Cold War Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and end of détente=== {{Main|Soviet–Afghan War|Carter Doctrine|Foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration|Operation Cyclone|Saur Revolution|Afghan Civil War (1989–1992)}} [[File:SovietInvasionAfghanistanMap.png|thumb|The Soviet invasion during [[Operation Storm-333]] on 26 December 1979]] [[File:Reagan sitting with people from the Afghanistan-Pakistan region in February 1983.jpg|thumb|left|President Reagan publicizes his support by meeting with [[Afghan mujahideen]] leaders in the White House, 1983.]] In April 1978, the communist [[People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan]] (PDPA) seized power in [[Afghanistan]] in the [[Saur Revolution]]. Within months, opponents of the communist regime launched an uprising in eastern Afghanistan that quickly expanded into a [[Afghan conflict|civil war]] waged by guerrilla [[mujahideen]] against government forces countrywide.{{sfn|Hussain|2005|pp=108–109}} The [[Afghan mujahideen|Islamic Unity of Afghanistan Mujahideen]] insurgents received military training and weapons in neighboring [[Pakistan]] and [[China]],{{sfn|Starr|2004|pp=157–158}}{{sfn|Kinsella|1992}} while the Soviet Union sent thousands of military advisers to support the PDPA government.{{sfn|Hussain|2005|pp=108–109}} Meanwhile, increasing friction between the competing factions of the PDPA—the dominant [[Khalq]] and the more moderate [[Parcham]]—resulted in the dismissal of Parchami cabinet members and the arrest of Parchami military officers under the pretext of a Parchami coup. By mid-1979, the United States had started a covert program to assist the mujahideen.{{sfn|Meher|2004|pp=68–69, 94}}<ref>{{cite journal|last=Tobin|first=Conor|title=The Myth of the "Afghan Trap": Zbigniew Brzezinski and Afghanistan, 1978–1979|journal=[[Diplomatic History (journal)|Diplomatic History]]|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|volume=44|issue=2|date=April 2020|pages=237–264|doi=10.1093/dh/dhz065|doi-access=free}}</ref> In September 1979, Khalqist President [[Nur Muhammad Taraki]] was assassinated in a coup within the PDPA orchestrated by fellow Khalq member [[Hafizullah Amin]], who assumed the presidency. Distrusted by the Soviets, Amin was assassinated by Soviet special forces during [[Operation Storm-333]] in December 1979. Afghan forces suffered losses during the Soviet operation; 30 Afghan palace guards and over 300 army guards were killed while another 150 were captured.<ref>{{cite book|author=Martin McCauley |title=Russia, America and the Cold War: 1949–1991|year=2008|edition=Revised 2nd|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r0V-Oxmy9FQC&q=Hafizullah+Amin+personal+guard&pg=PA142 |location=Harlow, UK|publisher=[[Pearson Education]]|isbn=9781405874304}}</ref> Two of Amin's sons, an 11-year-old and a 9-year-old, died from shrapnel wounds sustained during the clashes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8428701.stm|title=How Soviet troops stormed Kabul palace|date=27 December 2009|publisher=[[BBC]]|access-date=1 July 2013}}</ref> In the aftermath of the operation, a total of 1,700 Afghan soldiers who surrendered to Soviet forces were taken as prisoners,<ref name="Lessons from last war">{{Cite web |url=https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB57/essay.html |title=Afghanistan: Lessons from the Last War |access-date=23 March 2023 |website=nsarchive2.gwu.edu}}</ref> and the Soviets installed [[Babrak Karmal]], the leader of the PDPA's Parcham faction, as Amin's successor. Veterans of the Soviet Union's [[Alpha Group]] have stated that Operation Storm-333 was one of the most successful in the unit's history. Documents released following the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] in the 1990s revealed that the Soviet leadership believed Amin had secret contacts within the [[Embassy of the United States, Kabul|American embassy in Kabul]] and "was capable of reaching an agreement with the United States";<ref>[[John K. Cooley]] (2002) ''[[Unholy Wars]]''. [[Pluto Press]]. p. 8. {{ISBN|978-0745319179}}</ref> however, allegations of Amin colluding with the Americans have been widely discredited.<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Steve Coll|last=Coll|first=Steve|title=[[Ghost Wars|Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001]]|publisher=[[Penguin Group]]|year=2004|isbn=9781594200076|pages=47–49|quote=Frustrated and hoping to discredit him, the KGB initially planted false stories that Amin was a CIA agent. In the autumn these rumors rebounded on the KGB in a strange case of "[[Blowback (intelligence)|blowback]]," the term used by spies to describe planted propaganda that filters back to confuse the country that first set the story loose.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=James G. Blight|title=Becoming Enemies: U.S.-Iran Relations and the Iran-Iraq War, 1979–1988|publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] Publishers|year=2012|isbn=978-1-4422-0830-8|page=70}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Seth G. Jones|author-link=Seth Jones (political scientist)|title=In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan|url=https://archive.org/details/ingraveyardofemp00jone_0|url-access=registration|publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]]|year=2010|isbn=9780393071429|pages=[https://archive.org/details/ingraveyardofemp00jone_0/page/16 16]–17|quote='It was total nonsense,' said the CIA's [[Graham E. Fuller|Graham Fuller]]. 'I would have been thrilled to have those kinds of contacts with Amin, but they didn't exist.'}}</ref> The PDBA was tasked to fill the vacuum and carried out a purge of Amin supporters. Soviet troops were deployed to put Afghanistan under Soviet control with Karmal in more substantial numbers, although the Soviet government did not expect to do most of the fighting in Afghanistan. As a result, however, the Soviets were now directly involved in what had been a domestic war in Afghanistan.{{sfn|Kalinovsky|2011|pp=25–28}} Carter responded to the Soviet invasion by withdrawing the [[Strategic Arms Limitation Talks#SALT II Treaty|SALT II]] treaty from ratification, imposing embargoes on grain and technology shipments to the USSR, and demanding a significant increase in military spending, and further announced the [[1980 Summer Olympics boycott|boycott]] of the [[1980 Summer Olympics]] in Moscow, which was joined by 65 other nations.<ref>{{cite book |last=Toohey |first=Kristine |title=The Olympic Games: A Social Science Perspective |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ywy9aslk3M8C&pg=PA100 |date=November 8, 2007 |publisher=CABI |isbn=978-1-84593-355-5 |page=100 |access-date=March 21, 2022 |archive-date=December 29, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211229042751/https://books.google.com/books?id=ywy9aslk3M8C&pg=PA100 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Eaton|first1=Joseph|date=November 2016|title=Reconsidering the 1980 Moscow Olympic Boycott: American Sports Diplomacy in East Asian Perspective|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26376807|journal=Diplomatic History|volume=40|issue=5|pages=845–864|doi=10.1093/dh/dhw026|jstor=26376807|access-date=20 June 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Treadaway |first=Dan |date=5 August 1996 |title=Carter stresses role of Olympics in promoting global harmony |url=https://www.emory.edu/EMORY_REPORT/erarchive/1996/August/ERaug.5/8_5_96carter.html |journal=Emory Report |volume=48| issue = 37}}</ref> He described the Soviet incursion as "the most serious threat to the peace since the Second World War".{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=211}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page