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By Panagiotis Dimitrakis
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, and the following conflict with the indigenous Afghan Mujahedeen, was once one of many bloodiest conflicts of the chilly struggle. Key info of the conditions surrounding the invasion and its final end in simple terms months earlier than the autumn of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 have lengthy remained doubtful; the total episode is a shadowy narrative of clandestine correspondence, covert operations and failed intelligence. employing lately declassified records, the key struggle in Afghanistan brings to gentle the complete position of the CIA in arming and coaching the Afghan combatants. the following, Panagiotis Dimitrakis analyses each element of this important turning aspect in chilly warfare heritage; from President Jimmy Carter's 'Afghan Trap' to Margaret Thatcher's position within the hindrance. Dimitrakis additionally outlines the whole quantity of China's involvement in arming the Mujahedeen, successfully struggling with Brezhnev's Soviet Union by way of proxy. this can be crucial examining for students and scholars of the chilly struggle, American background and the trendy heart East.
Read or Download The Secret War in Afghanistan: The Soviet Union, China and Anglo-American Intelligence in the Afghan War PDF
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Additional info for The Secret War in Afghanistan: The Soviet Union, China and Anglo-American Intelligence in the Afghan War
Example text
The Soviet troop transfers were concentrated on the capital in order to defend the city from outside attack. The reinforcement of the defence of Kabul hinted that other Russian units might be dispatched to deal with the rebels. The Afghan army had suffered from Amin’s coup, and earlier from mutinies. Very few Afghan troops carried arms; they would not be able to fight the rebel forces. The Soviets ran the risk of being called upon to do so themselves, when ‘they would find themselves in the same sort of stalemate as the Amin government’.
Besides, Afghanistan could not necessarily be turned into a Soviet Vietnam; there were scant similarities between the Afghan guerrillas, who were ‘badly organised and poorly led’, and the North Vietnamese. 55 Throughout the summer of 1979, in embassy receptions in Kabul and in private meetings, Soviet diplomats made it clear to their Western counterparts that they were unhappy with Taraki and Amin – particularly the latter – and would welcome new leaders to replace them. The current regime was responsible for inflaming the civil war with their excessive reforms.
62 But the director was as yet unaware that another coup had taken place in Kabul that same day. indd 18 6/6/2013 6:58:33 PM A FGHAN FEUDS AND SECRET INTELLIGENCE 19 teams left Kandahar in early 1978, discontinuing the building of a local hospital. In Bagram the construction of a textile factory was also abandoned; the same happened with an irrigation system in Parvan which China had undertaken to build. 64 But Beijing was seriously contemplating backing the Mujahedeen. indd 19 6/6/2013 6:58:33 PM 2 WRONG ESTIM ATES AND THE INVASION On 10 September 1979, Taraki met Brezhnev and Gromyko in Moscow.