cover image Holy War, Unholy Victory

Holy War, Unholy Victory

Kurt Lohbeck. Regnery Publishing, $24 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-89526-499-2

Lohbeck, under contract to CBS, was the only American journalist to cover the war in Afghanistan on a full-time basis. Surviving on tea and turnips for long periods, he lived with the mujahaddin (``holy warriors''), enduring earthquakes, sickness, napalm burns and shrapnel wounds to record on videotape their way of life as they battled the Soviet invader. Lohbeck conveys his admiration for the muj and their cause, the emotional shock of battle (and its perverse appeal), and describes his risk-taking adventures as he sought the ``great shot.'' He was the first journalist to obtain filmed proof that the Soviets used chemical gas and napalm in Afghanistan. His comments on the Central Intelligence Agency's wrongheaded attempts to ``run the war'' from Pakistan are too general to have impact; more interesting is his account of how CIA director William Casey heeded his recommendation to equip the muj with Stinger anti-aircraft missiles. Subsequent introduction of that weapon became an important turning point in the war. The free world, and former Iron Curtain countries, owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the mujahaddin , stresses Lohbeck, who argues that their successful resistance was the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union. Photos. (Nov.)