Days of Opportunity

Autorentext
Robert B. Rakove is a lecturer in international relations at Stanford University. He is the author of Kennedy, Johnson, and the Nonaligned World (2012).

Klappentext
Robert B. Rakove sheds new light on the little-known and often surprising history of U.S. engagement in Afghanistan from the 1920s to the 1979 Soviet invasion, tracing its evolution and exploring its lasting consequences.

Zusammenfassung
Long before the 1979 Soviet invasion, the United States was closely concerned with Afghanistan. For much of the twentieth century, American diplomats, policy makers, businesspeople, and experts took part in the Afghan struggle to modernize, delivered vital aid, and involved themselves in Kabul's conflicts with its neighbors. For their own part, many Afghans embraced the potential benefits of political and commercial ties with the United States. Yet these relationships ultimately helped make the country a Cold War battleground.

Robert B. Rakove sheds new light on the little-known and often surprising history of U.S. engagement in Afghanistan from the 1920s to the Soviet invasion, tracing its evolution and exploring its lasting consequences. Days of Opportunity chronicles the battle for influence in Kabul, as Americans contended with vigorous communist bloc competition and the independent ambitions of successive Afghan governments. Rakove examines the phases of peaceful Cold War competition, including development assistance, cultural diplomacy, and disaster relief. He demonstrates that Americans feared the loss of Afghanistan to Soviet influenceand were never simply bystanders, playing pivotal roles in the country's political life. The ensuing collision of U.S., Soviet, and Afghan ambitions transformed the countryand ultimately led it, and the world, toward calamity.

Harnessing extensive research in U.S. and international archives, Days of Opportunity unveils the remarkable and tragic history of American involvement in Afghanistan.

Inhalt
Notes for the Reader
Introduction: A Day of Opportunity
1. A Game of Hide-and-Seek: The Afghan Pursuit of Diplomatic Relations, 19211938
2. We Have a Rare Opportunity: U.S.-Afghan Relations Amid the World Crisis, 19381945
3. Preeminence and Peril: The American Influx and the Coming of the Afghan Cold War, 19451952
4. We Might Be Willing to Take a Chance: The Choice to Contest Afghanistan, 19531956
5. Anxious Coexistence: The Aid Contest, 19561959
6. The Crisis Era, 19591963
7. Reform and Retrenchment, 19631968
8. The Fall of the Monarchy, 19681973
9. Return to Engagement, 19731976
10. The End of Diplomacy, 19771979
Conclusion: Into the Jaws of Catastrophe
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Notes
List of Archives
Index

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