Over the past 35 years, the opening of formerly closed archives and the growth of oral history collections have induced scholars to devote fresh attention to the Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989). Although recent historiography situates that conflict against the background of prior Afghan and Cold War history, it does so only in passing. Often, it seems that it is only with the Communist coup of April 1978 that Afghanistan entered the Cold War and attracted the attention of the world. The pre-1978 period is too often written off as a preamble to that crisis.
In Days of Opportunity, Robert B. Rakove fills this historiographical gap by studying U.S.–Afghan relations from the 1920s to the eve of the Soviet–Afghan War. He tells a fascinating story of rapprochement and friction in the relationship between Washington and Kabul, showing how Afghanistan remained at the center of great powers’ competition during the entire period....