The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan

• 1979, the Soviet Union sent troops to Afghanistan, a country with a communist government, to take control after the president was assassinated

• Unlike in Czechoslovakia, the USA reacted strongly

• The Soviet Union saw Afghanistan as its sphere of influence, as it was bordering the Soviet Union. This meant President Taraki's government had to be communist and Soviet-backed

• When President Taraki was assassinated during civil war and replaced by Hafizullah Amin, the Soviet Union felt its influence in Afghanistan was threatened

• Brezhnev ordered Soviet troops to invade Afghanistan in December 1979. Barbak Karmal was made president and Amin and many of his supporters were killed

• Brezhnev believed wrongly that the USA and its president, Jimmy Carter, would not object to the invasion 

• Soviet troops had to remain in the country to keep Karmal in power. Afghan rebels known as the Mujahideen resisted these troops.

• The USA was worried that the Soviet Union would get more control in the Middle East

• A successful invasion of Afghanistan might mean Soviet influence in Iran

• Iran could block Middle East oil exports at the Straits of Hormuz. Middle East oil was essential to the USA's prosperity

US president Jimmy Carter took the following actions

• Threatened to use force if the Soviet Union attempted to take control of the Persian Gulf

• The US imposed economic sanctions - there would be no trade with the Soviet Union. This meant the USA would no longer export grain to or import oil from the Soviet Union

• The USA and its allies, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, secretly provided assistance to the Mujahideen. This meant that the USA and its allies were directly backing a war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan

• In this way, the USA ceased cooperation with the Soviet Union and began to confront it instead

In 1980 the USA broke off diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and the US Senate refused to sign SALT 2, which had been signed by Carter and Brezhnev in 1979

• The USA began to build up its own conventional and nuclear weapons. It began to develop cruise and Pershing missiles for deployment in Europe

• The Soviets responded by developing their own medium-range missiles, the SS20 missile

In this way, the US-Soviet arms race began to speed up again, as more nuclear weapons were produced and deployed

The USA boycotted the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow in retaliation for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

In retaliation for the US boycott of the Moscow Olympics, the Soviet Union boycotted 1984 Olympic games in Los Angeles

This brought to an end the cooperation and sporting competition between the USA and the Soviet Union that characterised Detente

The USA

• Soviet invasion persuaded many Americans that the Soviet Union could not be trusted

• This helped lead to the election of President Reagan in 1980. He was an anti-communist with a tough attitude towards the Soviet Union

The Soviet Union

• Soviet Union troops remained in Afghanistan to keep Barbrak Karmal in power

• These troops came under repeated attack from the Mujahideen, leading to rising casualties on both sides

• The pressure was put on the Soviet leadership to end the increasingly unpopular war