The Journey 61. Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould: Carter Lured the Russians and Killed the Peace Movement and the Progressive Left

RA “Kris” Millegan talks with Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould about their book, The Valediction: Three Nights of Desmond, their novelized memoir about America’s abuse and betrayal of Afghanistan, a process begun in the 1970s. Carter and Brzezinski demonized the Soviet Union’s presence in Afghanistan and created chaos there to justify an enormous arms buildup and kill the peace movement and kill investment in critical infrastructure here at home.

Kris: All of us had to take a journey. They sent us off to school and to church. And we grew up and found out they didn’t tell us all the things that were going on and we had to learn some things that you weren’t sure were true or not but you know that what is happening isn’t right.

I would have dropped looking at this if I hadn’t have found confirmation because it’s not always fun being called a conspiracy theorist and all these names. The first people I found who I could talk to, who would have some understanding, were people who had a very wide view of things. And then when people had children, it started to open up their eyes to their actions and what it means for their children’s future. Why are we here if not to make a better world for our children? To me, that’s one of our highest callings. What’s your journey been?

Liz: We never expected, when we got involved with Afghanistan, when the Soviet invasion happened in ’79, that the whole idea of left, progressive, moving away from military spending as the only solution and moving toward economic competition, we were shocked at the disillusionment. It was as if the idea of negotiation, the idea of détente, a progressive process coming out of the sixties into the seventies, suddenly evaporated when President Carter referred to the Soviet invasion as the greatest threat to peace since the Second World War. We wondered, where did this come from? The reaction seemed so over the top and it was instant. The whole thing just didn’t add up.

When we got involved as journalists we discovered that the entire journalistic experience at the network level is completely framed and completely on its own agenda. What they intended to do [despite the footage and stories we brought back from Afghanistan] was refer to the events in Afghanistan as Russia’s Vietnam. That’s what we began to realize.