Why did the Soviets Invade Afghanistan?

To Stop the Spread of Islamic Fundamentalism:

• Bhreznev was concerned that islamic fundamentalism would influence the 30 million muslims in the Soviet Union and cause them to break free from the USSR.
• islamic fundamentalism could spread to the USSR and destablise the country.
• Communism is atheist so this muslim influence would be a huge problem.

To Support the Communist Government:

• The PDPA (Afghanistan Communist Party) were very unpopular - it got so bad that Kamal asked Bhreznev to intervene.
• It became unpopular due to their anti-muslim policies.
• The PDPA was not strong enough to withstand the guerilla tactics of the Mujahideen.

To Expand the Communist Influence:

• The USSR were keen to spread to the Middle East where there are valuable oil supplies.
• America has oil rigs in the Persian Gulf so they could pose a Communist threat to the USA if they had oil rigs there.

To Uphold Previous Treaties with Afghanistan:

• More than 50,000 Soviet troops were in Afghanistan.
• Bhreznev claimed that they were only conforming with the Treaty of Friendship.
• He used the Friendship Treaty as an excuse to invade but also used the Bhreznev Doctrine as a justification to invade.

Why were the USA concerned about the Soviet involvement in Afghanistan?

• Some Americans accused Carter of being weak so he used the invasion as a way of proving his strength and used a furm approach to dealing with it.
• The USA feared Soviet naval control of the Arabian sea.
• The USA feared the threat that the Soviets imposed on the Persian Gulf and their oil supplies.