AFGHAN BATTLE SCENES ON TV BEGIN TO PREPARE SOVIETS FOR LONG WAR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000605080004-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 3, 2012
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: September 1, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/03 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000605080004-2
ARTICLE APPEARED 1 Septemberv 1985
ON PAGE /-
Afghan battle scenes on TV begin to
prepare Soviets for 1onc war
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By AIItea^o Pletlla '
Moscow Bureau of The Sun per articles described the six-year-
1A
MOSCOW - With unprecedent-
ed broadcasts of gruesome battle
footage, the Soviet Union has begun
preparing its people for a long war in
Afghanistan.
In recent weeks. after six years of
sho"vving Red Army soldiers mostly
building roads or schools, television
programs have displayed Soviet sol-
di floti
Xhee p g s also have made
clear that the "internationalist duty"
of a "limited contingent" of Soviet
troops spells death to many in that
Asian country.
Por Americans. who witnessed
tho-carnage of Vietnam in their liv-
ing-rooms night after night. there is
nothing particularly remarkable in
the'televiston footage that has aired
here in special programs.
lgut to the more than 280 million
Soviets, who have been kept in the
dark about the ferocity of Afghan
fighting. the programs have been
sensational.
-They are digging deeper. maybe
for another 10 years," one diplomat.
who monitors the Afghanistan situa-
tion from here, said of Soviet inten-
tions.
Other analysts said the battle
footage was aired to prepare the pub-
lic for high casualties in the exten-
sive land and helicopter-borne
operations Soviet troops are con-
ducting against Afghan guerrillas.
Soviet troops invaded Afghani-
stan in December 1969 when a
Marxist faction ousted a previous
pro-Moscow government.
Since then, more than 500,000
Soviet troops have rotated through
Afghanistan. where the permanent
Red Army strength is estimated at
115,000. That force has a dual mis-
sion of propping up the Kabul gov-
ernment and fighting the Islamic-
guerrillas who want to destroy the
Kabul government.
No reliable estimates exist about
Soviet casualties in Afghanistan.
But the death toll from fighting and
disease is believed to be relatively
high.
Last week, as Soviets mounted
large-scale operations against guer-
o war as a historic turning point
comparable to the Spanish Civil War
of the 1930s.
In Spain, the Soviets made a mis-
take by not committing enough
forces to defeat the Franco forces.
wrote Alexander Prokhanov in Lit-
eraturnaya Gazeta.
"Think what an advantage the
Soviet Union would have had if it
had established a stronghold in
Spain. The first war years (of World
War n( would not not have been so
bitter and fewer Soviets would have
been killed."
In Afghanistan, too, the Soviet
Union is surrounded by enemies.
"who are trying to create a conve-
nient bridgehead for future attacks,"
he wrote.
V. Matveyev, a political analyst
for Izvestia, continued that theme
by contending that "militarist quar-
ters in the United States" had de-
signs for Afghanistan as a "replace-
ment" for bases in Iran after the
shah was overthrown.
"Afghanistan attracted the atten-
tion of imperialism because of the
access it afforded to the southern
flank of the U.S.S.R. Its border with
our country stretches for a distance
of 2,400 kilometers (1,500 miles),"
Mr. Matveyev wrote.
The view from Moscow is that the
guerrilla war in Afghanistan is or-
chestrated by the CIA. with the aid
of Pakistan.
"Since 1978 to the present time,
more than a hundred training cen-
ters have been set up on the territory
of Pakistan with direct U.S. partici-
pation, where counter-revolutionary
bandits are taught to handle various
weapons and are prepared for infil-
tration into Afghanistan," Izvestia
wrote, adding:
"Without these camps and bases
on Pakistani territory, the anti-Af-
ghan intervention would have long
run out of breath."
Moscow's attitude. toward Paki-
stan has hardened in recent times,
and talks under United Nations su-
pervision between Pakistan and Af-
ghanistan apparently produced little
progress in Geneva last week.
At the same time the Soviet
Union has recently also renewed its
attacks on Iran.
"Tehran is intensifying a slander-
ous anti-Afghan and anti-Soviet
campaign,".Izvestia said.
The newspaper accused Iran's
leadership of trying to export Islamic
fundamentalism in "the futile illu-
sion that attempts at overthrowing
the people's power in Afghanistan
will succeed.*
The toughening Soviet attitude
does not come as a surprise. says
Said B. Majrooh. who heads the Af-
ghan Information Center in Pesha-
war, Pakistan.
Ever since Mikhail S. Gorbachev
came to power, the Soviet actions in
Afghanistan have become tougher,
the professor wrote recently. He
listed these developments:
^ On the religious front, a new
Ministry for Islamic Affairs has been
created to defuse opposition to the
Kabul government.
^ Elections to local jirgahs, or
people's councils, are being held for
the first time in the country's histo-
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/03: CIA-RDP90-00965R000605080004-2