Gregory Feifer - The Great Gamble; The Soviet War in Afghanistan (2009).jpg

Feifer’s account of the Soviet Union’s 1979 invasion and 10-year occupation of Afghanistan from 1979–89 builds on considerable original research and on Russian-language histories not available in English. Emphasizing the experiences of Soviet personnel sent to Afghanistan, Feifer portrays their war within the context of political and military decisions that led to their fighting in Afghanistan. The actual decision by Soviet leaders to invade was, as far as Feifer can discover, a muddle. It came after the Communist government in Kabul, unable to quash violent resistance to its program, split apart in bloody factional fighting. But by staging a coup to install their stooge Babrak Karmal in power, the Soviets took the war into their own hands and escalated it accordingly. Their major offensives, acording to Feifer, never delivered a strategic victory, though they tended to prevail in individual battles depicted in the stories of several Soviet officers and soldiers. Tracing the arc of the Soviets’ military disillusionment in Afghanistan, Feifer, who is an NPR reporter in Moscow, provides essential historical background to the present war in Afghanistan. --Gilbert Taylor