Sandy Gall

The first biography in a decade of Afghan resistance leader Ahad Shah Massoud. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the forces of resistance were disparate. Many groups were caught up in fighting each other and competing for Western arms. The exception were those commanded by Ahmad Shah Massoud, the military strategist and political operator who solidified the resistance and undermined the Russian occupation, leading resistance members to a series of defensive victories. Sandy Gall followed Massoud during Soviet incursions and reported on the war in Afghanistan, and he draws on this first-hand experience in his biography of this charismatic guerrilla commander. Afghan Napoleon includes excerpts from the surviving volumes of Massoud's prolific diaries--many translated into English for the first time--which detail crucial moments in his personal life and during his time in the resistance. Born into a liberalizing Afghanistan in the 1960s, Massoud ardently opposed communism, and he rose to prominence by coordinating the defense of the Panjshir Valley against Soviet offensives. Despite being under-equipped and outnumbered, he orchestrated a series of victories over the Russians. Massoud's assassination in 2001, just two days before the attack on the Twin Towers, is believed to have been ordered by Osama bin Laden. Despite the ultimate frustration of Massoud's attempts to build political consensus, he is recognized today as a national hero.

The Life of Ahmad Shah Massoud

Afghan Napoleon

This book is an account of Sandy Gall's last trip to Afghanistan in 1986 to report the war. It tells of his journey, with all its hardships and dangers, as well as explaining the background to the war including some dramatic pictures of the fighting. Sandy Gall chose to revisit the man he regards as the outstanding commander in Afghanistan, Ahmed Shah Masud, who is trying to organize resistance to the Russians on a regional and eventually national scale. The author views the war as Russia's Vietnam and believes it merits much wider attention. He believes it has been largely neglected because of the difficulties of the terrain and the length of time it takes to get to the remoter areas. For his work in Afghanistan, Sandy Gall - a Reuter correspondent for ten years and ITN "trouble shooter" since 1963 - was awarded the Lawrence of Arabia Memorial Medal in 1987.

Agony of a Nation

Afghanistan

As the Western world waits for the announcement that Russia will withdraw her troops from Afghanistan, an undercover operation is mounted in Whitehall which is designed to increase the difficulties of Russia's occupying force in the bitter war against Afghan guerrilla bands. Mike Wills, a disgraced - and therefore expendable - former SAS officer, is teamed with a Russian defector, Anatoly Gradinsky. The two men are to be sent secretly into Afghanistan on a sabotage mission. Their target: the Salang Tunnel, on the vital supply line between Russia and her troops. The television newscaster and reporter Sandy Gall has travelled extensively in Afghanistan and has made three highly-acclaimed television films on the guerrilla that had been fought there for the last nine years.

Salang

A comprehensive analysis of the current Afghanistan War by bestselling writer and legendary war reporter Sandy Gall

Why It All Went Wrong in Afghanistan

War Against the Taliban

Don't Worry about the Money Now

John Casson

A stunning photographic book presenting the people of Afghanistan. From a dynamic author with a high-profile publicity campaign.

Sandy Gall

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