Historical Dictionary of United States Intelligence

in December 1979. In April 1978, left-leaning Afghan military offi-

cers overthrew the centrist government and handed power to two

Marxist political parties, the Khalq (“Masses”) and Parcham

(“Flag”), which together had formed the People’s Democratic Party

of Afghanistan. Having little popular support, the new government

forged close ties with the Soviet Union, launched ruthless purges of

all domestic opposition, and began extensive land and social reforms

that were bitterly resented by the devoutly Muslim and largely anti-

communist population.

Muslim tribal-based insurgencies arose against the government,

and these uprisings, along with internal fighting and coups between

the Khalq and Parcham factions, prompted the invasion of the coun-

try by about 30,000 Soviet troops in December 1979 with the aim of

propping up the client state. The Soviets initially left the suppression

of the rebels to the Afghan army, which was unable to contain the re-

sistance. The war quickly settled down into a stalemate, with about

100,000 Soviet troops controlling the cities, large towns, and major

garrisons and the mujahideen roaming relatively freely throughout

the countryside. The Soviet military tried to eliminate the mu-

jahideen’scivilian support by bombing and depopulating the rural ar-

eas, but this tactic sparked a massive flight from the countryside; by

1982 some 2.8 million Afghans had sought asylum in Pakistan, and

another 1.5 million had fled to Iran.

The mujahideen were eventually able to neutralize Soviet air

power through the use of shoulder-fired Stinger antiaircraft missiles

supplied by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In 1988 the

United States, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Soviet Union signed an

agreement for the withdrawal of Soviet troops and the return of

Afghanistan to nonaligned status.

In April 1992, various rebel groups, together with disaffected gov-

ernment troops, stormed the capital of Kabul and ousted the commu-

nist president Mohammad Najibullah. A new transitional govern-

ment, sponsored by various rebel factions, proclaimed an Islamic

republic. The extreme Islamist Taliban came to power, and they were

in turn ousted by a coalition of U.S.-led military force in 2002. See

alsoALQAI’DA; COVERTACTION.

MULLIGAN, HERCULES (1740–1825). Hercules Mulligan wasa New

York City tailor who catered to British officers and thereby collected

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