1969 by Sir Robert Jackson in a famous report (Jackson, 1969),
were prominently on display, and conflict between different agen-
cies within the UN ‘family’ was to contaminate the UN’s approach
to Afghanistan right through the 1990s and into the twenty-first
century.
Manoeuvrings during the withdrawal
The withdrawal of Soviet forces was hardly a smooth process.
Retreats rarely are. Najibullah seems to have had little faith at all
that his regime would survive. On 28 April, he stated, probably
more out of hope than conviction, that Soviet military advisers
would remain in Afghanistan after the withdrawal. He seems to
have taken little comfort from General Gromov’s press conference
in Kabul on 14 May (Gromov, 1994: 309), even though Gromov
announced that $1 billion worth of equipment would be left behind
for the regime, for Washington concluded that as a result, and pur-
suant to its 14 April declaration, aid to the resistance should pro-
ceed. In June, Najibullah visited Moscow. Chernyaev paints an
unflattering picture of his demeanour during a meeting with
Gorbachev: ‘Gorbachev tried to impress upon him the concept for
our withdrawal. Najibullah acted desperate, unbelievably primitive
(compared to what I’d observed in him before). For example, he
suggested organizing a joint campaign with the USSR, India, and
Afghanistan against Pakistan, or a major Soviet operation against
the Mujahideen. Gorbachev unceremoniously ridiculed both’
(Chernyaev, 2000: 161–2).
This did not prevent Moscow from doing its bit to pressure the
USA and Pakistan over their support for the resistance. On 23 July,
Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Petrovskii in an inter-
view with The Washington Postwarned that the withdrawal might
not meet the 15 February deadline unless aid to the Mujahideen
was cut off (Cordovez and Harrison, 1995: 377). On 7 August,
Shevardnadze threatened counteraction against Pakistan if ‘crude
violations’ of the Geneva Accords continued. And on 4 November,
Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Bessmertnykh
The Road to Soviet Withdrawal 145