For a decade, the United States and Soviet Union faced off against one another in the last ideological battle of the Cold War, fought on the territory of Afghanistan. The Soviets had invaded in 1988 and installed a puppet regime. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency spent hundreds of millions secretly funneling weapons, training and supplies to the "Soldiers of God," the Islamic resistance fighters in Afghanistan's mountainous terrain.
The Soviets withdrew in defeat at the end of the Cold War, leaving
Afghanistan to the chaotic civil war which has persisted since. The
United States, too, has largely ignored the struggle since the
Kremlin pulled out. Since then, Afghanistan's "mujaheddin" (the
resistance fighters) have used their training and weaponry to fight
their own war, and, occasionally, to support anti-American terrorism
around the world.
The man at the top of the anti-Soviet covert operation was Milt Bearden, who comes to the University of Delaware campus on Wednesday, November 10, 1999. You can hear him speak to the political science and communication classes of Prof. Ralph Begleiter at 11:15am (320 Gore Hall) and 2:30pm (106 Pearson).
A thirty-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency's Clandestine Services, Bearden has received the Agency's Donovan Award, Intelligence Medal of Merit, and Distinguished Intelligence Medal, and the Federal Cross of Merit from the Federal Republic of Germany. Bearden retired from the CIA in 1994 and lives in Lyme, New Hampshire.
Bearden is the author of The Black Tulip (Random House, June 1998), a novel set in the last terrifying days of the Cold War: The Afghan Mujaheddin are being slaughtered by the Soviet Air Force. CIA director William Casey orders a secret Stinger missile training base set up in the foothills of the Hindu Kush. The war begins to turn.
Students who wish to develop some background on the covert war in Afghanistan may also attend Prof. Begleiter's class on Monday, November 8 at 11:15am in Gore 320, to view a 50-minute documentary on the war.