For Massoud, it was a victorious end to the long, brutal, and bloody nine-year Soviet war – which lasted from 1979 to 1989 – and his even longer battle against communist control in Afghanistan. Much of Afghanistan had been laid waste by the relentless bombing and strafing of the heavily armed Russian invaders. But against all expectations, including those of some Western experts, the Afghan populace and mujahideen not only refused to admit defeat but, in the end, overcame the Russians and forced them to withdraw in failure. Much of the mujahideen’s success was due to their ingrained determination to defend their country, come what may – but a large measure of that success can be attributed to the guerrilla genius of Massoud.

As well as being a personal victory, Massoud’s capture of the capital was the final victory of the Afghan resistance, and of the decade-long campaign backed by the United States against its rival superpower. It was an irony that Massoud – who had long been marginalised by the ISI (with its own agenda for Afghanistan), the CIA, and the US Department of State – was the one who delivered that victory. The CIA had showered millions of dollars on Hekmatyar, because the president of Pakistan, General Zia-ul-Haq, saw him as ‘Pakistan’s man’ in Afghanistan. Zia dictated ISI policy and, since the Americans were close Cold War allies of Pakistan, they followed suit.

Massoud, however, outsmarted them all with his capture of Kabul, leading Robert Kaplan to famously describe him in the Wall Street Journal as ‘the Afghan who won the Cold War’. Kaplan, who spent considerable time as a correspondent in Afghanistan for a number of major American publications in the 1980s, described Massoud in glowing terms: He must be judged among the greatest guerrilla leaders of the 20th century, shoulder to shoulder with Marshal Tito, Ho Chi Minh, Mao Tse-tung, and Che Guevara. He organised a functioning polity over a sprawling, more difficult terrain, that was under greater military pressure, than those of Mao, Ho, Tito or Che.

To be continued….