Effects of the Soviet's Invasion of Afghanistan
grain production plummeted to 3.5% post-war
war contintued for 3 more years against Najibullah, mines were a problem
Al Qaeda and the Taliban formed after this
invasion was a failure, low morale, 15,000 Soviet soldiers were killed 35,000 wounded, 1 million afghans killed, Carter prohibited trade with Soviets after invasion and boycotted Moscow Olympic games in 1980, we spent a lot of money trying to support aghan resistance group, economic production went down (curtailed)
leaders of Afghanistan, Noor Muhammed Taraki, Hafizullah Amin killed Taraki (suffocated with pillows. woah.), KGB killed Amin (not loyal to Soviets, didn't like his ways, suspected him of killing Taraki), Babrak Karmal became presiddent, Karmal resigned and Muhammed Najibullah came to power
Soviet Union forces (marxists peoples democratric party of afghanistan, india) vs islamist mujahideen (us, pakistan, china, gb, saudi arabia, many others)
why? to support gov't of PDPA against mujahideen, preserve communism, soviets didn't like Amins way of rule
already in a civil war with Amin, russian paratroopers landed in Kabul, killed amin and placed Babrak Kamal in his place, invited in by the communist gov't, initially just wanted to guard cities and buildings, afghans staged ambushes and sniper attacks, soviets had bombing and mining, turning point where we supplied surface to air missiles to mujahideen, victory in April 1988, Gorbachev withdrew his troops
lasted from 1979-1989, US sent Aghanistan money, aid, weapons to fight back
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