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The Great Gamble
- The Soviet War in Afghanistan
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
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Publisher's summary
Feifer's extensive research includes fascinating interviews with participants from both sides of the conflict.
In gripping detail, he vividly depicts the invasion of a volatile country that no power has ever successfully conquered. Parallels between the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq are impossible to ignore: Both conflicts were waged amid vague ideological rhetoric about freedom. Both were roundly condemned by the outside world for trying to impose their favored forms of government on countries with very different ways of life. And both seem destined to end on uncertain terms. The Great Gamble tells an unforgettable story full of drama, action, and political intrigue whose relevance in our own time is greater than ever.
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Drawing on hundreds of accounts by soldiers, politicians, aid workers, entertainers and the Vietnamese people, Paul Ham reconstructs for the first time the full history of our longest military campaign. From the commitment to engage, through the fight over conscription and the rise of the anti - war movement, to the tactics and horror of the battlefi eld, Ham exhumes the truth about this politicians' war - which sealed the fate of 50,000 Australian servicemen and women.
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Fascinating detailed account
- By Alan T Alcock on 04-21-09
By: Paul Ham
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Otto Skorzeny
- The Devil’s Disciple
- By: Stuart Smith
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny became a legend in his own time. "Hitler's favorite commando" acquired a reputation as a man of daring, renowned for his audacious 1943 mission to extricate Mussolini from a mountain-top prison. He could be brave and resourceful, but was also a notorious egoist and an unrepentant Nazi until the end of his life. Stuart Smith draws on years of in-depth research to uncover the truth about Skorzeny's career and complex personality.
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Balanced and fascinating story of Skorzeny
- By MortonC on 04-14-19
By: Stuart Smith
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Why We Lost
- A General's Inside Account of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars
- By: Daniel Bolger
- Narrated by: Steve Coulter
- Length: 20 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Over a 35-year career, Daniel Bolger rose through the army infantry to become a three-star general, commanding in both theaters of the U.S. campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. He participated in meetings with top-level military and civilian players, where strategy was made and managed. At the same time, he regularly carried a rifle alongside rank-and-file soldiers in combat actions - unusual for a general.
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An apolitical account of our recent wars.
- By DMgraphicGlass on 04-07-15
By: Daniel Bolger
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Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs
- The Unknown Story of World War II's OSS
- By: Patrick K. O'Donnell
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
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"A revealing look into the intrigue and extraordinary courage of our intelligence gatherers of World War II. A rare combination of suspense thriller and true heroism by a great American writer." (Clive Cussler, New York Times best-selling author)
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Great book...
- By Nicholas G. on 05-11-05
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Last Hope Island
- Britain, Occupied Europe, and the Brotherhood That Helped Turn the Tide of War
- By: Lynne Olson
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey, Kimberly Farr
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A groundbreaking account of how Britain became the base of operations for the exiled leaders of Europe in their desperate struggle to reclaim their continent from Hitler, from the New York Times best-selling author of Citizens of London and Those Angry Days.
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Not What I Expected--More What I Needed to Know
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The Burning Shores
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The death of Colonel Muammar Qadhafi freed Libya from 42 years of despotic rule, raising hopes for a new era. But in the aftermath, the country descended into bitter rivalries and civil war, paving the way for the Islamic State and a catastrophic migrant crisis. In a fast-paced narrative that blends frontline reporting, analysis, and history, Frederic Wehrey tells the story of what went wrong.
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amazing yet painful book
- By Ghassan Tranesh on 09-20-18
By: Frederic Wehrey
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Masters of Chaos
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- By: Linda Robinson
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins
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Special Forces soldiers are daring, seasoned troops from America's heartland, selected in a tough competition and trained in an extraordinary range of skills. They know foreign languages and cultures and unconventional warfare better than any US fighters, and while they prefer to stay out of the limelight, veteran war correspondent Linda Robinson gained access to their closed world. She traveled with them on the frontlines, interviewed them at length on their home bases, and studied their doctrine, methods, and history.
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Story of Special Forces
- By Austin Pearson on 02-28-18
By: Linda Robinson
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Donovan's Devils
- OSS Commandos Behind Enemy Lines - Europe, World War II
- By: Albert Lulushi
- Narrated by: Noah Michael Levine
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
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The OSS - Office of Strategic Services - created under the command of William Donovan, has been celebrated for its cloak-and-dagger operations during World War II and as the precursor of the CIA. As the "Oh So Social", it has also been portrayed as a club for the well-connected before, during, and after the war.
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Unique Look
- By Darren Sapp on 03-09-17
By: Albert Lulushi
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Cobra II
- The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq
- By: Michael R. Gordon, Bernard E. Trainor
- Narrated by: Craig Wasson
- Length: 25 hrs and 3 mins
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Unimpeachably sourced, Cobra II describes how the American rush to Baghdad provided the opportunity for the virulent insurgency that followed. The brutal aftermath in Iraq was not inevitable and was a surprise to the generals on both sides; Cobra II provides the first authoritative account as to why. It is a book of enduring importance and incisive analysis, a comprehensive account of the most reported yet least understood war in American history.
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Informative military account of the War in Iraq
- By Graham on 09-02-07
By: Michael R. Gordon, and others
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In the Ruins of Empire
- By: Ronald Spector
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
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Americans are accustomed to thinking that World War II ended on August 14, 1945, when the Japanese surrendered unconditionally. Yet on the mainland of Asia, in the vast arc stretching from Manchuria to Burma, peace was a brief, fretful interlude. In some parts of Asia, such as Java and Southern Indonesia, only a few weeks passed before new fighting broke out between nationalist forces and the former colonial powers.
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Informative, but not an engrossing listen
- By S on 02-19-08
By: Ronald Spector
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Nazi Germany expected its airborne attack on Crete in 1941 to be a textbook victory based on tactical surprise. Little did they know that the British, using Ultra intercepts, had already laid a careful trap. It should have been the first German defeat of the war, but a fatal misunderstanding turned the battle around.
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In 1945, the Soviet Union controlled half of Europe and was a founding member of the United Nations. By 1991, it had an army four million strong, 5,000 nuclear-tipped missiles, and was the second biggest producer of oil in the world. But soon afterward, the union sank into an economic crisis and was torn apart by nationalist separatism. Its collapse was one of the seismic shifts of the 20th century.
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Disturbing. Makes you question the company line.
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What listeners say about The Great Gamble
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Alan
- 01-14-11
Excellent book
I listened to this book while working out on my treadmill. It provided an interesting behind the scenes look at the before/during/after the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. The book also provides insight on the Kremlin and the CIA thinking during the occupation. I highly recommend this book to those who enjoy this subject matter.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Ash
- 07-17-20
Well Done
Superb book well researched that is very readable and brilliantly narrated. Well worth the credit.
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- WCHBlok
- 11-29-21
Very good
This is my first book on the Soviet-Afghan War and I really enjoyed it. Maybe not quite as long or as detailed as I hoped for, but I thought it laid out the major players in a clear and concise way, covered a lot of the bigger events/operations and also went to the micro level with the experiences of some individual Soviet soldiers, both officers and enlisted. Was not aware of how much of an absolute shambles the war was from a Soviet perspective in terms of poorly-trained, poorly-supplied conscripts with some terrible leadership down at the NCO level, the amount of drug and alcohol abuse and rampant theft and black market dealing. I’ve always heard it was the Soviets’ Vietnam, but in my opinion this was way worse (from a performance/execution level, not even referring to any moral arguments).
I thought the narrator did a good job. He has a very nice voice and I appreciated the fact that he didn’t attempt accents/impressions like a lot of other narrators have done on other books.
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- John
- 03-09-20
Great treatment of a neglected subject
Great treatment of a neglected subject ... goes into the Soviet motivation and events after
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Overall
- Alyssa B. Goss
- 11-22-09
Correction
I have to say I can't figure out what the previous reviewer is talking about. The total amount of time spent discussing America in this book doesn't total more than 15 minutes. There is one sentence in the introduction and a brief section in the epilogue. If such broad comparisons such as "America and Russia underestimated the power of tribal loyalty in Afghanistan" strikes you as dangerously liberal you need to avoid reading books in general, not just this one. Any other comparisons between the US and USSR have to be made by the listener. I wonder if possibly they mixed this book up with another book (which I haven't read but I've seen it around) called The Gamble, which is about the US war in Afghanistan. This seems more than likely to me.
I found this book to be informative. The time-line however was very difficult to follow, the scenes in the book tend to skip around. Other than that I found the narrative style to be clear and entertaining.
My only other complaint is that the narrator (who I have encountered before) reads everything in a kind of droning rumble. It takes a good hour to learn to decipher one of his words from another. I often found myself skipping back to re-listen to sections to figure out what he'd said.
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- philip
- 09-20-18
The Soviet Vietnam
Although written by an American, this story is told largely through the eyes of Soviet soldiers and officers. It it this more sympathetic towards the Russians than one might imagine. That said, it doesn't spare anybody from the stupidity of decisions and cruelty towards the people. Again, like the American experience in Vietnam. The anecdotes from participants are quite interesting, poignant and sometimes funny. In short, I could put this audiobook down. Robertson Dean does an excellent job too.
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- Matthew
- 07-14-23
Superb and relevant history
Not gonna lie, I decided on this book after starting to play Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. This game is set during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and I wanted to have some better background on that setting.
Feifer's book is both comprehensive and accessible. it gives a great overview of the invasion--from its inception to the Soviet withdrawal and the aftermath--without becoming tedious.
Feifer presents several major characters on various sides of the conflict, and he does a good job of balancing the macro and the micro. We see how the struggles of individual Soviet soldiers and Mjuahideen fit into the bigger picture of the conflict. This makes it concrete and detailed without devolving into tedium.
Read (or listen) to this book for key insights into how rural and remote Afghanistan managed to stymie major world powers like the USSR and the USA
Robertson Dean's narration is solid throughout.
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- Chris Hummel
- 06-29-24
Fascinating and Humanizing History
This fascinating history not only points to, but effectively demonstrates, the distinct parallels between Soviet and American military interventions into this troubled and complex country. While never failing to note Soviet military brutality (and that of its Afghan allied government), one of the book's most effective contributions is to show ordinary Soviet and their opposition as ordinary soldier engaged in a tremendously difficult ordeal. As the author notes, despite differences in tone and stated purpose, there was little to distinguish the wrong-headedness and ultimate futility of Soviet efforts to institute or support a Soviet-styled communist system in Afghanistan from American efforts to set up a liberal democracy. We would have done well to heed the lessons of the Soviet efforts of the late 1970s and 1980s before plunging into our own intervention (still in progress when the book was published) into the Afghan maelstrom. Both countries would have done even better to consult the longer history of the region going back for centuries, showing that while it might be easy to enter (or even briefly dominate) Afghanistan, it is next to impossible to stay or hold on to one's gains. I hope the people of this blood soaked region might one day find the peace and ability to live with one another that has so long eluded them.
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-15-21
Based/Redpilled
This is truly a Based/Redpilled book and you should read it if you like swallowing dust and drinking SU-25 radar coolant
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- Haakon B. Dahl
- 03-15-21
Worth it!
An American, I have deployed twice to Afghanistan. We were surrounded by the remnants and ruins of the evil Soviet invasion, and worked to demonstrate the difference. Yet one man is more or less like another, and the Russians who preceded us learned lessons that we would have to learn as well, and Afghans of various convictions were still the home team whereas we, like the Soviets, were just visiting.
This book treats all involved fairly, and despite being somewhat out of date (2009) in 2021, it remains a valuable building block for an understanding of the (relatively) deep history of current events.
Robertson Dean narrates with an even and accessible style. A bit dry, but it’s not a romance. The narration is well-suited to the work, and the writing is worth your time.
The book brings to life much of what was only rust and dust to those of us living the aftermath (again) in real-time.
In India I was struck by how many times I heard “this was built by the British before they left”. In Afghanistan the refrain is “this was destroyed by the Russians before they left”. The USSR thoroughly destroyed Afghanistan in a way that bears a wicked fruit to this day. Their armies were composed of saints and devils, like any army. Their misguidance was worse than ours, yet at the same time, we should have learned from their experience many things that it seems we had to absorb the hard way, if it all. And the “war” continues.
I have Afghan friends now living in America, and I have American friends who died in Afghanistan. This book has been valuable to me in opening up the story of those who went before us, regardless of ideology, of alignment, of station in life and so on and so forth.
“5 of 5. Recommend”
Pardon me, I should have focused more on the book. Please allow my tale to illustrate the value I took from this book and its narration.
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