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The Soviet Withdrawal From Afghanistan

Edited by Amin Saikal and William Maley
Reviewed by By John C. Campbell
Winter 1989/90
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Edited by Amin Saikal and William Maley
Cambridge University Press
1989
177 pp.

While it is still too early for a full-fledged study of the Soviet withdrawal and what it means, this book written largely by Australian scholars serves very well as a guide to where things stood at the time of the Geneva accords of 1988 and the beginning of the withdrawal of Soviet troops. The book provides many keys to an understanding of coming developments as they unfold. On the subject of Soviet motivations and how the decision to pull out was reached, much still remains to be learned.

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