LEADER 03973nam 2200709 a 450 001 9910452719203321 005 20200520144314.0 010 $a0-674-06104-7 024 7 $a10.4159/harvard.9780674061040 035 $a(CKB)2550000001039403 035 $a(EBL)3301254 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000860459 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11441001 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000860459 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10897355 035 $a(PQKB)10205058 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3301254 035 $a(DE-B1597)178235 035 $a(OCoLC)1013963976 035 $a(OCoLC)1037979673 035 $a(OCoLC)1041992873 035 $a(OCoLC)1046613091 035 $a(OCoLC)1047012253 035 $a(OCoLC)1049658335 035 $a(OCoLC)1054866187 035 $a(OCoLC)840444606 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780674061040 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3301254 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10678685 035 $a(OCoLC)835787969 035 $a(EXLCZ)992550000001039403 100 $a20101130d2011 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurcn||||||||| 181 $ctxt$2rdacontent 182 $cc$2rdamedia 183 $acr$2rdacarrier 200 12$aA long goodbye$b[electronic resource] $ethe Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan /$fArtemy M. Kalinovsky 210 $aCambridge, Mass. $cHarvard University Press$d2011 215 $a1 online resource (304 pages) $cillustrations, maps 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 0 $a0-674-05866-6 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $aThe reluctant intervention -- The turn toward diplomacy -- Gorbachev confronts Afghanistan -- The national reconciliation campaign -- Engaging with the Americans -- The Army withdraws and the Politburo debates -- Soviet policy adrift. 330 $aThe conflict in Afghanistan looms large in the collective consciousness of Americans. What has the United States achieved, and how will it withdraw without sacrificing those gains? The Soviet Union confronted these same questions in the 1980's, and Artemy Kalinovsky's history of the USSR's nine-year struggle to extricate itself from Afghanistan and bring its troops home provides a sobering perspective on exit options in the region. What makes Kalinovsky's intense account both timely and important is its focus not on motives for initiating the conflict but on the factors that prevented the Soviet leadership from ending a demoralizing war. Why did the USSR linger for so long, given that key elites recognized the blunder of the mission shortly after the initial deployment? Newly available archival material, supplemented by interviews with major actors, allows Kalinovsky to reconstruct the fierce debates among Soviet diplomats, KGB officials, the Red Army, and top Politburo figures. The fear that withdrawal would diminish the USSR's status as leader of the Third World is palpable in these disagreements, as are the competing interests of Afghan factions and the Soviet Union's superpower rival in the West. This book challenges many widely held views about the actual costs of the conflict to the Soviet leadership, and its findings illuminate the Cold War context of a military engagement that went very wrong, for much too long. 606 $aDisengagement (Military science)$vCase studies 607 $aSoviet Union$xForeign relations$zAfghanistan 607 $aAfghanistan$xForeign relations$zSoviet Union 607 $aAfghanistan$xHistory$ySoviet occupation, 1979-1989 607 $aSoviet Union$xForeign relations$y1975-1985 607 $aSoviet Union$xForeign relations$y1985-1991 608 $aElectronic books. 615 0$aDisengagement (Military science) 676 $a958.104/5 700 $aKalinovsky$b Artemy M$0951340 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910452719203321 996 $aA long goodbye$92448816 997 $aUNINA