Thirty-five years ago, on March 10, 1982, President Ronald Reagan issued a proclamation designating March 21, 1982, as Afghanistan Day. An editorial in The Weekly at the time of the announcement stated: “…He [Mr. Reagan] was doing more than taking a measured swipe at Soviet aggression and reiterating American support for the cause of Afghan freedom fighters, who have been waging a valiant guerrilla struggle since the Soviet invasion [of Afghanistan] in 1979. Shrewdly, the Soviets seem to plan their moves to coincide with an ongoing international crisis, or create their own diversions to draw the world’s attention away from their global machinations.”
The editorial noted that the Soviets invaded Afghanistan just two months after Iran took American citizens hostage and that leftist guerrillas in El Salvador increased their offensive shortly after martial law was imposed in Poland.
“Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week, Deputy Secretary of State Walter Stoessel said that the administration has proof that Soviet forces are using chemical and biological weapons against Afghanistan’s civilian population. According to intelligence reports, 3,042 civilians died horribly after being exposed to mycotoxins similar to the ‘yellow rain’ used by Vietnam, a Moscow satrap, against the fiercely independent Montagnard tribesmen. Most had died from massive internal hemorrhaging, choking on their own blood,” The Weekly’s editorial read.
Vice-President George H.W. Bush condemned the Soviet violation of Afghanistan’s sovereignty, adding, “But let’s not forget the other nations that have suffered the same fate, both within and without the Soviet Union… countries from the Baltic states to Ukraine to Uzbekistan.”
Other issues facing the Afghan freedom fighters included the lack of a united front, where the Soviets exploited divisions among the tribes and ethnic groups of Afghanistan to sow the seeds of disunity in order to weaken the response to Soviet actions. To this end, the Soviets even created a Lenin-inspired Afghan Ministry of Tribes and Nationalities. Some of these tactics had spilled over into Pakistan, where the Pathan peoples had demanded their own homeland.
The editorial also underscored Ukrainian solidarity with the Afghan freedom fighters. These poorly equipped fighters faced an uphill battle in defense of their own homeland from Soviet invaders, and had to combat internal disunity that was fomented by Soviet propaganda. The editorial concluded: “They cannot let their Afghan identity be supplanted by ethnic, tribal or factional considerations. If they do, we’re afraid that no amount of American moral or material support would be able to extricate them from one of the Kremlin’s oldest and most sinister traps.”
Source: “Afghanistan: divide and conquer?” The Ukrainian Weekly, March 21, 1982.