Enfield rifles arrived by 10 January 1980 (Cogan, 1993: 76). As
time passed, a sophisticated weapons pipeline developed, with
equipment delivered by ship to Karachi or by plane to Islamabad
(from China or Dhahran in Saudi Arabia). Weapons were then
moved to Rawalpindi and Quetta by the ISI, and thence distributed
by truck to the resistance parties (Yousaf and Adkin, 1992: 99).
The weapons for which the US paid were predominantly from
China and Egypt, and included Soviet RPG–7 anti-tank grenade
launchers, which the resistance used to great effect, as well
as DShK 12.7 mm heavy machine guns, mortars of various sizes,
AK-47 rifles, and Egyptian Saqr–20 107 mm multiple rocket
launchers with an 8 kilometre range (McMichael, 1991: 31).
The nature and scale of US assistance was not constant. The
inauguration of President Reagan in 1981 brought to office a
leader who was instinctively sympathetic to the Afghan
Mujahideen, and in this he was supported by CIA Director
William J. Casey, and even by members of Congress who other-
wise were wary of the so-called ‘Reagan Doctrine’ which
favoured assistance to anti-communist insurgents (Scott, 1996:
31). However, others in the Administration were wary of fuelling
resistance to the point that a major Soviet escalation would result,
perhaps engulfing Pakistan as well. None the less, in 1985,
National Security Decision Directive 166, entitled Expanded US
Aid to Afghan Guerrillas, approved the use of ‘all means avail-
able’ to remove Soviet forces from Afghanistan. This led to a sig-
nificant increase in the quantity and quality of military assistance.
Finally, on 25 September 1986, the resistance commenced use of
Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, designed to overcome one of the
Mujahideen’s greatest weaknesses, namely vulnerability to air
attack. The supply of Stingers came only after ferocious inter-
agency battles in Washington (Kuperman, 1999; Lundberg, 1999),
and to this day there is debate over how significant a role the
Stinger missile played in prompting the Soviet withdrawal from
Afghanistan. None the less, as a marker of continuing US com-
mitment, the arrival of the Stinger missile was unquestionably of
great significance.
80 The Afghanistan Wars