C. Flower
30-12-2010, 11:24 PM
Released under the "30 year rule", very interesting details of how the US and European states intervened in Afghanistan to "encourage guerilla resistance" in 1979 within weeks of the Soviet invasion.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/dec/30/uk-mujahideen-afghanistan-soviet-invasion
Within three weeks of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/afghanistan) the cabinet secretary, Sir Robert Armstrong, was negotiating how to channel covert military aid towards the "Islamic resistance" that was fighting the Russians.
Details of how swiftly clandestine weapons routes were opened up to aid the mujahideen emerge from secret cabinet documents released to the National Archives (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/nationalarchives) today under the 30-year rule.
The files show how extensive military and diplomatic efforts – co-ordinated with western allies – were made to defeat the USSR and the lengths to which Thatcher went to discourage participation in the 1980 Olympics.
Shortly after KGB special forces seized control of Kabul on 27 December 1979, the foreign secretary, Lord Carrington, expressed the view: "The Russians are resorting to the big lie by saying that they intervened at the invitation of Afghan authorities … we should take every opportunity to make them uncomfortable and bring home to them the consequences of their actions."
In mid-January Armstrong sent a "secret, personal" note to the prime minister on a meeting in Paris between senior US, French, German and British officials.
"There was some discussion of support for Afghan resistance to the invading Soviet troops," he explained. "For obvious reasons, I am circulating it separately from the record for the rest of the discussion."
Zbigniew Brzezinski, the US national security adviser, recommended providing Afghan fighters in "forward positions" just inside the Pakistan border with "surface to air missiles to defend themselves against air attack".
The French proposed channelling military aid via the Iraqis. The aim of the west, they said, should be to keep the Islamic world "aroused about the Soviet invasion that would be served by encouraging a continuing guerrilla resistance".
Armstrong stressed that a border war should be avoided but "so long as the Afghans were ready to continue guerrilla war resistance and Pakistan was prepared … to acquiesce in [its] territory being a base for such activity, the west could hardly refuse to provide support where it could do so with suitable discretion".
The cabinet secretary also sent a note to Thatcher, Carrington and "C" (the head of MI6) arguing the case for military aid to "encourage and support resistance".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/dec/30/uk-mujahideen-afghanistan-soviet-invasion
Within three weeks of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/afghanistan) the cabinet secretary, Sir Robert Armstrong, was negotiating how to channel covert military aid towards the "Islamic resistance" that was fighting the Russians.
Details of how swiftly clandestine weapons routes were opened up to aid the mujahideen emerge from secret cabinet documents released to the National Archives (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/nationalarchives) today under the 30-year rule.
The files show how extensive military and diplomatic efforts – co-ordinated with western allies – were made to defeat the USSR and the lengths to which Thatcher went to discourage participation in the 1980 Olympics.
Shortly after KGB special forces seized control of Kabul on 27 December 1979, the foreign secretary, Lord Carrington, expressed the view: "The Russians are resorting to the big lie by saying that they intervened at the invitation of Afghan authorities … we should take every opportunity to make them uncomfortable and bring home to them the consequences of their actions."
In mid-January Armstrong sent a "secret, personal" note to the prime minister on a meeting in Paris between senior US, French, German and British officials.
"There was some discussion of support for Afghan resistance to the invading Soviet troops," he explained. "For obvious reasons, I am circulating it separately from the record for the rest of the discussion."
Zbigniew Brzezinski, the US national security adviser, recommended providing Afghan fighters in "forward positions" just inside the Pakistan border with "surface to air missiles to defend themselves against air attack".
The French proposed channelling military aid via the Iraqis. The aim of the west, they said, should be to keep the Islamic world "aroused about the Soviet invasion that would be served by encouraging a continuing guerrilla resistance".
Armstrong stressed that a border war should be avoided but "so long as the Afghans were ready to continue guerrilla war resistance and Pakistan was prepared … to acquiesce in [its] territory being a base for such activity, the west could hardly refuse to provide support where it could do so with suitable discretion".
The cabinet secretary also sent a note to Thatcher, Carrington and "C" (the head of MI6) arguing the case for military aid to "encourage and support resistance".