What was behind the Soviet decision in December 1979 to invade Afghanistan? And why did Mikhail Gorbachev pull out Soviet troops 10 years later? What was the role of the U.S. covert assistance program, in particular the Stinger missiles? What role did CIA intelligence play? These were just some of the questions behind a major international conference organized in April by the Wilson Center's COLD WAR INTERNATIONAL HISTORY PROJECT (CWIHP) in cooperation with the Center's ASIA PROGRAM and KENNAN INSTITUTE, George Washington University's Cold War Group, and the National Security Archive. Designed as a "critical oral history" conference, the discussions centered on newly released and translated U.S., Russian, Bulgarian, German, Czech, and Hungarian documents on the war. Conference participants included former Soviet officials and National Security Council (NSC), State Department, and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials from the Carter, Bush, and Reagan administrations, as well as scholarly experts from around the world.

Dr. Stephen Corber, Director of Disease Prevention and Control Division for the Pan American Health Organization, and Regional Office of the World Health Organization; George C. Fidas, Intelligence Officer-in-Residence at The George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs.