1.
Q: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates,
stated in his memoirs [“From the Shadows”], that American intelligence services
began to aid the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet
intervention. In this period you were the national security adviser to
President Carter. You therefore played a role in this affair. Is that correct?
2.
Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official
version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to
say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality,
secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise: Indeed, it was July 3,
1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the
opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note
to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going
to induce a Soviet military intervention.
3.
Q: Despite this risk, you were an advocate of
this covert action. But perhaps you yourself desired this Soviet entry into war
and looked to provoke it?
4.
Brzezinski: It isn’t quite that. We didn’t push the
Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they
would.
5.
Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention
by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the
United States in Afghanistan, people didn’t believe them. However, there was a
basis of truth. You don’t regret anything today?
6.
Brzezinski: Regret what?
That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the
Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the
Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter: We now have
the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10
years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict
that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet
empire.
7.
Q: And neither do you regret having supported
the Islamic [integrisme], having given arms and advice to future terrorists?
8.
Brzezinski: What is most important to the
history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some
stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold
war?
9.
Q: Some stirred-up Moslems? But it has been said
and repeated: Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today.
10.
Brzezinski: Nonsense! It is said that the West
had a global policy in regard to Islam. That is stupid. There isn’t a global
Islam. Look at Islam in a rational manner and without demagoguery or emotion.
It is the leading religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what is
there in common among Saudi Arabian fundamentalism, moderate Morocco, Pakistan
militarism, Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian secularism? Nothing more than
what unites the Christian countries.
* There are at least two
editions of this magazine; with the perhaps sole exception of the Library of
Congress, the version sent to the United States is shorter than the French
version, and the Brzezinski interview was not included in the shorter version.
The above has been translated
from the French by Bill Blum author of the indispensible, “Killing Hope: US
Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II” and “Rogue State: A Guide to
the World’s Only Superpower” Portions of the books can be read at: <http://members.aol.com/superogue/homepage.htm>
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