Product details

This case tells the story of one of the most successful, yet internally and externally controversial, episodes in the history of the U.S. intelligence services. Its focus: CIA support for rebels seeking, in the mid-1980s, to topple the Soviet-backed regime in Afghanistan. It describes a pitched internal debate between analysts and their outside allies who favor intervention and others within the Agency who are reluctant to undertake it. Advocates of covert action believe the U.S. is in a position--particularly by potentially delivering advanced Stinger missiles to the rebels--to help deliver a decisive blow against the Soviet Union, and its client regime. Those who are reluctant fear that because Stingers might be so clearly traced to the U.S., such intervention could spark a major confrontation and jeopardize other intelligence work and operatives. This powerfully-written case uses unprecedented access to key players to tell the story of how the CIA ultimately chose covert action and helped hasten the fall of the Soviet Union, as Afghanistan turned out to be one of the last stages in the Cold War. Well-suited for discussion of both foreign policy in the Cold War era and the dynamics of behind-the-scenes and advocacy and internal decision-making.