He watched Gen. Boris V. Gromov, commander of the Soviet troops, step into the embrace of his wife. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had signed a peace deal with Afghanistan nearly a year earlier. Even if the Soviet misadventure in Afghanistan would henceforth always be known as their Vietnam. “Some people made a Cold War win out of it,” continues Elms, of the Soviet extraction from a self-created dilemma. Astonishing to appreciate how the 40th Army could pull out upward of 100,000 troops without Afghanistan immediately collapsing.

Source: thestar August 16, 2021 22:30 UTC