. Their bomb ripped through Massoud. He survived long enough to die on a helicopter taking him to a hospital in nearby Tajikistan. Two days later bin Laden’s minions turned their wrath on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
FOURTEEN.
THE FALKLAND ISLANDS WAR: 1982
War at its most basic. No grand principles at play, the great driving force behind twentieth-century wars. Instead, this war was about nationalistic macho: who had more of it and who was going to get pushed around. In an age of aircraft carriers, supersonic jets, and high-tech missiles, it was as meaningless as a schoolyard fight.
Sometimes when one country’s nationalism rubs up against another country’s, conflict breaks out. Historically, few countries have been as vigorous defending their nationalism as Great Britain. Sneeze wrong on one of its outposts and you can expect a nasty letter from the Queen. When the Argentines grabbed the useless islands in 1982, the British didn’t hesitate to sail a big chunk of their navy to the other end of the world to take back the Falklands. The world was shocked, none more than the leaders of the invading Argentine junta, because their citizens were among the few people who knew where the Falklands were and among the even fewer number who cared. At the height of the Cold War, the world was treated to the sad spectacle of a shooting contest between two countries that really had nothing to fight about. And oddly, there was not a Communist anywhere in sight.
THE PLAYERS
Margaret Thatcher — ¿Quién es mas macho? Nobody beats Maggie. The first woman to head Britain’s formerly world-dominating government, the “Iron Lady” was appalled over the spectacularly mistimed Argentine aggression and pushed for the massive military operation to retake the Falklands, despite often being able to communicate with the islands only by relayed ham-radio messages.
Skinny — Spoiled for a fight with the Russians but had to settle for the Argentines.
Props — Pushed the rusty British fleet to its breaking point and beyond.
Pros — Revived British economy and its standing in the world.
Cons — Never confused with Minister Congeniality. Not even third runner-up.
Gen. Leopoldo Galtieri — The ruling head of the Argentine military junta in 1982. Чe took over in December 1981 when a reshuffling put him in the corner office where he shared the reins on decision making for the country’s economic and social policies, as well as who was to be tortured, killed, and made to disappear.
Skinny — While never subjecting the junta to the rude dictates of the electorate, he was nevertheless sensitive to pressure from the public to shore up his poll numbers.
Props — Well liked in Washington where the Reagan administration admired him for his willingness to kill thousands of people on the off chance that some of them may turn out to be Communists.
Pros — Head of the catchily named “National Reorganization Process” as a front for the dirty-war crackdown on the ungrateful populace. Also looked impressive in his uniform while being cheered in front of the palace by huge crowds who imagined they were going to defeat the British.
Cons — Failed to inspire a Broadway show about his life.
THE GENERAL SITUATION
The Falkland Islands lie just outside the Antarctic Circle. The islands are barren, and their most numerous inhabitants are birds and seals. A small number of people, amounting to no more than a village or two, have inhabited the islands for hundreds of years since people first put down roots into its thin soil.