# Afghanistan played a decisive role in the fall of the Soviet Union [[2021-09|September 2021]]. The CIA reportedly helped the Afghan mujahideen in 1980, after the Soviet Union invaded the country on December 24th 1979. However, Zbigniew Brzezinski, who served as President Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor from 1977 to 1981, admitted that the US actually started providing clandestine help to the rebel group from July 3rd 1979. In so doing, it knowingly raised the odds that the Russian army would intervene. When Russia did invade Afghanistan, Mr Brzezinski told President Carter that it was the occasion to "give the USSR its Vietnam War". Indeed, the Soviet Union dived knee-deep in an almost ten-year long war, which ultimately led to the collapse of the USSR soon after. When asked if he regretted having provided weapons and advice to future terrorists, Mr Brzezinski asked in return: "What is the most important with respect to world history? The Taliban or the fall of the Soviet Union? A few excited Islamists, or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the Cold War?" As the saying goes, "history is written by the victors" (see [[Neutrality is a definite judgement]]). --- ## 📚 References - [‘« Au moins, ils n’étaient pas communistes »’](https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2021/09/A/63447). _Le Monde diplomatique_, 1 Sept. 2021.