Word: afghanistan
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Since the December summit between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, Moscow has been dropping ever more arresting hints of its readiness to bring home the 115,000 Soviet troops in Afghanistan. Last week the man at the top flashed the clearest signal yet, and it sent peace hopes soaring. In a move clearly timed to capture a wide audience, a Soviet broadcaster interrupted a prime-time television showing of the 1958 film based on Mikhail Sholokhov's classic, And Quiet Flows the Don, to read an announcement from Gorbachev. There are "considerable chances," said the General Secretary's statement, that...
...remarks left the future of Afghanistan's Marxist president, Sayid Mohammad Najibullah in serious doubt. Foreign observers believe Najibullah, 41, will not be able to retain his grip on power if he is deprived of Soviet military backing...
Najib also announced the timetable for Soviet withdrawal on radio and television in Afghanistan on Monday...
According to Gorbachev, the Soviets will not demand that Afghanistan be neutral and non-aligned, phrasing that was once standard when Kremlin officials spoke of their neighbor's future...
...Kremlin sent troops, tanks and military hardware into Afghanistan in December 1979, and presided over the replacement of one Marxist ruler by another. The intervention has been a major irritant in U.S.--Soviet relations and has soured Kremlin ties with many Moslem and Third World countries...