Union College Union | Digital Works Honors Theses Student Work 6-2012 The Afghan-Soviet War: The .SU . and its Covert Cold War Alexander Cooper Union College - Schenectady, NY Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses Part of the Near and Middle Eastern Studies Commons, and the Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies Commons Recommended Citation Cooper, Alexander, "The Afghan-Soviet War: The .SU . and its Covert Cold War" (2012). Honors Theses. 792. https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses/792 This Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Work at Union | Digital Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Union | Digital Works. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. The Afghan-Soviet War: The U.S. and its Covert Cold War By Alexander C. Cooper * * * * * * * * * Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Honors in the Department of History UNION COLLEGE June, 2012 INTRODUCTION The country of Afghanistan, bordering Pakistan in the southeast, Iran in the west, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in the north, and China in the northeast, is home to over 20 million ethnically and religiously diverse people. Afghanistan is an Islamic country divided into several tribal based groups, which follow a variety of political and religious customs and traditions. Although considered an “Islamic Republic” today, or a government representative of all people, in actuality, the nation’s central government consists of the most powerful tribal groups and fighting factions in the country. Located in the center of Asia and the Middle East, the country has long been a key geostrategic location for the international community.