4
The Karmal Period,
1979–1986
The Soviet–Afghan War fell into a number of distinct phases. In
the most detailed study of the rhythm of the Afghan War, Goodson
divides it into eight stages. This chapter is specifically concerned
with the second and third stages which Goodson identifies, namely
those which he calls ‘National resistance and Soviet entrenchment
(1980–1983)’ and ‘Air war, interdiction, and destabilization
(1983–1986)’. The first of these he classifies as a period of me-
dium but increasing intensity, and the second as a period of high
and increasing intensity (Goodson, 1998: 486). What unites these
stages, however, was the occupancy by Babrak Karmal of the pos-
ition of head of the PDPA; indeed, Goodson argues that it was the
replacement of Karmal as party leader that brought the third stage
of the war to a close. While Soviet military tactics certainly shift-
ed in 1983, because of new approaches to counter-insurgency
activity and associated improvements in the use of airpower, the
USSR’s political dilemma remained the same: that Karmal’s repu-
tation was irretrievably contaminated by the way in which he had
come to office. This justifies treating the Karmal period in its
entirety. In 1942, Winston Churchill described the allied victory in
Egypt as marking ‘perhaps the end of the beginning’. The fall of
Karmal played a similar role in the Afghanistan war. But history
rarely falls into neat categories, and one can also argue that as far
as Afghan communism was concerned, the rise of Mikhail