On May 1, 2011, a group of U.S. soldiers boarded helicopters at a base in Afghanistan, hoping to find a man named Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden, the leader of the al Qaeda terrorist network, was responsible for a number of terrorist attacks around the world, including those of September 11, 2001, that killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States.…

Presents a qualitative analysis of Soviet media coverage of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1986, showing that several familiar themes, from unpopular guerrillas to national security, are used to justify the Soviet presence in Afghanistan. Compares Soviet press coverage of Afghanistan with U.S. coverage of El Salvador, revealing several parallels. (ARH)