austin-murphy-the-triumph-of-evil

70 THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL
the evidence therefore seems to imply that communist air power was
mostly directed against military targets (i.e., areas with armed rebels
generally engaged in combat), and that most of the civilians killed by
communist aircraft (as well as ground forces) represented true uninten­
tional battlefield casualties. The nwnber of civilians deliberately killed
by the communist fo rces may have therefore amounted to only a few
thousand, especially since the total number of civilian killings is prob­
ably greatly overestimated (as mentioned previously}.6
Communist troops in Afghanistan did conduct raids to methodically
destroy villages and farms in order to inhibit their use as rebel supply
centers (in a scorched-earth policy designed for rebel-controlled rural
areas), but there was no actual attempt to kill civilians or commit geno­
cide. In fact, affected residents were welcomed into government-con­
trolled cities (Bradsher, 1983}, and displaced people were even offered
rewards for settling in government-protected rural areas (Urban, 1990).
Hundreds of thousands of people did move to government-controlled
cities, although more (millions) preferred to flee into refugee camps in
neighboring countries like Pakistan, which were safe from the continu­
ous rebel terrorist attacks on government-protected areas in Afghani·
stan (Girardet, 1985) and which were also almost never attacked by the
communists (Urban, 1990). At least partially contributing to the fact
that so many refugees chos.e resettlement in neighboring countries was
the heavy outside humanitarian aid provided to ensure tolerable living
conditions in the foreign refugee camps (Amstutz, 1986). Regardless,
within this civil war environment, many civilians may have died f�r
health reasons, although there was no mass starvation like there was tn
peaceful times during the prior rule of the Afghan feudal dictatorship �f
the early 1970s (when as many as 100,000 Afghans died of hunger tn
the peaceful 1971-72 period alone before the communists took power),
and the biggest health hazard of the 1980s in Afghanistan was induced
by an extreme shortage of medical personnel in rebel-controlled are�
that was largely caused by Afghan doctors leaving for higher pay tn
fo reign capitalist countries (Girardet, 1985).
Although the actual extent of communist atrocities in Afghanistan
was no doubt far less than widely claimed, publicity about them cer·
tainly caused some Soviet citizens to question the validity of their coun­
try's official policy of benevolence (Kuperman, 1999). This reduced
CHAPTER 1
confidence in their government and leaders may have led many to yearn
for a change.
Minority of Leaders Dismantle Communism Against Will of
Majority of People
While there were numerous factors that contributed to a desire among
some to tum away from communism, it is especially important to point
out that the majority of the Eastern European people did not want
to eliminate their system (although they may have wanted to reform
aspects of it). Communism was actually dismantled by various Eastern
European leaders who acted against the will of the people.
For instance, the Soviet people (including a majority in the subse­
quently independent Caucasus and South Asia) had v�ted overwhe�­
ingly (over 70%) in favor of preserving the system m early 1 . 991 '_I1
a free plebiscite on the issue (Becker, 1999a). However, desptte t�1s
vote, the "free-market" advocate Yeltsin led the dissolution of the Sovtet
Union later in 1991 in a major power grab (Wayland, 2000a). Somewhat
later in 1996 the dissolution of the Soviet Union was voted to have
bee� unconstitutional by a Russian parliament elected under Ye ltsin 's
new constitution (Wall Street Journal, 1996), but it was too late because
the continuing, hostile capitalist President Yeltsin had already creat � d
dictatorial powers for himself (Wayland, 2000a). Nev�rth . eless, ��s�tte
heavy marketing and positive media coverage of capttalist polihctans
in Russia in the 1990s (and virtually no effective marketi�g by com­
munists there), one survey indicated that 58% of th� Russtan popula­
tion believed in 1999 that "it would have been better tf the country had
stayed as it was before 1985," and only 27% of the Russians disagreed
with that opinion (Economist, 1999c ).
Similarly, the majority of the people in East Germany (the country
that had led the 1989-90 revolution in Eastern Europe) wanted to pre­
serve a reformed version of their communist country. In particular, an
unbiased survey conducted by East and West Ge � a � s in December
1989 (shortly after the opening of the Berlin Wall} 1 � d1ca�� that over
71% of East Germans were in favor of keeping therr soctahst system
and 73% were in favor of maintaining a separate country (Bahrrna�
and Links, 1994). However, as will be explained in Chapters 2-4, va � ­
ous East German leaders gave in to Western pressure to open . up thetr
economy and political system, thereby enabling an overwhelmmg com-
71