As the PDPA regime grew increasingly unable to deal with the rightist offensive, it appealed to Moscow for support. While the latter was willing to despatch military and economic advisers, it refused to commit itself openly at first in the hope that the reactionary revolt would be crushed.
By late 1979, however, when it became obvious that the PDPA regime was unable to deal with the situation - and that an openly pro-imperialist regime might be established on its borders - it decided to act.
Deposing Amin in typical Stalinist fashion, as a 'scapegoat"', it sent in 70,000 troops in December 1979 to crush the incipient take-over which it clearly saw as a threat to its own borders.
SUPPORT There can be no doubt that the bureaucratic methods employed by the Stalinist PDPA was serious hindrance to the defence of the Afghan revolution. There can equally be no doubt that the way Moscow intervened in the situation also hindered its defence.
The deposing and execution of Amin as a 'CIA agent' and his replacement by Karmal has obviously made it easier for Washington to whip up a campaign to politically isolate the USSR and the new Afghan Nevertheless, despite Moscow's bureaucratic methods and conservative motives, the dispatch of troops to Atghanistan was an important aid to the revolutionary process there.
RED ARMY The aim of the Red Army was not to destroy the social gains of the workers and peasants but to defend - in however bureaucratic a fashion - those gains against reactionary forces backed by Washington Karmal 's new government has made it clear that it intends basing itself on the programme of the April revolution and to defend the social gains that have already been achieved.
Moreover, a campaign has been conducted to convince the population that arbitrary arrests will be halted and that 'bureaucratic mistakes, made in the implementation of the reform programme in the past, will be corrected. Clearly, these measures are intended to win the new regime wider support.
WITHDRAWAL It is clear that, despite the press hysteria in the West, the entry of the Red Army halted in its tracks a mass pro-imperialU TURKE IRAQ The situation that exists in