AdvertisementA Cautionary Tale About Transforming AfghanistanJuly 03, 2012Greg MyrefacebookEmailScores of Americans engineers worked in southern Afghanistan from the late 1940s to the late 1970s to build two large dams and a canal network. The development project soon became a vast experiment in social engineering. New villages were constructed, with schools and health clinics. A new, modern society was to rise from the desert. (Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives via Foreign Policy)