Originally Posted by CyberSEO

You can call it as you want, but it's a true. In contrast to Vietnam, the Soviet mission in Afghanistan has never been a full-scale war for Russia. We had no mobilization here like you have in the States (surprised?) Only a so-called limited contingent of Russian army was involved. Technically it was just a military counter-terror operation just like the anti-radical Islamic one we have on North Caucasus today. The USSR has controlled about 99% of Afghanistan in 1989 when Gorbachev decided to left Germany (Eastern Berlin) and Afghanistan alone to show the West that has has got no knife behind his back.