The Cold War during the 1970s saw a brief period of calm and easing of tensions, known as détente, between the United States of America and the Soviet Union. US President Richard Nixon and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev had signed arms limitation treaties and it even seemed that the two superpowers could coexist. During the formal peace, however, the two superpowers continued to exert their influence through indirect means, especially in the Third World. One event in particular would see the United States carry out the largest and most successful covert operation in history (Johnson, 2012), which would have repercussions for millions of people and effects that would be seen decades later. Covert action by the United States to aid the Afghans during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan left the Soviets defeated, but with no intention of rebuilding the nation and selfishly pursuing the fall of the Soviet Union, the United States left Afghanistan open to regimes, probably worse than the Soviet ones. “Red Menace”. In April 1978 the Afghan communist party People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) took control of the government through a coup and renamed the country the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA) (BBC, 2009). While the PDPA initiated a radical shift in far-left perceived Western values ​​in the form of a ban on forced marriage and bride price; minimum wage increases; education for the population, made up of both men and women; After the redistribution of agricultural land imposed by a “godless communist” ideology (Saika, 2004), resistance begins to form around Afghanistan's traditional Islamic tribal groups. In October 1978 there was mass resistance to the PDPA's policies as civil unrest continued to grow (BBC, 2009). With politician... middle of paper... stan. Third World Quarterly, 23(3), 467-489. Johnson, L. K. (2012). National Security Intelligence: Covert Operations in Defense of Democracies. Cambridge, UK: Polity.Keane, D. (Editor). (2007). Inside the Taliban [Documentary] [Film]. Lansford, T. (2003). A bitter harvest: US foreign policy and Afghanistan. Hants, England: Ashgate Publishing Limited. Reuveny, R., & Prakash, A. (1999). The war in Afghanistan and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Review of International Studies, 25, 693-708. Saikal, A. (2004). Communist rule, Soviet invasion and resistance. In modern Afghanistan - A story of struggle and survival (pp. 187-208). London: IB Tauris & Co Ltd.Saikal, A. (2004). The Islamic rule of the mujahideen, Taliban extremism and US intervention. In modern Afghanistan: a story of struggle and survival. (pp. 209-230). London: IB Tauris & Co Ltd.