Afghanistan in the 1950s and 60s 2nd Album

Fractured by internal conflict and foreign intervention for centuries, Afghanistan made several tentative steps toward modernization in the mid-20th century. In the 1950s and 1960s, some of the biggest strides were made toward a more liberal and westernized lifestyle, while trying to maintain a respect for more conservative factions. Though officially a neutral nation, Afghanistan was courted and influenced by the U.S. and Soviet Union during the Cold War, accepting Soviet machinery and weapons, and U.S. financial aid. This time was a brief, relatively peaceful era, when modern buildings were constructed in Kabul alongside older traditional mud structures, when burqas became optional for a time, and the country appeared to be on a path toward a more open, prosperous society. Progress was halted in the 1970s, as a series of bloody coups, invasions, and civil wars began, continuing to this day, reversing almost all of the steps toward modernization taken in the 50s and 60s. Keep in mind, when looking at these images, that the average life expectancy for Afghans born in 1960 was 31, so the vast majority of those pictured have likely passed on since.

Dancers perform in street of Kabul, Afghanistan, December 9, 1959 following President Eisenhower's arrival from Karachi. After a five hour stay in Kabul, Ike flew on to New Delhi. (AP Photo) #  

Afghan Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 fighters and Ilyushin Il-28 bombers in Kabul, Afghanistan, during the visit of the U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower, in December of 1959. (Thomas J. O'Halloran, LOC) # 

A shopfront display of fruits and nuts in Kabul, in November of 1961. (AP Photo/Henry S. Bradsher) # 

Children in a Kabul street, November, 1961. (AP Photo/Henry Burroughs) # 

    A modern traffic light stands incongruously amid burqa-clad women sitting on a Kabul street corner with their backs to their men on May 25, 1964. (AP Photo/Henry Burroughs) # 

Afghan women, men, and child in traditional dress ride in a cart through an arid, rocky landscape, November, 1959.(Robert P. Martin, LOC) # 

An Afghan worker checks a Russian-made truck in the Kabul Janagalak factory in an unspecified date. The factory situated in the center of the city as the only firm for making vehicle's chassis was plundered, like other public properties in the Afghan capital, during the Afghan mujahedin rule from 1992 to 1996. (AFP/Getty Images) # 

The entrance to the Karkar coal mine around 12 kilometers northeast of Pulikhumri, the provincial town of the Northern province of Baghlan. The Karkar coal deposit at one time met the needs of Kabul city. (AFP/Getty Images) # 

A caravan of mules and camels cross the high, winding trails of the Lataband Pass in Afghanistan on the way to Kabul, on October 8, 1949. (AP Photo/Max Desfor) # 

In Washington, D.C., Afghan King Mohammad Zahir Shah talks with US President John F. Kennedy in the car that took them to the White House on September 8, 1963. (AFP/AFP/Getty Images) #