SOVIET INVASION OF AFGHANISTAN A CASE OF MISSION CREEP, ACCORDING TO NEW BOOK AND ORIGINAL SOVIET DOCUMENTS

THE DEAD END PUBLISHED IN ENGLISH FOR THE FIRST TIME

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 396

Posted - October 13, 2012
Edited by Svetlana Savranskaya and Malcolm Byrne
For more information contact:
Svetlana Savranskaya - 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu

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Washington, DC, October 13, 2012 – Contrary to U.S. myths of a strategic Soviet offensive towards warm water ports on the Persian Gulf or Indian Ocean, it was "mission creep" that led the Soviet Union into its ill-fated invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, according to a new, richly documented