The Soviet Union's Costly War In Afghanistan: A Historical Perspective

The Soviet-Afghan War was a conflict fought in the Soviet-controlled Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. The war was a major conflict of the Cold War, as it saw extensive fighting between the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, the Soviet Union, and their allied paramilitary groups against the Afghan mujahideen and their foreign fighters.

The war began on 25 December 1979, when the Soviets brought their 40th Army to fight in Afghanistan. The Soviets' entry to the country caused an immediate increase in the presence of foreign involvement, and Islamists from around the world joined the mujahideen. The mujahideen were supported by many countries, including Pakistan, the United States, and Saudi Arabia. The war resulted in the deaths of approximately 3,000,000 Afghans, while millions more fled the country as refugees.

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was a watershed event of the Cold War, marking the only time the Soviet Union invaded a country outside the Eastern Bloc. It was also the first time the USSR had used its forces to invade a nation outside of the Eastern Bloc. The invasion was met with worldwide condemnation and was seen as a blatant attempt to overthrow a sovereign government. The war ended in February 1989, when the Soviets decided to leave Afghanistan after ten years of fighting with no end in sight.

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan began on Christmas Eve 1979, with the USSR air-dropping elite troops into principal Afghan cities

The invasion was the culmination of growing Soviet domination going back to 1973, when Mohammed Daoud, the former Afghan Prime Minister, launched a successful coup against King Zahir. Daoud's coup was dependent on pro-Soviet military and political factions, and he enjoyed the support of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA).

In April 1978, soldiers aligned with the "Khalq" faction of the PDPA executed Daoud and his family. In the following days, Nur Mohammad Taraki became Prime Minister, and Babrak Karmal, from Daoud's party, became Deputy Prime Minister.

In the summer of 1979, Hafizullah Amin, a longtime ally of Taraki, received word that Karmal was leading a plot to overthrow the Taraki regime. Amin took the opportunity to consolidate his power, purging and executing many Parchamists. This internal strife damaged the Kabul government's major national program, which was to bring the Communist revolution to the Islamic tribal areas beyond Kabul.

By mid-1979, Moscow was searching to replace Taraki and Amin, and dispatched combat troops to Bagram Air Base outside of Kabul. This move prompted the Carter administration to begin supplying non-lethal aid to Afghan mujahedeen, or Islamic insurgents.

Forces loyal to Amin then executed Taraki in October—a move that infuriated Moscow. By the winter of 1979, the Afghan Army was unable to provide basic security to the government against the onslaught of Islamic fighters nearing Kabul. The Soviets then invaded. Soviet troops killed Amin and installed Babrak Karmal as the Soviet's puppet head of government.

The invasion triggered a brutal, nine-year-long Afghan civil war, and contributed significantly to the USSR's later collapse.

The invasion was the first time the USSR had used its forces to invade a nation outside of the Eastern Bloc

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was the first time the USSR had used its forces to invade a nation outside of the Eastern Bloc. The invasion began on Christmas Eve 1979, when the Soviets air-dropped elite troops into principal Afghan cities and deployed motorized divisions across the border. The invasion was the culmination of growing Soviet domination going back to 1973, when Mohammed Daoud, the former Afghan Prime Minister, launched a successful coup against King Zahir. Although Daoud himself was more nationalist than socialist, his coup was dependent on pro-Soviet military and political factions.

The invasion was also a strategic decision met by nearly worldwide condemnation. The massive, lightning-fast military maneuvers and brazenness of Soviet political objectives constituted an "invasion" of Afghanistan, but the word "intervention" more accurately describes these events. Leaders in the Kremlin had hoped that a rapid and complete military takeover would secure Afghanistan's place as an exemplar of the Brezhnev Doctrine, which held that once a country became socialist, Moscow would never permit it to return to the capitalist camp.

The invasion was also a watershed event of the Cold War, marking the only time the Soviet Union invaded a country outside the Eastern Bloc. The Eastern Bloc was a coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were aligned with the Soviet Union and existed during the Cold War (1947-1991). These states followed the ideology of Marxism-Leninism, in opposition to the capitalist Western Bloc.

The invasion of Afghanistan was also the first time the Soviet Union had used its forces to invade a nation outside of the Eastern Bloc since World War II. The Eastern Bloc countries formed a "buffer zone" for the USSR, mitigating the potential consequences of invasion from the West.

The USSR's invasion was an attempt to uphold the Brezhnev Doctrine, which stated that once a country became socialist, Moscow would never permit it to return to the capitalist camp

The Brezhnev Doctrine was a Soviet foreign policy outlined in 1968 by Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. It stated that any threat to a Warsaw Pact country was a threat to European socialism as a whole, and that the Soviet Union would intervene, militarily if necessary, to protect socialism in Eastern Europe.

The doctrine was largely a response to the Prague Spring, a period of liberalization instituted in Czechoslovakia by its new leader, Alexander Dubček, in 1968. The Soviets viewed this as a counterrevolution, and on 3 August 1968, Brezhnev declared that all socialist countries had a duty to support and defend socialist gains. Less than three weeks later, on 20 August, Soviet forces invaded Czechoslovakia, and hardliners were returned to power.

The Brezhnev Doctrine was used to justify the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The Soviets sought to prop up the country's communist government in its battle with anti-communist Muslim guerrillas. Afghanistan had long been a geopolitical pawn in what was known as "The Great Game" between the Tsarist Russian and British empires. The country's instability and its leaders' attempts to balance relations with the Soviets and the West led to the rise of Hafizullah Amin, who was viewed as a threat to the Central Asian Republics of the Soviet Union.

Fearing that Amin's regime would create weaknesses that the US could exploit, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan on 25 December 1979, killing Amin and installing Babrak Karmal as the new leader. The invasion was the first time the USSR had used its forces to invade a nation outside the Eastern Bloc. The war lasted until 1989, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 1 million civilians and some 125,000 Afghan, Soviet, and other combatants.

The war was a quagmire for the Soviet Union, contributing significantly to its eventual collapse and breakup. It demonstrated that the Soviets were unable to control the people and were treated as invaders. It also created a cleavage between the party and the military, and new forms of political participation emerged, such as civil organizations of war veterans, which weakened the political hegemony of the communist party.

The invasion was met with worldwide condemnation, and the US placed sanctions and embargoes on the USSR

The invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union was met with worldwide condemnation, and the US placed sanctions and embargoes on the USSR.

The invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union was met with worldwide condemnation. The US was particularly vocal in its criticism of the invasion, with President Jimmy Carter denouncing the Soviet aggression in a letter to Brezhnev and during his State of the Union address, where he announced his own doctrine vowing to protect Middle Eastern oil supplies from encroaching Soviet power. The US also enacted economic sanctions and trade embargoes against the Soviet Union, and called for a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

The invasion was a watershed event of the Cold War, marking the only time the Soviet Union invaded a country outside the Eastern Bloc. The invasion was a strategic decision by the Soviet Union to maintain a friendly and socialist government on its border. The US and its European allies, guided by their own doctrine of containment, sharply criticised the Soviet move into Afghanistan and devised numerous measures to compel Moscow to withdraw.

The war resulted in the deaths of approximately 3,000,000 Afghans, with millions more fleeing the country as refugees

The Soviet-Afghan War, which lasted from 1979 to 1989, resulted in the deaths of approximately 3,000,000 Afghans, with millions more fleeing the country as refugees. The war was fought between the Soviet Union and the Afghan mujahideen, who were supported by various countries, including Pakistan, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Iran, and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf.

The war began in December 1979, when the Soviets brought their 40th Army to Afghanistan to support the local pro-Soviet government. The Soviet Union's entry into the country caused an immediate increase in foreign involvement, with Islamists from around the world joining the mujahideen. The mujahideen, who blended in with the local population, were able to evade the Soviet military's attacks. The Soviets responded by bombing and depopulating the rural areas, causing a massive flight of civilians from the countryside. By 1982, 2.8 million Afghans had sought asylum in Pakistan, and another 1.5 million had fled to Iran.

The mujahideen were eventually able to neutralise Soviet air power through the use of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles supplied by the United States. The mujahideen were fragmented politically into a handful of independent groups, and their military efforts remained uncoordinated throughout the war. The quality of their arms and combat organisation gradually improved due to experience and the large quantity of arms and other war matériel shipped to the rebels via Pakistan.

The war in Afghanistan became a quagmire for the Soviet Union, which suffered some 15,000 dead and many more injured. The conflict also wreaked havoc on Afghanistan, with an estimated 1 million civilians and some 125,000 Afghan, Soviet, and other combatants killed. The war also had a severe impact on the Soviet Union's economy and national prestige. It is also considered a significant factor that contributed to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.

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