The Soviet Union, whose recent acquisitions include Finnish nickel, Lithuanian butter, Estonian cellulose, Tannu Tuvan asbestos, last week marched on to pistachio nuts.
It legitimized the de facto Soviet sovereignty over the Kushk district, a remote corner of the world where Afghanistan, Iran and the U.S.S.R. meet among the high pastures, vast pistachio groves and wild tribesmen who live around the ancient Oxus River.* The treaty just negotiated between Moscow and Kabul scraps two 1921 clauses which granted the people of Kushk the right to choose their own masters by plebiscite, and stipulated Russian financial and material aid to Afghanistan.
The...
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