Word: stinger
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...months later Gorbachev came to power. The most significant act of his tenure has been his decision to pull the Soviet army out of Afghanistan. To hear some enthusiasts for the Reagan Doctrine tell it, Gorbachev was merely yielding to vigorous and effective containment: the U.S. gave Stinger missiles to the Afghan freedom fighters, enabling them to blow enough Soviet helicopters out of the sky for the pragmatic new man in the Kremlin to order a tactical retreat...
...been overcome, Gorbachev would still be in Afghanistan, communizing? Gorbachev is withdrawing because he lost the war. Writes Afghan Expert Zalmay Khalilzad in the National Interest: "1986 was the turning point in the Afghan war." What happened? "The most crucial change in this period was the provision of U.S. Stinger ((antiaircraft)) missiles to the mujahedin." To put it bluntly, the Soviets are not leaving Afghanistan because they changed their minds. They are leaving because they lost their air cover. A change of minds followed...
Though the war in Afghanistan gave Soviet troops valuable combat experience, it exposed an array of equipment deficiencies. Machine-gun fire and U.S.-supplied Stinger missiles brought down heavily armored helicopter gunships. In a move reminiscent of the U.S. defeat in Viet Nam, Moscow called a halt to the fighting after nine years of frustration and began withdrawing its troops in May. Says David Isby, a U.S. military expert and author of Weapons and Tactics of the Soviet Army: "The vaunted Soviet military was basically fought to a standstill...
...hard cash. The agreement, signed earlier this month, means that Britain will supplant the U.S. as the Saudis' main arms supplier. The British thus benefited directly from the U.S. Congress's refusal to approve the transfer to the Saudis of 40 advanced F-15 fighters in 1985 and 800 Stinger missiles...
...reader is shown, in quick, effective takes of a few pages each, a giant Soviet military laser weapon under construction in the mountains of central Asia, the operation of an elaborate chain of U.S. spy drops and cutouts in Moscow, an Afghan guerrilla team shooting down Soviet helicopters with Stinger missiles, tense cookie pushing at a disarmament negotiation, and two separate KGB interrogations, including one involving sensory deprivation techniques that screen out even the relentless quack quack of your stewardess telling you to place seat backs and tray tables in the full upright position...