NEW YORK, March 14, Reuter: Comments by a Senior Soviet official to former USS. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger may mean a peaceful end to Moscow’s occupation of Afghanistan is near, the New York Times said in an editorial today.
It said the remarks, to the effect the Afghanistan was not Communist or even technically Socialist, had prompted Kissinger to say he was no longer sure Moscow would never permit the overthrow of an Afghan regime established by Soviet power.
It backed Kissinger’s suggestion that Moscow’s resolve to extricate itself from the eight year old war in Afghanistan be tested by proposing that two conditions at U.N. mediated talks.
One would be that Moscow withdraws its 115,000 troops within six months. The other “is a post occupation regime without the threat of another Soviet invasion” it said.
Citing apparent progress at talks in Geneva, the paper said, “It might seem, to recall a phrase that peace is at hand in Afghanistan”. The editorial said it was not clear that Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was ready to stop the war if the price was the overthrow of a Soviet enthroned regime.
The fall of Kabul could be as humbling to Moscow as the fall of Saigon was to Washington, it said.
“Yet by any rational calculus, Mr. Gorbachev stands to gain more by ending a predecessor’s
Article extracted from this publication >> March 20, 1987
