US & 1980s Afghanistan under different administration

So I was watching "Charlie Wilson's War" the other day and I thought WI Reagan wasn't US president in 1980s. How would US treat Afghanistan? Carter initiated military aid, Reagan then increased it but didn't really took off until mid-1980s

Not familiar with details of US politicians at that time, but assume different president. Carter in probably out (if he is reelected it would require significant PODs which may butterfly away soviet invasion). So assume republican president.

What happens next?
 

MacCaulay

Banned
Even if Carter had stayed (which I know isn't a primary part of your pitch), by the end of his term he had more or less become a hawk on the USSR that matched the kind of stuff Reagan thought.

And lord knows Carter didn't seem to have any qualms against telling the US intelligence community to start covert operations.
 
Even if Carter had stayed (which I know isn't a primary part of your pitch), by the end of his term he had more or less become a hawk on the USSR that matched the kind of stuff Reagan thought.

And lord knows Carter didn't seem to have any qualms against telling the US intelligence community to start covert operations.

How common was the Reaganesque "Evil Empire" foreign policy opinion back then?
 

MacCaulay

Banned
How common was the Reaganesque "Evil Empire" foreign policy opinion back then?

Well...it was just a simple fact of life: it was us vs. them.

The only difference was that some folks thought that fact meant we should buy more missiles and some folks thought that meant we should do more talking.

Like everything in politics: 99 percent of folks agree on the general goal, it's just how to get there that starts all the fights.
 
Even if Carter had stayed (which I know isn't a primary part of your pitch), by the end of his term he had more or less become a hawk on the USSR that matched the kind of stuff Reagan thought.

And lord knows Carter didn't seem to have any qualms against telling the US intelligence community to start covert operations.

Well, Carter initiated aid but small ammount of it. Even Reagen at first sent small ammount of it. Basically "bleed them but don't kill them".
 
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