14 January, 2025
Many historians say U.S. President Ronald Reagan helped defeat the former Soviet Union and end the Cold War. Reagan's efforts included giving support to rebel groups fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
U.S. support for Afghan rebels began earlier under the administration of President Jimmy Carter. Carter ordered secret nonlethal aid to rebel groups six months before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The Soviet Union invaded in December of 1979.
Carter worked on cooperation with the Soviet Union by seeking approval of the SALT II (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) agreement on nuclear weapons. At the same time, his policies and statements pushed against Soviet goals.
David Gibbs is a history professor at the University of Arizona. Gibbs said, “I think people's image of Carter as a deeply religious man, a deeply moral man, is very much influenced by the activities he's done after he left office. [But] he definitely...had a side that was very willing to use force, including nuclear weapons.”
US aid to rebels
A communist takeover in Afghanistan in April 1978 brought down the government of President Mohammad Daoud Khan.
In the summer of 1979, Carter signed a secret order known as a “presidential finding” that permitted the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to give nonlethal aid to rebels. The rebels were fighting Afghanistan's Soviet-supported communist government.
Carter's order stayed secret until the 1990s. It became known after several Carter administration officials, including former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, communicated its existence.
The ‘Afghan Trap'
Some historians have called Carter's plan to aid rebel groups the “Afghan Trap.”
They said the trap aimed to force the Soviets into a long war similar to America's fight in Vietnam during the 1960s and early 1970s.
In 1998, Brzezinski denied to the French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur that the Carter administration had a plan to get the Soviets into a long war in Afghanistan. However, he also called such a program “an excellent idea.”
Other explanations of U.S. aid
Conor Tobin is an historian at the University College Dublin in Ireland who has studied the Afghan Trap idea. He said most experts do not believe the aid was part of a plan to make the Soviets fight. Tobin said there is not enough evidence to support the Afghan Trap idea.
Tobin also said the Carter administration decided to first wait to see how the situation in Afghanistan would develop after the 1978 government overthrow. But that policy ended with the kidnapping and killing of U.S. Ambassador Adolph Dubs in February of the next year.
Brzezinski then ordered a new plan for Afghanistan. Tobin said Brzezinski asked an administration official to consider the question: “Should we help any insurgents?”
Tobin said U.S. government officials thought military aid to rebels would cause a strong Soviet reaction. This judgment led the Carter administration to give nonlethal aid instead.
“The decision-making process demonstrated caution, rather than an effort to induce an invasion,” Tobin wrote.
Tobin wrote in an article, “The Myth of the ‘Afghan Trap,'” about the concerns of U.S. officials. He said, instead of trying to push the Soviets into a fight, Brzezinski worried the Soviets would slowly expand their power in Afghanistan.
“The objectives in mid-1979 were essentially to do something, anything, to counter the Soviet advance in Afghanistan,” Tobin said.
The Carter Doctrine
In 1979, another development raised concerns
in Washington. Even if Carter did not want armed conflict in Afghanistan, he took a strong position against Soviet efforts to control the Persian Gulf. That body of water lies between Saudi Arabia and Iran, two major oil producers.
During a speech to the U.S. Congress in 1980, Carter warned that the U.S. was prepared to use “any means necessary” to prevent a Soviet takeover of the Persian Gulf area.
On December 28, 1979, the day after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, Carter gave permission to supply weapons and training for the rebels.
Carter lost the 1980 election to Reagan who mostly continued Carter's Afghan policy for several years before greatly increasing the secret aid program. The aid reached several hundred million dollars a year, and the Soviet military left Afghanistan in defeat in 1989.
Jimmy Carter died at the age of 100 on December 29, 2024.
I'm Andrew Smith. And I'm Caty Weaver.
Masood Farivar wrote this story for VOA News. Andrew Smith adapted it for VOA Learning English.
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Words in This Story
nonlethal –adj. related to things that are not weapons with the ability to cause death
insurgent –n. a person in rebellion against civil power or a government
caution –n. concern or care when faced with a risky situation
induce –v. to influence a person or group to act or to believe something
objective –n. a goal or an aim
counter –v. to act against a force, movement or person