Reagan

[PanzerJaeger]

EDIT: The "proof" of Reagan's entering of the Afghanistan funding project is "National Security Decision Directive 166", which is just taken for granted in the website you posted. The article itself is just a reprinting of a Washington Post article from 1992. When I attempted to read 166 for myself I came across this website (first on google actually) http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/nsdd/index.html which lists all of Reagan's National Security Decision Directives. However I could not read 166, why? Because: ** - 2 asterisks - the document has not been reviewed for release or release has been denied in full

But then again, none of that matters anyway because the article itself clearly states:
"Already under pressure from Congress and conservative activists to expand its support to the mujaheddin, the Reagan administration moved in response to this intelligence to open up its high-technology arsenal to aid the Afghan rebels."

EDIT 2: Found another website that seems to have a lot of research put into the question we are asking. http://www12.georgetown.edu/students...20Missiles.htm
Titled What were policymakers’ and intelligence services’ respective roles in the decision to deploy Stinger Missiles to the anticommunist Afghan mujahedin during the rebels’ struggle with the Soviet Union? it says this:

"After a series of interagency meetings, National Security Decision Directive 166, titled ‘Expanded U.S. Aid to Afghan Guerillas’, was signed by President Reagan in March, 1985. NSDD-166 redefined the United States’ goals in Afghanistan according to the ambitions of Casey and other government officials."

So it seems that Reagan's role...was that he signed a paper after having pressure put on him for quite some time. And that his "orders" were just the wishes of people actually involved simply spoken through a position with more power then they had.

Yes, exactly. He signed the executive order that transformed America’s covert action in Afghanistan from a losing venture into a resounding success. He approved the Stingers, as well as an array of other arms that forced the Russians out. As the CIA only acts in these sorts of matters with presidential approval, his support was vital to the defeat of the Soviets in Afghanistan. To discount that is blatant revisionism.

Presidents make broad policy decisions, and the various agencies carry them out. What exactly did you expect, Reagan to helicopter into Kabul with a Stinger on his shoulder and an AK on his back to personally lead combat raids against the Russians? I guess he was too busy in Nicaragua hunting down Sandinista babies.

The program funding was increased yearly due to lobbying by prominent U.S. politicians and government officials, such as Charles Wilson, Gordon Humphrey, Fred Ikle, and William Casey. Under the Reagan administration, U.S. support for the Afghan mujahideen evolved into a centerpiece of U.S. foreign policy, called the Reagan Doctrine, in which the U.S. provided military and other support to anti-communist resistance movements in Afghanistan, Angola, Nicaragua, and elsewhere.