Afghanistan 1979, la guerre qui a changé le monde

40 years ago, in December 1979, Soviet troops entered Afghanistan. This was a pivotal event in the history of the 20th century; it launched Bin Laden and Al Qaeda…It was the war that changed the world. Thanks to the release of hitherto secret archives that are tallied with testimonies of protagonists from all sides (Mikhail Gorbachev speaks for the first time on the Afghanistan invasion for ex.), the film offers an unprecedented reading of history and an understanding of how we have come to such a confrontational standoff between the Muslim and the Western worlds… Western countries refer to it as ‘The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan’. For the Russians it was an operation with a ‘limited contingent’ of armed forces. Despite its “limits”, the war lasted ten years and played a key role in the collapse of the Soviet Union. It would be the final conflict of the Cold War, and the first in a long war that is far from over. Reflecting on this particular chapter in contemporary history, we deliberately focus on events from the side of the ‘invading’ Soviets. (Point du Jour)