But the strength of resistance by these poor tribesmen, Wilson said, continued even after six months of fighting the Soviets with weaponry from World War I. As the Afghans continued to defend themselves, the world began to take notice.
"I read about the killings in Kabul of the Soviets by the Afghans with stones and knives," he said, "and I thought, surely we can do better."
Wilson recognized the Afghans' need for better equipment, as they already possessed the willpower to defeat the Soviets. "It was clear that the Afghan people had made the decision to fight to the death," he said. "They were not going to allow the Soviets to occupy their country, and if they did, then the Soviets were going to occupy a country of graves and corpses."
Where the Afghans had determination, they lacked means, and to Wilson, this necessitated action. "We could not allow those brave souls to lose their lives like that - we'd be damned by history if we did. We needed to help, and we needed to help big."
Wilson credits the cooperative actions of former President Ronald Reagan, his National Security Cabinet, the State Department, and the Pentagon with the ultimately successful outcome. The country's leaders had determined they would approve the furnishing of the Mujahideen with Stinger missiles, if the funds were there. "I assured President Reagan that they would be," Wilson said.
And on Sept. 28, 1986, using weaponry paid for by the United States, as made possible by Wilson, those "poor, illiterate tribesmen" shot down four Soviet helicopters, spelling the beginning of the end for the Soviets' venture into Afghanistan. A war that had been waged against the Afghans mostly from the air finally began to change, as the Afghans continued to shoot down a couple of helicopters each day.
"Soviet infantry started referring to helicopter pilots as 'cosmonauts,' because they stayed so high up in the sky," Wilson said. Without the helicopters around to support the ground fighting from the air, the Soviet forces began to fall apart.
2008 Woodie Awards
