Bleeding the bear by funding Jihad: United States foreign policy in Afghanistan, 1979--1989

During the Cold War the foreign policy of the United States focused primarily on containment of the Soviet Union. In many cases this meant supporting insurgencies and governments that did not value human rights or the democratic process. When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the U.S. viewed it as a move to extend Soviet hegemony into oil producing regions of the Middle East. Having recently lost control of Iran, the United States could not allow the Soviets to control Afghanistan. Rather than risk open war with the Soviets, the U.S. decided to support the armed insurgency of Afghan tribesmen. This course of action resulted in the U.S. supporting an Islamic jihad against the Soviet Union. Prolonged Afghani resistance caused the Soviet Union to become entangled in a conflict they could not win, leading ultimately to their withdrawal from Afghanistan, and contributing to the fall of the Soviet Union.