The West Point Atlas of American Wars. Vol. I: 1689-1900. Vol. II: 1900-1953. Compiled by the Department of Military Art and Engineering, the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York.

A remarkable copy of this classic work, first published in 1959. Inscribed on the front free endpaper; "To His Royal Highness Prince Brigadier Abdul Wali on the occasion of your visit to The United States Military Academy, D. V. Bennett, Major General, USA, 11 March 1968". The set was presented as a memento to the Sandhurst-trained deputy commander of the Afghan army, also the son-in-law of King Zahir Shah, on his visit to North America in 1968-9, and subsequently liberated by a Russian soldier as a souvenir of the "Russian invasion of"/"intervention in" Afghanistan in 1979 with his inscription beneath; "Found on entry to the army headquarters by Chief Lieutenant Breusenko, Kabul, December 1979 [our translation]". An evocative vestige from this endlessly troubled region, during the period often referred to as the Soviet Union's Vietnam War. 2 vols landscape folio. Text printed in blue, numerous maps in grey with dispositions in red and blue. Original grey buckram-backed, black cloth boards, title in gilt on false black spine labels, and debossed to front boards together with the West Point arms embossed in gilt. A little rubbed, spine panels flaked to the point of illegibility, front endpapers a little soiled, the text-block of the second volume burst at the bottom edge, and the boards split, by the penetration of a stray round, overall in sound "relic" condition.…