Was It Really Worth It, Mrs. Albright? THE PRICE September 25, 2001
By Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair ------------------------ (...) In the summer of 1979 the US State Department produced a memo making it clear how the US government saw the stakes, no matter how modern minded Taraki might be or how feudal the Muj. It's another passage Nat [Hentoff, Village Voice columnist] might read to the grandkids: "The United States' larger interest would be served by the demise of the Taraki-Amin regime, despite whatever set backs this might mean for future social and economic reforms in Afghanistan. The overthrow of the DRA [Democratic Republic of Afghanistan] would show the rest of the world, particularly the Third World, that the Soviets' view of the socialist course of history being inevitable is not accurate." (...) ------------------------