President “Jimmy Carter’s deputy national security adviser, David Aaron, chaired a second secret session of the Special Coordination Committee on March 30 [1979] to consider direct American covert aid to the Afghan rebellion. …The State Department’s David Newsom explained to the group that the Carter administration now sought ‘to reverse the current Soviet trend and presence in Afghanistan, to demonstrate to the Pakistanis our interest and concern about Soviet involvement, and to demonstrate to the Pakistanis, Saudis, and others our resolve to stop extension of Soviet influence in the Third World.’ ”
– Steve Coll, Ghost Wars, Pages 44-45