THE TRUTH ABOUT THE AFGHANISTAN CRISIS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00845R000100070004-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 15, 2010
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: August 10, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/15: CIA-RDP90-00845R000100070004-6
ARTICLE k'Anw NEW YORK TIMES
01 PAGE 1.0 AUGUST 1980
Tii~'T,ruth'About The Afghanistan Crisis
Published by THE CHURCHMAN, founded 1804, journal of religious humanism, dedicated to the cause of peace.
By John Somerville, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, City University of New York, author often books widely used in American universities
and translated into many languages. Among those bearing directly on the problem of world peace are The Philosophy of Peace, with an Introduc-
Lion by Albert Einstein, 1934; The Peace Revolution, 1975; a documentary play,-The Crisis: True Story About How the World Almost Ended, 1976-
Participant in three UNESCO projects for peace; American President of Union of American and Japanese Professionals Against Nuclear Omnicide.
I_A et'ns call things by their right names and "practice tervention", but its resolution also specifically refrained
what we reach. `--`14' x r.: , "condemning"
p from the intervention, using instead the
Let's begin with a few facts about Afghanistan. 1) Af- milder term "deplore", although our delegation argued
ghanistan and the U.S.S.R. share an,almost.2,000 mile mightily for "condemn.". In spite of these facts our govern-
border and an ideological orientation to Marxism., 2) Since ment goes on endlessly repeating the false claim that the
December 1978 there has 'existed a treaty. of friendship, U.N. "condemned" the Soviet "invasion" of Afghanistan.
and cooperation between them,- relating to-economic,- The reason for the persistence of this deliberate brain-
political and military. affairs. -3) Under-this, treaty some washing is painfully evident. It is the best and quickest
5,000 Soviet civilian and military advisers were openly in way to get the public to accept bigger military budgets,
U.N ? delegate. (Ambassador).' from. Afghanistan under of shelving SALT 11, scuttling detente, returning to the
President Amin, who continued to serve under President ? cold war,. resurrecting one-sided "containment", declaring
Karma!, officially confirmed to,*the U.N.? that the Afghan- the Persian Gulf and its oil our national interest, threat-
istan government had requested the troops- A civil war erring nuclear war to keep the Soviet "invaders" out, and
had been going on for more than a yea?.. The rebel forces. re-electing Carter, the man eager to apply this whole born-
i were Increasingly aided from across the border with Paki- again policy "around the world", as he stated in his.
stun, and the authority of Amin's leadership was clearly Carter Doctrine address.
weakening. What has thus become of fast importance in Afghanistan
The same Revolutionary, Council that had installed and is not the-treaty-based military intervention of the U.S.S.R.,
removed Amin, installed Karmal, who,: with Amin and but the way this intervention is being deliberately exag-
Taraki, had been a leader in the Marxist-oriented revolu- gerated and falsified in order to brainwash and stampede
tion of April 1978. Even if we assume, that Amin got a our public to the very brink of nuclear holocaust. To reject.
raw deal from the Revolutionary Council 'in' his sudden . this brainwash and stampede is not to condone Soviet
trial and execution, this is part of their system, #nd the policy; it is to refuse to allow our foreign policy to be dic-
U.S.S.R. is their ally:. tated by the Pentagon and implemented by the C.I.A.
One may well regret that any country chooses,to have: World Peace Is Possible
foreign troops and foreign advisers. Think how many From the point of view of justice, of respect for inter-
countries have chosen ours. But no one can deny that it national law and concern for world peace, on what terms
is the legal right of all sovereign states to choose their should we urge an end to the civil war in Afghanistan?
.own allies and make treaties involving. military aid. We Simply withdrawing the Soviet troops would not end the
ourselves have 60 allies by treaty, and more than 400 im- war,- but would only restore it to the original belligerents,
portant foreign bases occupied by many hundreds of with each side receiving aid from across the borders.
thousands of our troops, and President Carter said in the If we are interested in peace under international law,
U.N. on October 4_1977 that we would use nuclear weap- why not urge entering into discussion with the Soviets on
ores against any "conventional attack on the U.S., our ter- - the basis of their offer to withdraw their troops if we will
ritories, our armed forces, or our allies." For our govern-
r join an international guarantee of Afghanistan's borders?
ment to condemn Soviet, troops in Afghanistan as' a If we are interested in preventing the mutual annihilation
"criminal invasion" is a classic instance of the double that would result from nuclear war in the Persian Gulf or
standard. Anyone who repeats the term "invasion in anywhere else, why not urge acceptance of the twice-made
this context is clearly denying that Afghanistan and the offer (1976, 1979) of the U.S.S.R. to conclude a treaty -
Soviet Union have the same legal rights as other, members ,. _, of no-first-use of nuclear weapons? If the best basis for
of the I United Ne,:....~ ._ .,,... _
x War Danger Increases among nations, why not urge the withdrawal of our own
' The American public is today being hoodwinked into Guantanamo forces from Cuba at the same time that we
using a word which is Increasing the danger of an omni- urge the withdrawal of the Soviet troops in Afghanistan?,
tidal nuclear war:- I. mean the word "invasion", instead Let us practice what we preach, and call things by their
of, "intervention'? in referring to Afghanistan. The differ- right names.
ence between these two words is a qualitative one in every Above text may be reprinted without permission, -
sense-legal, moral and political. Invasion is by definition - - - - - - - - - -
illegal and immoral; it is something that could not have. TRIAL NEW SUBSCRIPTION-8 Mos. $3.00
been invited, and must necessarily be judged as criminal REGULAR RATE-S6.50 PER YEAR
aggression.' In contrast; Intervention can . be legal, and
-even moral; it can be invited, whether wisely or unwisely. Name
The whole point is, that a legal but possibly unwise inter- -
vention can be made: to seem like a criminal threat' to
world peace only if it is fraudulentlyttried up as "mvasion." I Street
The U.N. delegates were all well aware of these impor. -
tant distinctions when they passed their General Assembly, City State Zip
Resolution of January 14. But our public-had by that'' FOREIGN POSTAGE $1.00 ADDITIONAL ---~
time been sufficiently brainwashed not to notice that the ( TAX-EXEMPT CONTRIBUTION FOR I I
MrrrTDV DW A r` A-1 -1 C -.--r$
{VI{ - I FGI WGY-I{G{{I{GI {I{ {I{G VGf{G/Y{ ' - -- ------
Assembly Resolution that was passed, nor in the Securiti 176 YEARS OLD
Council resolution that was vetoed
The word "interven- I
.
BRINGS A FRESH LOOK AT CURRENT EVENTS
lion" was used throughout in both, in recognition of
u n d e n i a b l e facts--t- , - ? " T The 1074 23rd AVENUE NORTH
The U.N. General Assembly not only refused to. - ,CHURCHMAN- 'ST. PEtERSBURG, FLA. 33704 l
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/15: CIA-RDP90-00845R000100070004-6