Revolutionaries for the Right Quotes

“Fondness for Afghanistan’s guerrillas extended far beyond the executive office. Of all of the covert actions undertaken by the United States in the 1980s, the war in Afghanistan was far and away the most popular among U.S. policymakers from both major parties, mostly because they liked the idea of killing Soviet soldiers without sacrificing American lives.”
― Kyle Burke, Revolutionaries for the Right: Anticommunist Internationalism and Paramilitary Warfare in the Cold War

“International activism was nothing if not expensive and time-consuming. It required significant financial resources and a work life that allowed one to spend weeks or months abroad. As a result, the vast majority of U.S. conservatives who toiled overseas in these years came from an insular group of wealthy leaders who were also spending millions of dollars to combat organized labor and the civil rights movement.”
― Kyle Burke, Revolutionaries for the Right: Anticommunist Internationalism and Paramilitary Warfare in the Cold War

“Despite the impassioned rhetoric of angry agents and conservative critics, the Church Committee hearings and Carter’s reforms did not dramatically alter the CIA’s operational capabilities. The agency still maintained a massive network of intelligence officers, agents, and assets around the world. Nor did the reforms signal an unwillingness of liberals to use covert action as, by 1979, Carter had authorized the CIA to arm and supply rebel groups in Afghanistan. Instead, the most important consequence of the Church Committee hearings registered outside of the state. The personnel cuts created a pool of politicized covert warriors with no place to go. Free from their jobs in the U.S. government, embittered by the firings, and eager to reclaim power, many turned to the private sector and the world of conservative activism for employment.”
― Kyle Burke, Revolutionaries for the Right: Anticommunist Internationalism and Paramilitary Warfare in the Cold War