The Soviet-Afghan War 1979-89

The Soviet invasion of its neighbour Afghanistan in December 1979 sparked a bloody nine-year conflict in that country.

Soviet forces withdrew in 1988–89, dooming the communist Afghanistan government to defeat at the hands of the Mujahideen, the Afghan popular resistance backed by the USA and other powers. As Gregory Fremont-Barnes outlines in this short introduction, the Soviet invasion had enormous implications on the global stage; it prompted the US Senate to refuse to ratify the hard-won ...