All language subtitles for Cold War - S01E20 - Soldiers of God (1975–1988) (480p x265 EDGE2020).eng

NARRATOR:
Afghanistan.

A war which cost the lives

of nearly 15,000
young Soviet conscripts

and an estimated
one million Afghans.

[speaking Russian ]

It was the Soviet Union's
Vietnam syndrome,

so to speak.

It was impossible
for a great superpower

to run away
from this wild country.

The United States supplied
billions of dollars

of weapons
to unlikely allies --

Islamic Fundamentalists.

It is entirely true that
this was a war

that was fought
with our gold

but with their blood.

D ♪

NARRATION:
The Panjshir Valley

in the Hindu Kush
mountains of Afghanistan --

a rural, traditionally
Islamic country

of 15 million people.

Foreign nations had tried
to conquer it for centuries.

None succeeded.

But civil war
and years of Cold War Conflict

would bring the people
of Afghanistan

a terrible toll
of death and destruction.

In the 1970s,

Afghanistan became
a focus

for superpower rivalry.

Close to
the Persian Gulfs oil

and the Indian Ocean ports,

it bordered Iran
in the West

and Pakistan
in the South and East.

In the North,

it shared a border
with the Muslims

of the Soviet Union's
Central Asian republics.

To Moscow,

a friendly Afghanistan
was vital.

Kabul, Afghanistan,

April 1978.

A military coup brings
a left-wing regime to power.

Soviet cameras portray it

as a romantic popular
revolution.

Crowds were organized

to celebrate
the change of power.

Nur Mohammad Taraki,

Afghanistan's new leader,

looked to the Soviet Union
for support.

Moscow sent hundreds
of Soviet advisers

to advance socialism.

[speaking Afghan ]

The vast majority
of Afghan people had no jobs.

Afghanistan was
an agricultural country.

We thought it was best
to introduce land reforms

and give land
to the landless.

It would enable them
to work their own land

and raise their standard
of living.

NARRATION:
The left-wing regime set about

reforming Afghanistan
by decree.

Land was taken
from large owners

and handed to the peasants
who worked it.

Women were encouraged
to stop wearing veils

and were put
into literacy classes

alongside men.

[chanting in Afghan]

In the countryside,
the reforms were seen

to threaten
ancient customs

and the authority
of the Islamic priests,

the mullahs.

[chanting continues]

[speaking Afghan ]

The Communists were
trying to change

the law of God.

They wanted to destroy
Islamic traditions --

to rid Afghanistan
of poverty

and make everyone equal.

This is against
the law of Islam.

God has decided
who is rich and who is poor.

It can't be changed
by communists.

It's beyond
imagination.

NARRATION:
To counter Communists' efforts

to spread
their new doctrine,

opponents of the reforms
burnt down schools

and universities.

Thousands of Afghans
fled to Pakistan

to avoid
the revolutionary turmoil.

Resistance was growing
throughout the country.

[speaking Russian ]

Brezhnev
and the Politburo tried

to talk sense into Kabul.

We couldn't understand
how they could build socialism

in just five years.

We said,
"You can't do that.

We've been building socialism
for 6O years

and we're still
not finished."

But they thought
it was us

that had got it wrong.

Naivete' was coming out
of their every orifice.

It was in their
every word.

[crowds chanting ]

NARRATION:
In neighboring Iran,

crowds joined the call
of the Afghan resistance

for a jihad,
or holy war,

against the godless
Communists.

Other Islamic countries
took up the cry.

[ Chanting ]

In Washington,

National Security Adviser
Zbigniew Brezezinski

was convinced the left-wing
regime in Afghanistan

was a major threat.

Yeah.

And that will deal first
with Iran,

then with Afghanistan

and the regional implications.

NARRATION:
Brzezinski told President Carter that

Moscow might use
the Afghan crisis to move south

and seize the oil
of the Persian Gulf.

BRZEZINSKI:
Well, I have essentially four items

I'd like to go over with you.

[ Shouting ]

BrzezinskPs fears for
the stability of the region

gained weight when
mass demonstrations in Tehran

led to the overthrow
of the Shah of Iran.

The Shah's fall
lost America

its most important ally
in the region.

BRZEZINSKI:
We were faced with the possibility

that one way or another,

before too long,
we may have

either a hostile Iran

on the northern shore
of the Persian Gulf facing us,

or we might even have
the Soviets there.

[ Overlapping conversations ]

NARRATION: The Islamic
groups fighting the Communists

received covert
American aid

for the first time
in July 1979.

President Carter began
by sending

communications equipment.

The rebels called themselves
the Mujahedin,

the Soldiers of God.

They were mostly peasants

organized by village mullahs
and landowners.

Many of their weapons
were captured

from the Communist regime.

From the refugee camps
in Pakistan,

recruits for the jihad

walked for days
across the mountains

to reach the fighting.

Ranged against the Mujahedin

was a mechanized,
Soviet-trained Afghan army.

Soviet film depicted

a highly motivated
fighting force.

In fact, each month,

thousands of soldiers
deserted.

Kabul pleaded with Moscow
to send Soviet troops.

In the Kremlin,

Soviet leaders
repeatedly met

to discuss the Afghan crisis.

After mobs massacred
Soviet advisers

and their families
in Her at,

Kabuts request
for Soviet troops

moved up the agenda.

[speaking Russian ]

The Afghans wanted us
to introduce

a limited contingent
of Soviet troops

to guard military bases.

They just couldn't cope
with the Mujahedin themselves.

At first they spoke
about a battalion,

then about a brigade.

They kept insisting
and pushing for Soviet troops

but we kept refusing
and refusing and refusing.

NARRATION: President
Taraki had an apparently devoted

Prime Minister,
Hafizullah Amin.

Amin was the regime's
strong man.

In spite of the unrest

he was determined to drive on
with the reforms.

Amin launched
a campaign of terror.

He had opponents
arrested and shot.

[speaking Russian ]

I said to Amih that
his policies were too harsh,

that they were turning
the Muslim population

against him.

Like the land reforms
which did not

take into account
Afghan traditions.

But he used to reply

"Did Stalin make
the revolution

in white gloves?

NARRATION:
Afghan President Taraki flew to Moscow

to discuss with Soviet leader
Leonid Brezhnev

how to curb
AmirTs excesses.

They decided to
oust him,

hoping the Kabul
government

could get popular support
by slowing the reforms

and ending the terror.

Moscow's secret plans
leaked out.

When President Taraki
returned to Kabul,

Amin had him
seized and executed.

Amin realized the Soviets
wanted him out.

He began to seek
better ties with the West.

The KGB even imagined
Amin might be

a CIA agent.

[speaking Russian ]

Andropov, the head
of the KGB,

became very concerned
about Amin

flirting
with the Americans.

Andropov felt that if we didn't
introduce Soviet troops,

Amin would claim that

Moscow hadn't fulfilled
its obligations.

He would then turn
to the Americans for help

and they would put
their own troops in.

NARRATION:
In Moscow the arguments were mounting

in favor of using
an invasion to remove Amin.

In the past,
Soviet military action

to topple troublesome
foreign leaders

had worked
in Hungary and Czechoslovakia.

In Europe,

the nuclear arms race
was gathering speed.

NATO wanted to counter
the Soviet Union's

mobile missiles.

On December 12, 1979

the West announced
it would deploy

hundreds of cruise missiles
in response.

Moscow now felt it had
little to lose internationally

by intervening in Afghanistan
with troops.

That evening the Politburo
held an emergency meeting.

[speaking Russian ]

Our major concern

was the security
of the southern borders

of the Soviet Union.

We also feared the spread
of Islamic fundamentalism

into Afghanistan from Iran.

[speaking Russian ]

I said that military
intervention in Afghanistan

would be very difficult
for our army.

It would not
necessarily lead to success.

One only has to consider
the conditions in Afghanistan,

its geography,
its history

and especially
the independent nature

of the Afghans.

[speaking Russian ]

We also felt

that if we didn't go
into Afghanistan

then some
other countries would.

The intervention
of these states could

destabilize the situation
on the Soviet-Afghan border

and in the region
as a whole.

NARRATION:
The Politburo took its fateful decision.

By December 25, 1979,

tens of thousands
of men in tanks and trucks

started to trundle
across the border.

Moscow hoped they could
complete their mission

within weeks.

The old royal palace
on the edge of Kabul

was Prime Minister Amirfs
favorite residence.

KGB special forces
stormed the building.

Amin tried to hide,

but they shot him dead.

Moscow replaced Amin
with a more manageable leader,

Babrak Karmal.

Since the Cold War started,

the Soviet Union had
never invaded a country

beyond the borders
of the Warsaw Pact.

Now Soviet forces were
stepping across the line.

The implications

of the Soviet invasion
of Afghanistan

could pose a more serious
threat to the peace

since the second World War.

The vast majority
of nations on earth

have condemned this latest
Soviet attempt

to extend its colonial
domination of others.

[ Applause ]

CARTER:
I had to put restraints on the Soviet Union.

One of them was to issue
a public statement

that if the Soviets
did invade

either Pakistan or Iran

or Iran
out of Afghanistan,

that I would consider this
a personal threat

to the security
of the United States of America

and I would take whatever
action I desired

or considered appropriate
to respond.

And I let it be known
that this would not exclude

a nuclear reaction.

MAN:
The military intervention of the Soviet Union

cannot be justified.

There can be no question
of any country

other than the Soviet Union
having interfered

in Afghanistan's internal
affairs.

NARRATION:
At the United Nations

the Soviet invasion
was widely condemned.

President Carter
blocked grain deliveries

to the Soviet Union,

launched a boycott of
the Olympic games in Moscow,

and stepped up US spending
on arms.

Détente was over.

US National Security Adviser
Brzezinski

flew to Pakistan

to set about
rallying resistance.

He wanted to arm
the Mujahedin

without revealing
America's role.

On the Afghan border
near the Khyber pass,

he urged
the Soldiers of God

to redouble their efforts.

BRZEZINSKI:
We know of their deep belief in God.

And we are confident

that their struggle
will succeed.

[man speaking Afghan]

That land over there
is yours.

You will go back
to it one day

because your fight
will prevail

and you'll have your homes
and your mosques back again

because your cause is right

and God is on
your side.

[ Applause ]

BRZEZINSKI: The purpose of
coordinating with the Pakistanis

would be to make
the Soviets bleed

for as much and as long
as is possible.

Do we know if any Soviet units
have reached the border?

They're holding back?
- They are holding back.

BRZEZINSKI: We started
providing weapons to the Mujahedin,

from various sources again.

Some, for example,
some Soviet arms

from the Egyptians
and the Chinese.

We even got Soviet arms

from the Czechoslovak
Communist government,

since it was obviously
susceptible

to material incentives,

and at some point we started
buying arms for the Mujahedin

from the Soviet army
in Afghanistan,

because that army was
increasingly corrupt.

NARRATION: Brzezinski sought
the help of General Zia-ul-Haq,

Pakistan's military ruler.

Pakistan always had
a keen interest

in Afghanistan.

Pakistan wanted a friendly
and strongly Islamic neighbor.

The US Congress had
earlier out

US military aid
to Pakistan.

General Zia had a bad
human rights record.

He was developing
a nuclear bomb.

He had failed to curb
drugs trading.

Now, the Americans set aside
their displeasure.

I think we had
a double standard

with respect
to the Pakistanis.

And we knew that there
were big problems with drugs,

and that there were big
problems with nukes

and we were prepared
in various ways,

in any way that
we had to,

to turn Nelson's eye
to those problems,

as long as the Afghan resistance
was being supported

via the government
of Pakistan --

and that's what we did.

NARRATION:
In Afghanistan,

the Red Army guarded cities,
roads, and airports,

leaving the Afghan army
free for combat.

By 1980,
almost 100,000 Soviet troops

would be deployed
around the country.

It was a civil war,

but many of the Soviet
conscripts were told

they were coming to Afghanistan
to confront Americans.

[ Man speaking Russian ]

After we took our first
Afghan prisoners,

we started to realize that
the Americans were hot there.

We said, "Americans?
What Americans?

They're not here."

But the KGB officers said,
"Oh, they're in the rear.

They are advising Mujahedin,

just like we advised
in Cuba.

Maybe they are teaching them
how to fight."

But the more operations
we carried out,

the more we realized that
the Americans were not there.

NARRATION:
Against their wishes,

the Soviets were soon
sucked into combat.

They started with textbook
sweep offensives

devised to defeat NATO
in Europe,

and Chinese troops
on the plains of Manchuria.

In mountainous terrain

against
guerilla fighters,

their approach was
a disaster.

Well, I would say 99%
of all the battles

that we fought
in Afghanistan

were won
by the Soviet side.

But the problem is
that the next morning

we had the same old
situation

as if there was
no battle --

Mujahedin were again
in that village

where they were --

we thought we destroyed them
just the other day.

So it was
an absolutely useless war.

ARCHIVE - RONALD REAGAN:
I, Ronald Reagan, do solemnly swear...

...that I will faithfully
execute the office

of President
of the United States.

...that I will faithfully
execute the office

of President
of the United States.

NARRATION:
A fervent anti-Communist,

Ronald Reagan
won the 1980 election

with an image
of forceful leadership

and a promise to re-build
US military might.

To many Americans,

Carter's foreign policy
had seemed weak.

Reagan stepped up aid
to the Afghan rebels.

The Mujahedin were made up
of numerous factions.

They were split
on tribal and ethnic lines.

When the Mujahedin weren't
fighting the Soviets,

they sometimes fought
each other.

[speaking Afghan ]

The Mujahedin often captured
military equipment

in working order,

but were so disorganized
that within hours

it would be made
useless by looting.

[ Overlapping conversations ]

ANDERSON:
I made the comment that gratitude

in the Afghan dictionary

is gonna be found somewhere
after "gimme" and "gotcha."

[ Gunshots ]

On the other hand,
there was a constant

undercurrent
of understanding

that while we were
providing the means

to wage this war,

they were waging it

and that it is entirely true
that this was a war

that was fought with our gold
but with their blood.

NARRATION:
The Reagan administration increased

its covert military supplies
to the Mujahedin.

Money and arms
were channeled

through camps in Pakistan.

By controlling the way
aid was distributed,

the Pakistanis hoped to install
a fundamentalist regime

in Afghanistan.

They favored the extremist
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

ELIE KRAKOWSKI: The Pakistanis
-- they needed to have people

that they could manipulate.

It is for that reason
that American aid,

whatever it was,

and in the early period
it was minimal,

later it became
more significant,

was essentially directed
by the Pakistanis

to Gulbuddin
at the expense of other groups.

[speaking Afghan ]

The arms were not
distributed fairly.

Despite our military
successes,

Pakistan only gave us
eight missiles.

For two years, they out
all aid to my group.

The Pakistanis had
their own agenda.

They gave the lion's share
of weapons

to the hard-liner,
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

NARRATION:
Inside Afghanistan,

the ferocity
of the civil war increased.

[ Gunfire, explosions]

After heavy casualties,

the Red Army
changed tactics.

They abandoned massive
armored sweeps

and took
to the air.

Soviet commandos would
be dropped in

by helicopters

to out the Mujahedirfs
escape routes.

While more weapons poured
into Afghanistan,

the United Nations sought
a diplomatic solution.

Under-Secretary
Diego Cordovez

tried to broker a deal

for the Soviet Union
to withdraw

if military aid to the Mujahedin
was stopped.

His shuttle diplomacy made
little headway

with Afghan President,
Babrak Karmal.

Moscow.
November 1982.

After 18 years in power,

Brezhnev is dead.

The state funeral
was used

for a new Afghan initiative.

After the ceremony,

Yuri Andropov,
the new Soviet President,

told Pakistan's
foreign minister

that he might accept
the United nations plan.

But the Americans didn't
trust Andropov.

We never considered that
the Soviets would

actually back out
of Afghanistan

and negotiate
their way out.

It didn't seem
a credible thing

for them to do
because we didn't think

that they were at all
disposed to do that.

So naturally when we talked
with the Pakistanis,

we pressed them always

to continue the pressure.

ARCHIVE - RONALD REAGAN: The Bible
tells us there will be a time for peace

but so far in this century,

mankind has failed
to find it.

In these times...

NARRATION: The United
States and Pakistan were not ready

for a deal with Moscow.

For Washington,
the UN's peace plan

was a sideshow.

REAGAN:
The peace-loving nations of the world

must condemn aggression.

Throughout Afghanistan,

Soviet aircraft were
now bombing indiscriminately.

They pummeled village
after village

into oblivion.

In a typical attack
on April 8, 1985,

the villages of
Kats and Mindrawar

on the Kabul-Jalalabad highway
were bombed,

then overrun
by Soviet troops.

[woman speaking Afghan ]

INTERPRETER:
The Soviets destroyed the whole village.

It's impossible to count
how many they killed.

The men were dragged out
of their houses

and sent off
to the Afghan army.

Those who refused were
taken aside and gunned down --

butchered.

[man speaking Afghan]

INTERPRETER:
The Russians took 14 of us

and made us stand in a line
near this wall.

Two Russian soldiers
stood in front of us

with machine guns.

We began reciting
the Holy Kalima

from the Holy Koran,

because we knew we were
about to die.

They machine-gunned
every one of us.

I fell.

There was a pile
of bodies,

all on top of me.

The bullets missed me.

The soldiers searched us
and took our money.

They moved me,
but I just pretended to be dead.

[speaking Afghan ]

The rockets were falling
all around us

like leaves
off a tree.

My daughter's head
was smashed open,

Her brains were hanging
from a branch.

I lost everything --

my cousins,
my nephews --

everybody was killed --

my wife,
my four children.

[soldier speaking Russian ]

INTERPRETER: There was no
such thing as a "peaceful population."

They were all
guerrilla fighters.

I remember how we once
rounded up

all the women
and children,

poured kerosene
over them

and set fire
to them.

Yes, it was cruel.

Yes, we did it,

but those kids were
torturing our wounded soldiers

with knives.

[speaking Russian ]

When you kill,
you don't feel calm.

You just feel indifferent.

You're paranoid.
You lose your morality.

You become very
cold-blooded.

Your soul grows cold

because you're confronted
with something

you don't like doing.

[speaking Russian ]

A young soldier might kill
just to test his gun,

or if he's curious to see

what the inside of a human being
looks like,

or what's inside
a smashed head.

But there is also the fact
that if you don't kill,

you'll get killed.

It's a feeling of being
drunk on blood.

Often you kill
out of boredom

or because you just
feel like doing it.

It's like
hunting rabbits.

[man speaking Afghan]

INTERPRETER:
We have cried so much

that we can no longer cry.

Even if we do cry,

who will wipe away
our tears?

So, you see, there's
nobody to turn to anyway.

We can only pray to God

to take our revenge
for us

because we are
helpless.

NARRATION:
Thousands of civilians were killed

in similar Soviet
atrocities

throughout Afghanistan.

The Mujahedin committed
their own war crimes,

often executing Soviet and
Afghan prisoners

in cold blood.

[gunfire]

NARRATION:
With increasing ruthlessness and daring,

the Mujahedin attacked
Soviet convoys --

the lifeline bringing
oil and weapons

to the Red Army.

[gunfire]

[ explosion ]

[gunfire continues]

NARRATION:
The toll of Soviet dead rose

to as much as 2,000
a year.

D ♪

Many Soviet conscripts were
raw recruits.

Sent to Afghanistan after
only three months

of basic training.

Sickness, drunkenness
and drug abuse

sapped the army's strength.

The wounded got
minimal care.

The war seemed
pointless.

[ Man speaking Russian ]

You don't know
what you're doing.

You don't know what's
gonna happen tomorrow.

Perhaps you're gonna die
and for the sake of what?

For the sake of a system
that lies to you?

For the sake of a system
that turned my father

and all of our parents
into alcoholics?

You suddenly realized

that you have been
brought up in a system

which only creates evil.

You just want
to escape from it,

but you don't know
where to run.

You have only got
one hope --

to eat half a kilo
of opium,

go to sleep
and never wake up.

[ Narration in Russian ]

NARRATION:
The propaganda was repeated daily

in the Soviet press.

Returning veterans began
to reveal

the Soviet troops
true role.

But Soviet newspaper readers
searched in vain

for accurate reports.

Basically, it was total
disinformation

of the Soviet public.

Soviet soldiers were not
fighting a war.

The propaganda said
they were building schools,

kindergartens, roads,

and guarding caravans
with food.

That's it.

NARRATION:
In cemeteries across the Soviet Union,

the cost of the invasion
became impossible to hide.

Many Russian mothers lost
their only child.

[woman speaking Russian ]

INTERPRETER:
A military officer came to me.

He said,
"Try to be brave.

Your son has died."

I couldn't believe it.

No.

I had only received
a letter from him

the day before.

I didn't try to open
the coffin myself.

My brother wanted to
but we were not allowed.

The funeral was
very quick.

They buried him

and that was it.

It's very hard.

I wasn't allowed to write
on his gravestone

that he'd died
in Afghanistan.

I could only write
in small letters at the bottom

that he'd died

"while fulfilling
his internationalist duty."

I didn't see him dead,

so to me
he's still alive.

At every doorbell I think
my son has come back.

I don't believe
he died.

NARRATION:
In March 1985,

an energetic new leader

took power
in the Kremlin.

As Mikhail Gorbachev met
crowds of Russians

on tours
around the country,

opposition to the war
could finally be

expressed in public.

[speaking Russian ]

NARRATION:
Thousands of protest letters poured in

to Gorbachevs office
each week.

[speaking Russian ]

We had to finish
this war,

but in such a way

that the Russian people
would understand

why tens of thousands
had died,

and tens of thousands
had become invalids.

We had to explain
what it was all for.

We couldn't just run away
from there in shame.

No.

We needed to find
a process.

[speaking Russian ]

There was an obstacle,
an ideological one.

It was
our Vietnam syndrome.

It was impossible
for a great superpower

to run away
from this wild country,

like the Americans
in Vietnam.

It would damage
our prestige.

NARRATION:
The United Nations envoy, Diego Cordovez,

was told by Gorbachev

that the Soviet Union would
consider withdrawing

under a UN agreement.

The emerging issue was

what kind of government
would run Afghanistan

if the Soviets left.

Hoping the US and Pakistan
would accept

a coalition
friendly to Moscow,

Gorbachev chose
a new Afghan leader,

Mohammad Najibullah.

Gorbachev instructed
Najibullah

to offer talks
with the Mujahedin

about forming an Afghan
government

of national reconciliation.

Gorbachev and his peace
initiatives

were applauded
in Moscow,

but not yet accepted
in Washington.

WEINBERGER:
He was KGB and he was all the old school

and he had some very dubious
associations

and all the rest.

He was trying to persuade
the old line Communists

that he was with them

and he would appoint them
to various positions,

and he would not make
major changes in the economy

or in the economic policies

or in the military policies.

NARRATION: On return from
his first summit with Gorbachev,

Reagan sensed Moscow
wanted a deal

to get out
of Afghanistan.

But American hard-liners
wanted revenge

for Vietnam.

Pressed by Congress,

Reagan urged the Mujahedin
to go for victory.

ANDERSON:
It wasn't until really

between about '83 to '85

that the forces
in Washington,

who asked the question,

"Well, maybe we can
win this."

Let's not put in

$100 million a year
worth of weapons,

let's put in
a billion dollars a year

worth of weapons.

NARRATION:
To combat Soviet air supremacy,

the United States decided to try
out its latest missile,

the Stinger.

Field trials like this
looked impressive

as the shoulder-fired missile
locked onto its target.

By sending state-of-the-art,
American-made Stingers

to the Mujahedin,

Washington was making plain
that America

was directly involved
in the Afghan war.

Spurred on by the increased
American aid,

the Mujahedin opposed
a UN-brokered peace agreement

that would enable
the withdrawal of Soviet troops,

but leave the Kabul regime
in place.

Signed in Geneva,

the 1988 peace agreement
barred

further military aid
to either side

in Afghanistan.

Both superpowers
ignored the ban.

The supply of weapons
went on.

The Geneva accords
did not bring peace.

WEIN BERGER:
Our basic feeling was that

what the Russians were
talking about

was a way to get
the resistance

and the opposition
of the West

off their backs,
so to speak,

and that they then
would be free to pursue

other methods
of dominating Afghanistan,

and that's what we did not
want to have happen.

[speaking Russian ]

The Americans
didn't want

a trace of Marxism left.

They wanted to install
an anti-Soviet puppet regime

they could control.

The bleeders
or the hawks finally won.

Our reason was
very simple,

"If you carry on
giving aid,

we'll carry on
giving aid."

NARRATIONI
In 1988,

under the terms
of the Geneva agreement,

Soviet troops started
pulling out.

But instead of peace,

Afghanistan was to endure
more years of bloodshed.

Fighting among rival groups
of Islamic fundamentalists

continued to destroy
the country

long after
the Cold War was over.

Since 1979,

five million Afghans
were wounded

or forced to flee
their homes.

Almost 15,000 Soviet soldiers
were killed.

One million Afghans
perished.

ANDERSON:
I haven't had a bad night.

|t's not because I am
without feeling for --

or without understanding
of how much agony

goes along with war.

It's just that this was
such a contribution

to the end of what was
otherwise an evil

that inflicted
other kinds of pain

on so many other people

that on balance,
it was worth it.

[speaking Russian ]

The Afghan people have
become the main victims.

The Afghans are now
fighting each other.

Of course they have plenty of
internal reasons for that.

But at the same time,

it's because of a legacy
which started in the 1970s

that they are now
fighting each other

with American and Soviet
weapons.

[chanting in Afghan]