What We Won: America's Secret War in Afghanistan, 1979–89

Front Cover

$ 0 (5,& $¶6 6(&5 (7:$ 5,1$ )*+ $ 1,67$ 1 ± Bruce Riedel I n February 1989, the CIA’s chief in Islamabad famously cabled headquarters a simple message, “We Won.” It was an understated coda to the most successful covert intelligence operation in American history. In What We Won, CIA and National Security Council veteran Bruce Riedel tells the story of America’s secret war in Afghanistan and the defeat of the Soviet 40th Red Army in a struggle that proved to be the final and decisive battle of the cold war. By answering the question—why did this intelligence operation succeed so brilliantly?— Riedel presents a nuanced narrative about the conflict to show how, counterintuitively, America won this intelligence battle. Riedel has the vantage point few others can offer: he was ensconced in the CIA’s Operations Center when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan on Christmas Eve 1979. The invasion took the intelligence community by surprise. But the response, initiated by Jimmy Carter and accelerated by Ronald Reagan, was a masterful intelligence enterprise. Many books have been written about intelligence failures—from Pearl Harbor to 9/11. Much less has been written about how and why intelligence operations succeed. The answer is complex. It involves both the weaknesses and mistakes of America’s enemies, as well as the good judgment and strengths of the United States Riedel introduces and explores the various personalities pitted against each other— the Afghan communists, the Russians, the Afghan mujahedin, the Saudis, and the Pakistanis. And then there are the (continued on back flap) Americans—in this war, no Americans fought on the battlefield. The CIA did not send officers into Afghanistan to fight or even to train. In 1989, victory for the American side of the cold war seemed complete. Looking back, now we can see that a new era was initiated in Afghanistan in the 1980s—the era of the global jihad. This book examines the lessons we can learn from the Afghan intelligence operation, while it also considers what came next in Afghanistan—and what is likely yet to come. BRUCE RIEDEL is senior fellow and director of the Brookings Intelligence Project. Riedel joined Brookings following a thirty-year career at the Central Intelligence Agency. He served as a senior adviser to four U.S. presidents on South Asia and the Middle East, working as a senior member of the National Security Council. In 2009 President Obama made him chairman of a strategic review of American policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He is author of the Brookings best seller The Search for al Qaeda: Its Leadership, Ideology, and Future. COVER PHOTOGRAPH: © REUTERS/SERGEI KARPUKHIN COVER: SESE-PAUL DESIGN ...