Afghanistan And The Soviet Union (1953-1979), Relations Between The Two Countries

Afghanistan is "almost in the center of the Asia continent", and its geographical position has great strategic significance. So Afghanistan has been the competed target and stage of great powers.In the period of the cold war, the two powers -America and Soviet-had been competing all over the world, including Afghanistan. Soviet wanted to control Afghanistan completely. Facing the pressure from Soviet, what policies can Afghanistan take and how about Afghan-Soviet relations? I believe it must be investigated. As for the relations between Afghanistan and Soviet, the year of 1953 was a turning point. Before that year, their relations were cold; while with Daoud' s holding power in 1953, their bilateral relations developed rapidly because Daoud pursued a policy of pro-Soviet. Soviet provided a great amount of economic and military aid for Afghanistan. However, this kind of relation was broken off when King Zahir himself was in power directly in 1963. The King reduced the reliance on Soviet, actively developed the relation with the western countries. Compared with the previous phase, Afghanistan- Soviet relation cooled. In 1973, under the support of the Soviet Union, Daoud and the officers of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan staged a coup d'etati. Daoud came to power again. Because of having recognized the true face of the Soviet, Afghanistan adjusted its foreign policy, no longer took a pro-Soviet policy, but developed the relations with the western and neighboring countries. Therefore, Afghanistan-Soviet relations was affected and gradually deteriorated. Once Daoud administration had became an obstacle to Soviet's interests in Afghanistan, his regime was overthrown. From 1978 to 1979, the regime in Afghanistan changed frequently; Amin's pro-western policy caused the invasion of Soviet. With the accumulation of more than two decades, Soviet had had ability to affect the political situation of Afghanistan. On the base of many scholar's research, the author tries to study completely and systematically Afghan-Soviet relations from 1953 to 1979. It can enrich the study of cold war. And tell us how to deal with China-Afghanistan relations.