The Treaty of Friendship With the Soviet Union

Mustafa Barzani had been leading his people in battle against the Iraqi state for like a decade at this point. The Israelis and the Shah had experienced great luck in using the Kurds to keep Saddam who taken power pretty recently off of their back. Kissinger was dismissive of CIA director William Colby's caution, writing quote, Colby's resistance was as unrealistic as Barzani's enthusiasm. Nixon ultimately decided to increase US assistance to the Kurds, including the provision of 900,000 pounds of Soviet-made weapons that the CIA had stockpiled.