The Soviet withdrawal from Afganistan has been largely attributed to the bravery of the Afghan resistance reinforced by American weaponry and support. This book shows how it was infact years of persistent United Nations initiatives that proved crucial to the conclusion of the Geneva accords, and that the ideological hard line of the Reagan administration prolonged the conflict.

Diego Cordovez, the United Nations mediator for the Afghanistan conflict, and prominent foreign policy analyst Selig Harrison have written the definitive account of the negotiations that helped end the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the last great clash of the cold war.