Soviet War in Afghanistan - Mujahideen, Civil War in Afghanistan, List of Soviet Aircraft Losses in Afghanistan, CIA-Osama Bin Laden Controversy, (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 31. Chapters: Mujahideen, Civil war in Afghanistan, List of Soviet aircraft losses in Afghanistan, CIA-Osama bin Laden controversy, Badaber Uprising, White Tights, Makhtab al-Khidmat, Soviet troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, Peshawar Air Station, Sharafat Kuh Front, Dawa'a al-Jihad. Excerpt: The Soviet war in Afghanistan was a nine-year conflict involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist-Leninist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan against the Afghan Mujahideen and foreign "Arab-Afghan" volunteers. The mujahideen found military and financial support from a variety of sources including the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, Egypt, China and other nations. The Afghan war became a proxy war in the broader context of the late Cold War. The initial Soviet deployment of the 40th Army in Afghanistan began on December 24, 1979 under Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev. The final troop withdrawal started on May 15, 1988, and ended on February 15, 1989 under the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Due to the interminable nature of the war, the conflict in Afghanistan has sometimes been referred to as the "Soviet Union's Vietnam War." The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan was formed after the Saur Revolution on 27 April 1978. The government was one with a pro-poor, pro-farmer and socialistic agenda. It had close relations with the Soviet Union. On 5 December 1978 a friendship treaty was signed with the Soviet Union. On July 3, 1979 United States President Jimmy Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. The aim of the U.S. was to drag the Soviet Union into the "Afghan trap" as U.S. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski termed it. Russian military involvement in Afghanistan has a long history, going back to Tsarist expansions...