Transcript Afghanistan and the Cold War

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.
• 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 antiCommunist 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.
• Muslim rebels, or mujahideen which means,
“strugglers”
• 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.
The Man Responsible For the Weapons
It Did Not Work…
• Soviet troops were not able to gain access the the
Persian Gulf.
• After a long and unsuccessful conflict with the CIAbacked 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.
• http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSA
EBB57/soviet.html