Word: afghanistan
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...have been less so: Nikita Khrushchev decided that John Kennedy would be a pushover after meeting him in Vienna in 1961 and a year later began installing nuclear missiles in Cuba; just six months after Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev embraced in Vienna in 1979, Soviet tanks rolled into Afghanistan. Summitry is obviously a risky venture, but after four standoffish years, President Reagan is now eager to follow the practice of his eight predecessors...
...Half a world away, in Afghanistan, the Soviet Union faces what is frequently, though simplistically, called its own Viet Nam: a made-in-Moscow clique is holed up in Kabul; caravans of Soviet-supplied armor venture forth by day into hostile hinterlands as helicopter gunships and bombers conduct a bloody pacification campaign, complete with carpet bombing. The U.S. is aiding the mujahedin rebels to the tune of many millions of dollars a year...
...guerrilla movements in which the U.S. is most involved, in Nicaragua and Afghanistan, may both be approaching turning points. The civil wars there have indeed succeeded in softening up the Soviets and their local comrades. The regimes in Managua and Kabul, while not crying uncle, are clearly hurting and may even be looking for a negotiated compromise. The rebels, while not about to win, are not about to surrender either. Soon the U.S., as their principal backer, may have to decide on the next step...
...application of direct U.S. military pressure is simply not feasible in Afghanistan; there are already some 115,000 Soviet troops there. Also, the Kremlin can fight fire with fire: most covert American aid to the mujahedin is channeled through Pakistan, a country that is painfully susceptible to "destabilization" by the Soviet Union. Logistically, it is easier to contemplate the introduction of U.S. combat troops into Central America, but the political obstacles there are considerable. Congress has made it clear that it opposes U.S. military intervention in the region...
...overland link between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan, the Salang Highway is the primary resupply artery for the 115,000 Soviet troops battling mujahedin resistance fighters in Afghanistan. Three and a half years ago, hundreds of Soviet soldiers were said to have perished inside the highway's 1.7-mile-long tunnel through the Hindu Kush mountains, following a collision of vehicles in a military convoy. Last week Western diplomatic sources reported that the same area was the scene of a bloody new calamity for Soviet and Afghanistan government forces...