ABSTRACT
The troop pullout from Afghanistan brought a breakthrough enhancing the capacity of "new thinking" to impress, and exerted fundamental influence on international relations. In its military retreat from Afghanistan the Soviet Union pursued the goal of propping up the Democratic People's Party of Afghanistan regime short of "direct intervention." Political, diplomatic and military means were to foster this goal: the policy of "national reconciliation" in Afghanistan, the demand levelled primarily at Pakistan for strict observance of the Geneva agreements, and the continuing economic and military aid to the Kabul government. The Afghan-Pakistani agreement contains precise prohibition formulae designed to prevent the use of one side's territory for purposes of violating the sovereignty of and destabilizing the other side. The moratorium on the retreat was accompanied by a major diplomatic offensive preceded by a thorough personnel reshuffle in Soviet policy toward Afghanistan.
