Soviet invasion of afghanistan 1979
- Soviets wanted to influence region and fit their southern expansion policy
- Sept. 1979, soviets invaded and installed Babrak Karmal as a puppet president
- The west, China and India were alarmed and many boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics because of it
- The invasion and Reagan being elected are seen as the ends of detente
- Soviets opposed by rebels called the Mujaheddin
- by 1985 Soviets had 100 000 troops here
- 1987 Karmal replaced by Mohammad Najibullah who was even more of a puppet
- soviets accused of practicing inhumane types of warfare (ie. Chemical)
- Soviets eventually withdrew
- Many parallels to US in Vietnam
The Soviet war in Afghanistan lasted nine years from December 1979 to February 1989. Part of the Cold War, it was fought between Soviet-led Afghan forces against multi-national insurgent groups called the Mujahideen, mostly composed of two alliances - the Peshawar Seven and the Tehran Eight.
We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would...That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Soviets into the Afghan trap ... The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter "We now have the opportunity of giving to the Soviet Union its Vietnam War."
— Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Adviser to Jimmy Carter, talking in 1998
— Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Adviser to Jimmy Carter, talking in 1998