The Great Game in Afghanistan: Rajiv Gandhi, General Zia, and the Unending War, by Kallol Bhattacherjee

A journalist by profession, Kallol Bhattacherjee has written extensively on South Asian affairs and on conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa. In writing The Great Game in Afghanistan, he has researched extensively into the personal records of John Gunther, who was the United States (US) Ambassador to India between 1985 and 1988. The author was also fortunate to be able to hold extensive interviews with Gunther post-2014 with Ambassador Ronen Sen, who was Rajiv Gandhi’s diplomatic aide in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) during this crucial period. He has also researched many other sources, especially after 2014 when the National Archives of the US were declassified, and became available to him. For personal reasons, John Gunther had maintained a very detailed and systematic record of various personal and official exchanges and stored them in a private library in his retirement home in Paris. To this, the author was given unhindered access.