ARMS FOR AFGHANISTAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100440003-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2010
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: July 18, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09 :CIA-RDP90-005528000100440003-1
'~~.TICL?~ ~~y ~~~~D
.. -, ~
Try ItE;, :~LPJ'~LIC
1$ Jul;,r 1981
The resistance fighters think they get
no help From the US.:They're wrong.
A year and a half after Soviet troops marched int
Afghanistan, the US Central lntelligerce Agency
coordinating a complex, far-flung program, involvin
five countries and more than X100 million, to provid
the Afghan resistance with the weaponry of moder
guerrilla warfare. The result is an emerging ant
Soviet alliance-the United States, China, Pakista
Egypt, and Saudi Arabia-that, in the judgment
American planners, is effectively countering the mo
blatant Soviet aggression of the postwar era.
Shortly after the December 1980 invasion the
tivere scattered newspaper reports that the Unite
States inkended to supply arms tv the Afghan resist- ~ '
ante fighters. Nat much more has been heard on the ,
subject since. In fact, the American role in Afghanistan
-as described by senior officials of the Carter and
Reagan administrations-is far more extensive than
any of those initial reports suggested. I=or the United ;
States the stakes are especially high. This is the first
time that weapons supplied with American help have ~ _
been used to kill regular troops of the Soviet army-
though thousands of American soldiers tivere killed by
Soviet-siippiied weapons in Korea and Vietnam. ~
Far the Afghan people, the Soviet invasion and its
aftermath have been devastating. In a country of 16
million people, tens of thousands have been killed and i
wounded. Soviet helicopter gunships have emptied ,
most villages, forcing more than two million men, I
women, and children to flee into neighboring Pakistan,
where they make up the largest refugee population in
the world today.
In discussing the clandestine operation to supply .
arms to the resistance, officials of the Reagan and
Carter administrations tell a remarkably consistent ~ - ,
story-balancing their desire .to report on its~success
with their desire to keep operational details secret.
These officials-from the. White House, the State i
Department, the CIA, and the Pentagon-are con-
winced that the Soviets are bogged down in Afghani-
stan, aview supported by British and Arab intelli-
' Bence estimates. The Russians have lost their grip on
the roads linking Afghanistan's principal cities. They
have suffered an estimated 6,000 casualties, with ;
2,000 killed. Several thousand more Russian troops
are ill with hepatitis. Resistance forces are now initiat-
ing the fighting, combining the tactics of guerrilla l
warfare with increasingly sophisticated weaponry. I
According to a secret White House report; at least 60
Russian helicopters have been shot down-many by' '
surface-to-air missiles. The Soviets have failed to ;
develop either a political or a military,strate~y to deal ` -
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09 :CIA-RDP90-005528000100440003-1