Afghanistan: bleeding wound of Geneva Accord

Diego Cordovez, the United Nations mediator who negotiated the Soviet pullout for six years, writes in his highly controversial book ‘Out of Afghanistan’ that the Red Army was securely entrenched when the Soviet Union agreed to withdraw: American weaponry and Afghan bravery raised the cost for Moscow, but it was six-year diplomacy that gave the Russians a way out. Despite being cynical about the role the Akhtar and his ISI, he simply could not ignore the ground realities. He had to confess at many places that Afghanistan had become “bleeding wound for the Soviets”. Some excerpts from his work are appended below: