On February 26, 1986, “the Reagan administration decided to ship in Stinger ground-to-air missiles [to the mujahideen fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan]; it would take another seven months for rebels to be trained, equipped, and effective in shooting down Soviet helicopters. Russian officials later claimed that the new weapon actually slowed the troop withdrawal. They also acknowledged that it had forced them to fly their helicopters and aircraft at far higher altitudes and thus lose their effectiveness on the ground.”
– Roy Gutman, How We Missed the Story, Page 22