ABSTRACT
The years of 1978–92 marked a significant political shift in the country, from the former monarchy to a Marxist-oriented political system, under the PDPA and the Soviet Union's influence. The PDPA overthrew President Daoud in a military coup in April 1978, and ended the half-century rule by Nadir's family. The events of this period had a tremendous influence not only on Afghanistan's political, cultural and educational context, but also on regional and international politics. The PDPA's rule was resisted by the former and less known Islamist parties, which resisted the monarchy and then Daoud's ‘republican’ regime. The anti-Daoud Islamist parties, which were hosted and provided military training camps and facilities by the Pakistani leader of the time, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (r. 1973–7), continued their political struggle and quest for power against the PDPA. However, the PDPA's failure to reunite after an ideological and ethno-linguistic schism divided the party into two factions of Khalq (Mass) and Parcham (Banner) in the 1960s, with a series of political revenge attacks by the Khalq against key Parcham members as well as other Islamist and leftist parties of the 1960s and 1970s, brought into question their legitimacy, credibility, and ability to rule the country. While the PDPA was on the brink of collapse as early as summer 1979, the party's leadership called upon the Soviet Union for military intervention. This led Afghanistan to re-enter the Great Game, as the Soviet Union's army invaded the country in December 1979 in support of the falling PDPA. It gave the United States an opportunity to declare the Soviet Union's military interference an illegal occupation and unite Western and Muslim countries behind herself to resist and fight back the Soviet Union. As a result Afghanistan became a land of proxy war between two superpowers.
