Gorbachev, leader who pulled Soviets from Afghanistan, says U.S. campaign was doomed from start

FILE PHOTO: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev addresses the audience after the Russian premiere of the documentary film "Meeting Gorbachev" in Moscow, Russia November 8, 2018. REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva/File Photo

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Mikhail Gorbachev, the leader who oversaw the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989 after Moscow's failed decade-long campaign there, said on Tuesday that NATO's own deployment to the country had been doomed from the start.

Gorbachev, 90, regarded the Soviet presence in Afghanistan as a political mistake that was sapping precious resources at a time when the Soviet Union was living through what turned out to be the twilight of its own existence.