Afghan Napoleon - The Life of Ahmad Shah Massoud

When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the forces of resistance were disparate and divided mujahideen groups, as interested in fighting each other and competing for Western arms as opposing the Russians. The exception was Ahmed Shah Massoud, the military strategist and political operator who solidified the resistance and undermined the Russian occupation by leading its members to a series of defensive victories. Sandy Gall was embedded with Massoud during Soviet offences and reported on the war in Afghanistan for a number of years. He has now written an illuminating biography of this charismatic guerrilla commander, which contains excerpts from the surviving volumes of Massoud's diaries. Massoud's prolific diary-keeping was little known during his lifetime, and his entries detail crucial moments in his life and throw fascinating light on his struggles, both in the resistance and in his personal life. Born into an ostensibly liberalising Afghanistan in the 1960s, Massoud ardently opposed communism and Mohammed Daoud, Afghanistan's puppet leader. He quickly rose to prominence and distinguished himself by coordinating the defence of the Panjshir Valley against repeated Soviet offensives. As the occupation wore on, Massoud became the resistance's unifying force. Massoud's assassination in 2001 presaged the attack on the Twin Towers just two days later and it is widely believed to have been ordered by Osama bin Laden. Forever the underdog in a life dominated by conflict, Massoud's attempts to build political consensus in Afghanistan were ultimately frustrated. Despite that, he is recognised today as a national hero.

List of contents

Introduction by Rory Stewart

Author’s Note

Translator’s Note

Prologue

1. The British ‘Find’ Massoud

2. Were We Nearly Shot?: Meeting Massoud

3. The Boy Who Loved Playing Soldiers

4. The Coup that Failed: Exile in Pakistan

5. Bombed by the Russians in the Panjsher

6. The Russians Propose a Ceasefire

7. Massoud Deals with the Russians

8. Marriage and War

9. Defeat and Failure: ‘Am I Afraid of Death?’

10. The Russian Perspective

11. A Winter Offensive

12. Massoud Takes Farkhar

13. Expanding into the North

14. The Russians Prepare to Withdraw

15. Massoud Captures Kabul

16. Under Siege: Massoud in Kabul

17. Tea and Rockets with the Taliban

18. Mortal Enemies

19. Massoud Retreats from Kabul

20. A Low Eb

21. ‘My Father was Incorruptible'

22. Massoud Visits Europe

23. How They Killed Massoud

24. The Eve of Assassination

25. A Final Encounter

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

Select Bibliography

Notes

Index

About the author

Sandy Gall is a journalist, author, documentary producer, and newscaster. He has reported from conflict zones across the world and is the recipient of many awards for his journalism and documentary work. Rory Stewart was the UK Secretary of State for International Development and is currently a senior fellow at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale University.

Summary

Published on the 20th anniversary of Massoud's assassination, two days before the 9/11 attack, this is the first biography of Massoud published in over a decade.

Additional text

"Afghan Napoleon offers an overdue portrait of one of the most remarkable figures of the twentieth century. Napoleon tried to conquer the world; Massoud by contrast fought the world-scale Soviet empire to a stand still on behalf of his people from a tiny valley in Afghanistan.  In this book we see, not just the daily nuts and bolts of his military genius but catch glimpses of the social graces and the warmth that made this man so beloved among his followers."

— Tamim Ansary, author of The Invention of Yesterday: A 50,000-Year History of Human Culture, Conflict, and Connection

“The unputdownable story of an authentic Afghan hero by one of the greatest chroniclers of modern Afghanistan’s travails, and occasional triumphs.”

— Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, former British Ambassador to Afghanistan, and British Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan

"I can think of no one better than the legendary foreign correspondent Sandy Gall to tell the compelling story of Ahmad Shah Massoud’s extraordinary life and death. . . . Gall weaves analysis, first-hand reporting and primary sources into a brilliant and important book."

— Jeremy Bowen

"Ahmad Shah Massoud was one of the greatest military commanders of the 20th century and was instrumental in forcing the Soviets to retreat from Afghanistan in 1989. Yet, he is now barely known in the West. That will surely change as a result of Gall’s authoritative, beautifully written and deeply reported biography of Massoud."

— Peter Bergen, author of The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden

"This is a remarkable book, both a coruscating memoir by Gall and a revealing insight into a guerrilla leader—one whose reputation ranks with the icons of revolutionary insurgency and whose thinking is here revealed in his own words."

— Hew Strachan

"With the West’s own military venture in Afghanistan now unravelling, Gall’s book serves two timely purposes. One is to retell Massoud’s legendary campaign against the Soviets, which saw him dubbed 'the Afghan who won the Cold War'. The other, though, is to ask whether more Western support for him in the 1990s could have led to a better Afghanistan."

— Colin Freeman, Telegraph

"Gall’s knowledge of the jihad is encyclopaedic. He was the first well-known journalist to make the dangerous journey into occupied Afghanistan and bring the human cost of this terrible war to our TV screens. To produce such a book at the age of 93 deserves admiration. . . .A strength of Gall’s book is its detailed discussion of Pakistan’s malign interference in Afghanistan, where the Taliban are their proxy force."

— Matthew Leeming, Spectator

"A new book drawing on... years of reporting from Afghanistan and Massoud’s personal diaries."

— Diplomat

 

“Afghan Napoleon: The Life of Ahmad Shah Massoud by British journalist Sandy Gall, dedicated to Afghanistan’s illustrious statesman, is a remarkable undertaking that delves into the multifaceted intricacies of a nation devastated by war and ruined by its adverse geography.”

— Eurasia Review

"This book is essential reading for those who want an insider's understanding of the Afghan civil war."

— Literary Review

"When conceived several years ago, the book was planned as the largely admiring record of one of the great might-have-beens of history, and also–obliquely–as the last testament of the gallant Sandy Gall himself, who will be 94 in October. It remains both of those things, but the events of the past fortnight also give an urgency to the story."

— Charles Moore, Telegraph

"Massoud’s diaries and Gall’s lovingly woven storytelling are a valuable addition to our understanding of Afghanistan."

— History Today

"Sandy Gall’s Afghan Napoleon tells the long-neglected story of Ahmad Shah Massoud, a figure who has loomed large in both the public imaginations of Afghanistan and its neighboring country of Tajikistan. . . . Gall’s book is fascinating for its ability to draw on never before seen sources such as Massoud’s personal diaries and his own experiences working as a correspondent in Afghanistan. The personal insights about Massoud from Gall’s own interactions with him, words from Massoud’s own diaries, and interviews with friends and family paint an intimate picture of Massoud’s family life and character. Afghan Napoleon does a good job showcasing Massoud’s personal life and inner thoughts in ways that few biographies are able to manage."

— Oxford Middle East Review

Product details

• Authors: Sandy Gall, Sandy Stewart Gall, Rory Stewart, Stewart Rory
• Assisted by: Rory Stewart (Introduction)
• Publisher: Haus Publishing
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.09.2021
• EAN: 9781913368227
• ISBN: 978-1-913368-22-7
• No. of pages: 368
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Biographies, autobiographies; Afghanistan, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Historical, Biography: historical, political & military, HISTORY / Asia / Central Asia, Politics & government, c 2000 to c 2009, Politics and government, Middle Eastern history, Asian History, Autobiography: historical, political and military, c 1990 to c 2000, c 1990 to c 1999, HISTORY / Wars & Conflicts / General