Radio War Nerd EP #99 — Soviet-Afghan War (Patreon)

With Trump re-surging in Afghanistan, in America's longest war ever, the War Nerd and Ames look back at the Soviet experience in the 1980s and dispel some  myths. The Soviet war in Afghanistan was not as devastating as has been popularly claimed, and it did not cause the USSR to collapse. And wars can go on for as long as leaders want them to and as long as the money press keeps pumping, unless there's organized political pushback.

* Soviet invasion map:

*Afghanistan ethnic map, 1985:

* Afghan Communist president Taraki (center) with Brezhnev (right) and Gromyko (left). Taraki's execution by hothead Khalq goon Hafizullah Amin convinced Brezhnev that a Soviet invasion was a smart idea.

*Hafizullah Amin

* Russian woman serving in Afghanistan

* Mujahideen anti-Communist propaganda 

* Bill Casey's BFF

* "Afganskii Syndrome" (1988) written by Soviet Siberian punk group Instruktsiya po Vizhivaniu, performed by Grazhdanskaya Oborona

Total time: 2:38:13

Direct link to this episode's mp3 here