The once and future king?

Whatever the political outlook for Zahir Shah may be, the fact that he was in power for so many years so long ago makes it possible to look at the closing years of his monarchy from the perspective of U.S. diplomats and White House officials through documents released at the National Archives under the U.S. government's historical declassification program. The record is incomplete--some material remains classified and the records of the State Department's Afghanistan desk for this period are unavailable--but the extant documentation provides insights into the character of King Zahir's regime, including political reform efforts, internal opposition, and the problems that undermined the monarchy. The documents also elucidate U.S. policy toward Afghanistan at the time. Like now, nation building was on the agenda, and the U.S. Agency for International Development underwrote foreign aid projects designed to support economic modernization as well as balance off Soviet economic aid. Archival material also suggests U.S. government ambivalence toward King Zahir's monarchy in the early 1970s. Resigned to Afghanistan's tilt to the Soviet Union, a necessity imposed by political geography, the Nixon administration did not brood over who ruled that country as long as its rulers maintained basic continuity of foreign policy and did not move against U.S. interests.