Probably, many who have read "Cold Winter" ask themselves how real the preparation for Operation "Mallet" described there is. And was that operation planned in reality at all? I can’t say for sure—the answers are in undisclosed archives—but I’m certain: it was planned!
In "Cold Winter" I included four genuine documents from the archives of the Central Committee of the CPSU concerning the period preceding the start of the war in Afghanistan. They clearly show that the Soviet Union arranged things both with Mohammad Daoud, despite the fact that he was a relative of the overthrown king, and with Nur Mohammad Taraki, when he came to power after removing Daoud—without any help whatsoever from the USSR. The Soviet Union did not want a war in Afghanistan; it urged the parties in the Afghan confrontation toward peaceful dialogue at every turn. And yet the war on the southern front was being prepared.
Much points to the fact that it was being prepared!