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    The Great Gamble: The Soviet War in Afghanistan
    The Great Gamble: The Soviet War in Afghanistan
    The Great Gamble: The Soviet War in Afghanistan
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Great Gamble: The Soviet War in Afghanistan

    Written by Gregory Feifer

    Narrated by Robertson Dean

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    The Soviet war in Afghanistan was a grueling debacle that has striking lessons for American foreign policy today. In The Great Gamble, Gregory Feifer examines the war from the perspective of the soldiers on the ground. During the last years of the Cold War, the Soviet Union sent some of its most elite troops to unfamiliar lands in Central Asia to fight a vaguely defined enemy, which eventually defeated their superior number with unconventional tactics. Although the Soviet leadership initially saw the invasion as a victory, many Russian soldiers came to view the war as a demoralizing and devastating defeat, the consequences of which had a substantial impact on the Soviet Union and its collapse.

    Feifer's extensive research includes fascinating interviews with participants from both sides of the conflict. In gripping detail, he vividly depicts the invasion of a volatile country that no power has ever successfully conquered. Parallels between the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq are impossible to ignore: Both conflicts were waged amid vague ideological rhetoric about freedom. Both were roundly condemned by the outside world for trying to impose their favored forms of government on countries with very different ways of life. And both seem destined to end on uncertain terms. The Great Gamble tells an unforgettable story full of drama, action, and political intrigue whose relevance in our own time is greater than ever.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJan 20, 2009
    ISBN9781400180578

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    Reviews for The Great Gamble

    4.5/5

    43 ratings4 reviews

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    • 4/5
      The big bad Russian bear gets its ass whipped by an underestimated opponent and American military hardware. A good book. Most people have no clue about Russia’s ordeal in Afghanistan.
    • 4/5
      The story of the communist takeover and later occupation of Afghanistan told mainly from the Russian perspective. It goes into the political factors in both countries and has a lot of examples of Rusdian war actions. The author sketches the disaster of the war well. You end up wondering if anyone in the US government had read it before they invaded Afghanistan.
    • 4/5
      A quick and entertaining read. More of a collection of war stories from the Soviet expedition into Afghanistan than the title would suggest. Feifer's backgrounding is most suitable for those unfamiliar with the subject. While it risks losing information in generalizations, it manages to keep up with the rest of the book's pace. The ending seemed hurried with only already expected conclusions presented.There were two prominent drawbacks. The first is that the CIA's role is delegated to that of sideline mention as part of aid contributors to the mujahideen along with China, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Operation Cyclone is not even mentioned by name and Feifer presents confusing goals for US foreign policy towards the Soviet invasion. The second being Feifer's ideological tilt towards "the free world".
    • 5/5
      Its impossible to read this book and not see similarities in our own invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. This book in its own right and its own subject matter is an incredibly informative and easy to read book on the Soviet involvement, invasion, and occupation of Afghanistan. The book flows excellently from each subject and transitions easily from political, world, and individual accounts. Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and sadly it would appear that those who orchestrated the Coalition invasion of Afghanistan didnt bother to read up on their Soviet history.