Word: buzkashi
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...policymakers left Afghanistan largely out of their geopolitical calculations, implicitly conceding it to the Soviet sphere of influence. When Henry Kissinger stopped off in Kabul to show the flag for a few hours in 1974, he spent almost as much time watching buzkashi, a primitive and violent form of polo, as he did talking business with President Mohammed Daoud. Says a veteran of the Nixon and Ford Administrations: "We had no illusions that the Afghans would or could defy Moscow. They were more Finlandized than the Finns...