IMPERIALISM IN SOUTH ASIA 35 U S policy makers insist that events in Afghanistan leading to the Soviet intervention reversed the process of detente. But this is nothing more than a rationalisation of imperialist policy. In fact a closer examination of events would indicate that the shift in U S policy occurred in 1978 which is much before the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. The reasons for the aggressive posture of confrontation have to be located in the reverses suffered by the U S in the 1970s and the advance of socialism exemplified by the victory in Vietnam and Nicaragua. Unlike in the earlier period, the imperialist influence declined in the 1960s and 1970s with many Third World countries taking a relatively independent position on many economic and political issues. This undoubtedly weakened imperialism which was faced with the growing political independence of certain Third World countries on the one hand, and the existence and swelling of the ranks of Socialist countries, on the other. It was this turnabout in the structure of global politics which the imperialist countries led by the U S sought to reverse through a policy of confrontation with the Soviet Union and increasing intervention in Third World countries. An indication of the-impelling reasons for the shift in U S policy is given in a phrase used by Zbigniew Brzezinski, Garter's national security adviser, namely, "reversing the trend". In an interview to the U S News and world Report he said: "There's no doubt that between the late 60s and the mid-70s, the American diplomatic position in the world worsened in most regions, while the Soviet position was on the upswing. Now that trend is being reversed/93 This threat to U S hegemony was also noticed in the acquistion of greater military capability by the Soviet Union and, in the words of the Newsweek magazine, "its new ability to project military power to distant corners of the globe as the U S had done for decades."4 The possibility of strategic parity was seen as a further threat to the domination of capitalism in the Third World. Against this background the fall of the Shah of Iran and developments in Afghanistan in 1979 confirmed the decline of imperialist position. In response to the erosion in imperia-ists trength the U S quickly assembled the Rapid Deployment Force and made massive increases in military expenditure. The new imperial doctrine, which was not interested in a mere strategic balance with the Soviet Union sought to reassert its world wide hegemony so as to safeguard Western interests in the Third World. Inspite of persisting differences in the Western alliance on the possible advantages of destabilisation and the concomitant need for imperialist intervention, there is today a much greater threat posed by imperialism and much greater overt and covert imperialist pressures in Latin America and South and South West Asia. The increasing intervention in the Third World countries is sought to be justified by stressing the expansion of Soviet power and the increasing instability in the arc of crises5 stretching from Turkey through the Persion Gulf and Pakistan to the Horn of Africa, which threatens Western 'vital9 interests in these countries.