ABSTRACT
The significance of Afghanistan's growing accessibility to the Soviet Union was, however, overlooked until 1979, when the Soviet invasion revealed just how close the two countries had become. The easy accessibility of Afghanistan via the modern transport facilities of Central Asia not only changed the range of viable options for the Soviet Union; it also increased the feasibility of more direct involvement in Afghanistan's affairs. The construction of railroads through Afghanistan, which the Soviets seemed to have undertaken at one point, would be a costly and formidable engineering enterprise in the rugged terrain of the Hindu Kush, but it would certainly pay off as the chief long-haul carrier in both the Soviet Union and South Asia. In Greater Central Asia—that is, in the nations of Afghanistan and Iran and in the Muslim republics of Soviet Central Asia—changes are taking place that must be examined over a longer period than many social scientists like to deal with.
