The United States and the Soviet-Afghan War In December of 1970 the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan with a force of 30,000 troops in order to assist the communist government and setup a client state (“Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan”). This invasion marked the start of the Soviet-Afghan war, a long drawn out war due to the United States funding the Afghan freedom fighters who fought against the invading Soviet Union only to make the war longer and more expensive for them. The war would eventually end with a Soviet withdrawal and leave Afghanistan with a radical muslim group known as Al-Qaeda. This group known as Al-Qaeda would go on to be known as one of the largest terrorist organizations and commit terrorist attacks against the the very
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Afghanistan fell to a communist party after the coup and by December 1979 the people of Afghanistan were rebelling against the government and it seemed the status of the communist party was in danger (Hammond). The Soviet Union invaded in order to set up a client state and keep Afghanistan under communism. In doing this two things would be accomplished, the Soviet Union would be one step closer to surrounding its borders with friendly, subservient states giving themselves a buffer zone (Hammond). The other would be a practice of the “Brezhnev Doctrine” the Soviet view that if any of its communist client regimes is threatened, then the Soviet Union has the right to intervene (Hammond). Of course, these are only two factors as to why the Soviets invaded. Meanwhile the Soviets were taking control of cities, larger towns and major garrisons there were guerrilla forces known as freedom fighters, or the Mujahideen who fought back and were generally successful at avoiding the soviet attacks when they wanted to. Eventually the war settled down to a stalemate, the Mujahideen were able to fight back against the Soviets, however they were uncoordinated and lacked quality arms and were not able to decisively win against their enemies (“Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan”). Essentially the guerrilla forces were able to poke at and avoid …show more content…
This included cash, training to guerrilla forces, funded propaganda and manipulated politics (“Ghost wars… Afghanistan”). Anti-aircraft weaponry would help the freedom fighters destroy the modern helicopters the Soviet Union was using, which would result in a huge cost of war to the Soviets. Attack helicopters do not come cheap, for everyone that is destroyed that is a huge cost to the Soviets, which means good for both the freedom fighters, and the cold war enemies of the U.S.S.R. While simply giving weapons, money and training to the Mujahideen the war became a slow loss for the Soviets, as they slowly lost more and more money. The war was bankrupting them and eventually they would have to pull out of the
Afghanistan fell to a communist party after the coup and by December 1979 the people of Afghanistan were rebelling against the government and it seemed the status of the communist party was in danger (Hammond). The Soviet Union invaded in order to set up a client state and keep Afghanistan under communism. In doing this two things would be accomplished, the Soviet Union would be one step closer to surrounding its borders with friendly, subservient states giving themselves a buffer zone (Hammond). The other would be a practice of the “Brezhnev Doctrine” the Soviet view that if any of its communist client regimes is threatened, then the Soviet Union has the right to intervene (Hammond). Of course, these are only two factors as to why the Soviets invaded. Meanwhile the Soviets were taking control of cities, larger towns and major garrisons there were guerrilla forces known as freedom fighters, or the Mujahideen who fought back and were generally successful at avoiding the soviet attacks when they wanted to. Eventually the war settled down to a stalemate, the Mujahideen were able to fight back against the Soviets, however they were uncoordinated and lacked quality arms and were not able to decisively win against their enemies (“Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan”). Essentially the guerrilla forces were able to poke at and avoid …show more content…
This included cash, training to guerrilla forces, funded propaganda and manipulated politics (“Ghost wars… Afghanistan”). Anti-aircraft weaponry would help the freedom fighters destroy the modern helicopters the Soviet Union was using, which would result in a huge cost of war to the Soviets. Attack helicopters do not come cheap, for everyone that is destroyed that is a huge cost to the Soviets, which means good for both the freedom fighters, and the cold war enemies of the U.S.S.R. While simply giving weapons, money and training to the Mujahideen the war became a slow loss for the Soviets, as they slowly lost more and more money. The war was bankrupting them and eventually they would have to pull out of the