One of the forgotten chapters in the Cold War history is that the United States first broadcast shortwave radio programs to Afghanistan on October 1, 1985. It was the height of the Cold War, when the Soviet Union was fighting insurgents in that country. The Soviet Union had first sent its army to Afghanistan in on Christmas eve 1979, when it intervened to support the “Communist” government against the American supported Afghan Islamic fighters: the mujahedeen. RFE/RL, the American financed station RFE/RL in Munich, Germany, expanded, for the first time in over 30 years, its broadcasting services outside the target areas of East Europe and the USSR. RFE/RL broadcast to Afghanistan extensive war coverage in Dari--one of the major languages in Afghanistan. As an adjunct of the Radio Liberty Division, Radio Free Afghanistan (RFA) broadcast twice weekly Dari 30 minute programs and expanded its broadcasting to one hour daily, five days a week in 1986. As part of RFE/RL’s “phase down” in Munich and Congressional budget cutting after the Cold War ended with the collapse of Communism in the Soviet Union in 1991, Radio Free Afghanistan broadcast its last program on October 19, 1993, with the statement, “It was proud to be part of the struggle against the Soviet occupation and that the Service always endeavored to bring freedom, peace, and democracy to Afghanistan.”
Posted on: Tue, 01 Oct 2013 07:12:30 +0000