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Afghanistan and the Cold War. The Soviet Invasion in Afghanistan (1979-1989) Overview. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was a 10-year war which wreaked incredible destruction on Afghanistan. The war started officially started on December 24, 1979.
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The Soviet Invasion in Afghanistan (1979-1989) Overview • The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was a 10-year war which wreaked incredible destruction on Afghanistan. • The war started officially started on December 24, 1979. • Soviet troops ultimately withdrew from the area between May 15, 1988 and February 2, 1989. The Soviet Union officially announced that all of its troops had left Afghanistan on February 15.
Roots of the War • The roots of the war lay in the overthrow of the Afghanistan government in April 1978 by left-wing military officers, who then handed power over to two Marxist-Leninist political parties, the Khalq (“Masses”) and Parcham (“Flag”), who together had formed the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan. • Having little support among the people, the new government forged close ties with the Soviet Union, launched ruthless purges of all domestic opposition, and began extensive land and social reforms that were bitterly resented by the devoutly Muslim and largely anti-Communist population.
Muslim tribal-based insurgencies arose against the government. • This insurgency prompted the invasion of the country by about 30,000 Soviet troops in December 1979 with the aim of propping up the Soviet Union’s new but faltering client state. • Leonid Brezhnev (leader of Russia) declared the Soviet Union had a right to come to the assistance of an endangered fellow socialist country. This assertion of a right is now known as the Brezhnev Doctrine.
World Reaction • The invasion was regarded by many as an unprovoked invasion of a sovereign country by another. • The United Nations General Assembly passed United Nations Resolution 37/37 on November 29, 1983, which stated that the Soviet Union forces should withdraw from Afghanistan. • Others supported the Soviet Union, regarding it as coming to the rescue of an impoverished ally, or as a pre-emptive war against Islamist terrorists. The CIA invested US$2.1 billion over a 10-year period to create an anti-Soviet resistance.
Why was Afghanistan Important? • Some believed that the Soviet Union's presence in Afghanistan was motivated by a desire to bring its forces closer to a strategic choke-point: the mouth of the Persian gulf, the route for most of the world's oil supertankers. • Afghanistan is separated from the Arabian Sea by the sparsely populated Pakistani province of Baluchistan. Had there been a breakup of Pakistan or a favorable regime change, Soviet forces would have access to Baluchi or Pakistani ports.
The Afghan War quickly settled down into a stalemate, with about 100,000 Soviet troops controlling the cities, large towns, and major garrisons and the mujahideen roaming relatively freely throughout the countryside. • The Soviets then attempted to eliminate the mujahideen’s civilian support by bombing and depopulating the rural areas. Their tactics sparked a massive flight from the countryside; by 1982 some 2.8 million Afghans had sought asylum in Pakistan, and another 1.5 million had fled to Iran.
The mujahideen were eventually able to neutralize Soviet air power through the use of shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles supplied by the United States. • The mujahideen were fragmented politically into a handful of different groups, and their military efforts remained uncoordinated throughout the war. • The quality of their arms and combat organization gradually improved because of the experience and arms shipments being sent by the United States and other countries via Pakistan.
It Did Not Work… • Soviet troops were not able to gain access the the Persian Gulf. • After a long and unsuccessful conflict with the CIA-backed Mujahedeen, Soviet troops ultimately withdrew from the area between May 15, 1988 and February 2, 1989. The Soviet Union officially announced that all of its troops had left Afghanistan on February 15.
