Historians Remember President Jimmy Carter’s Efforts to Aid Afghan Rebels

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.

A communist takeover in Afghanistan in April 1978 brought down the government of President Mohammad Daoud Khan.

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.

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.

However, he also called such a program “an excellent idea.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.