Transcript Iran, the Soviet-Afghan War, and the collapse of the USSR

Iran
Mohammed Mossadeq
Muhammad Reza-Shah Pahlavi
Ayatollah Khomeini
1979 Revolution – US Embassy
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Afghanistan:
A Soviet Vietnam
Soviet-Afghan War
When?
1979-1989
Why?
1. The new communist regime in
Afghanistan was threatened with
overthrow?
2. The Afghan mujahedin (muslim holy
warriors) might spread their ideas to
other Soviet Muslim republics.
3. Soviets wanted control of the Strait of
Hormuz through which passes much of
the world’s oil.
Similar to Vietnam
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120,000 Soviet troops sent
15,000 died
No end in sight
Morale and drug problems
Government told people little
Afghans received arms from US
Soviets pull out in 1989
Why did communism collapse?
• Doomed from the start? (No incentive for
new ideas)
• Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms
– Last Soviet leader
– Glasnost: greater freedom of speech
– Perestroika: Economic restructuring
– Soviet Union collapsed
Boris Yeltsin
• Won Russian election
• 1st President of Russia
• Brought democracy back to
Russia…for awhile
Vladimir Putin
Commonwealth of Independent
States (CIS)