THE ROLE AND ADVANTAGE OF UNITED STATES IN THE CHANGE OF GOVERNMENTS IN PAKISTAN AND IRAN DURING THE 70s IN THE COLD WAR CONTEXT

Author(s) : Khalid Naseem, Muhammad Waris Awan

Abstract:

This paper is an effort to get an insight into the course of events, occurred during the seventies in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. It also explores the fact that it was not the grand design of the Soviet Union (USSR) to reach the warm waters, a much propagated theory by the western scholars, but actually it was the grand design of the United States to compel the USSR to enter into Afghanistan and to defeat it decisively to end the Cold War. The United States chose Afghanistan as a ‘battlefield’ and Islamic ideology of ‘Jehad’ (the Holy War) to counter Communism. It planned to mobilize the Islamic fundamentalist factions in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union with the help of Pakistan and Iran. The US needed ‘friendly’ and ‘religious minded’ rulers in Pakistan and Iran for the implementation of its plan so that they could support the religious factions of Afghanistan. The then governments in Pakistan and Iran could not have the right ability to serve the purpose. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and the Shah of Iran were though still ‘friendly’ but not ‘religious-minded’ in nature. The change in governments, both in Pakistan and Iran, was must for the implementation of US plan in Afghanistan. The latter developments in the region prove that the US took every possible step in this regard and ended the Cold War by defeating the Soviet Union decisively. That's why, the writer does believe that the Soviet move into the Afghanistan in 1979 was not offensive but it was defensive in its nature.