Trump gets history wrong again: Soviet built Afghanistan's Bagram airfield, not US

United States President Donald Trump has threatened Afghanistan with consequences unless it hands back control of the Bagram airbase to Washington - while wrongly claiming that the US had originally built the facility.

"If Afghanistan doesn't give Bagram Airbase back to those that built it, the United States of America, BAD THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN!!!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Saturday.

The Taliban-controlled government had rejected Trump's demand a day earlier. Afghan Foreign Ministry official Zakir Jalal said that Kabul and Washington needed to engage with one another without the US maintaining any military presence in any part of Afghanistan. "Kabul is ready to pursue political and economic ties with Washington based on mutual respect and shared interests."

Bagram's Soviet Origins

Trump's claim quickly drew attention from commentators who noted that the base was not constructed by the United States. Geopolitics analyst Arnaud Bertrand pointed out that Bagram was built by the Soviet Union in the 1950s, citing the facility's history and posting a screenshot of Wikipedia. "On the dangers of being ignorant of history...," he remarked.

Afghanistan's Tolo News reported that Bagram Air Base was first constructed in the 1950s with Soviet assistance. During the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989, it became the primary hub for Soviet air operations, launching thousands of missions against the Mujahideen.

"Bagram Air Base was extremely important," Fazl Manallah Momtaz, a political analyst, told Tolo. "Before the Americans, the Soviets focused heavily on it to maintain oversight over the region." 

After the fall of Mohammad Najibullah's government and the outbreak of civil war, Bagram changed hands multiple times before being revitalised with the arrival of US and NATO forces in 2001.

Under American Control

For the next two decades, Bagram became the largest US military installation in Afghanistan, with two runways capable of handling fighters, bombers, and heavy transport aircraft. The base expanded into what many soldiers described as a "military city", with barracks, hospitals, and shops. 

Bagram also housed thousands of detainees, many held for years without trial during the US-led "war on terror." 

Three US Presidents - George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump - visited Bagram during the war years. Joe Biden also visited the base in 2011 while serving as Vice President. 

In July 2021, weeks before the Taliban's return to power, US forces abandoned Bagram overnight. Afghan troops and residents discovered the base empty by morning, ending nearly 20 years of American control. 

Trump's Renewed Demands

Trump has often lamented the loss of Bagram, noting its proximity to China, and has linked the base to his criticisms of Joe Biden's handling of the US withdrawal. During a visit to the United Kingdom last week, he publicly acknowledged for the first time that he was pressing Afghanistan on the matter.

"We're trying to get it back, by the way, that could be a little breaking news. We're trying to get it back because they need things from us," Trump said at a press conference with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. 

Speaking at the White House on Saturday, he told reporters: "We're talking now to Afghanistan, and we want it back and we want it back soon, right away. And if they don't do it – if they don't do it, you're going to find out what I'm gonna do." Asked if he would send in troops to retake the facility, Trump declined to answer directly. "We won't talk about that," he said.