Why is the soviet union invaded afghanistan

The new government was led by Nur Muhammad Taraki. In a difficult and confusing struggle for control in Afghan politics, Hafizullah Amin came to power and ordered the death of his predecessor Taraki. The revolt against communist rule which had begun under Taraki worsened under Amin.

The situation became increasingly unstable as:. This was a bare six months before the invasion of Afghanistan. Also of interest: the two influential characters Gromyko and Ustinov were present and corrected him when the infirm Soviet leader made a faux pas.

Robert Gates, From the Shadows , It was a tank-like vehicle which fired thermo-ballistic ammunition. Most shocking was the resulting , Afghanistan veterans who returned home riddled with serious diseases i. The deplorable living conditions and hygiene in the Red Army only compounded the problem. The well-researched findings, especially on the Soviet mass killings of non-combatants are convincing. Written At: University of Queensland, St.

Lucia Brisbane, Australia. Before you download your free e-book, please consider donating to support open access publishing. E-IR is an independent non-profit publisher run by an all volunteer team. Your donations allow us to invest in new open access titles and pay our bandwidth bills to ensure we keep our existing titles free to view. Any amount, in any currency, is appreciated.

Many thanks! Donations are voluntary and not required to download the e-book - your link to download is below. Daryl Morini. This content was originally written for an undergraduate or Master's program. It is published as part of our mission to showcase peer-leading papers written by students during their studies. Instead, he received the following mission briefing: Our borders are threatened. Bibliography Amstutz, J. Washington, D. Andrew, Christopher and Vasili Mitrokhin.

New York: Basic Books. Brezhnev, Leonid Ilyich. Moscow: Novosti Press Agency. Brown, Archie. New York: Oxford University Press. Chernyaev, Anatoly S. The National Security Archive. Crile, George. London: Atlantic Books. Garthoff, Raymond L. Revised Edition. Gates, Robert M. Berkeley: University of California. A low-flying Afghan helicopter gunship in snow-capped valley along Salang highway provides cover for a Soviet convoy sending food and fuel to Kabul, Afghanistan, on January 30, The convoy was attacked by Mujahideen guerrillas with rockets further up the highway, with Afghan government troops returning fire with artillery.

Soviet soldiers direct tank traffic outside Kabul on January 7, Tank units had set up positions all around the capital city. Afghans wait outside the Kabul central Pulicharkhi prison on January 14, , days after the Moscow-installed regime of Babrak Karmal took over.

Although the regime released prisoners from the notorious jail, around 1, residents stormed the compound to set 12 inmates free. Afghan refugees flee fighting, entering Pakistan near Peshawar, in May of Afghan guerrillas, armed and equipped with motorcycles prepare for action with Soviet and government forces, in the mountainous western region of Afghanistan on January 14, The guerrillas were able to slip in and out of neighboring Iran, where they re-supplied from Muslims who sympathized with their struggle.

A mujahideen, a captain in the Afghan army before deserting, poses with a group of rebels near Herat, Afghanistan, on February 28, At the time, it was reported that the Afghan capital of Kabul returned to normal for the first time since bloody anti-Soviet rioting erupted there, killing more than civilians and an unknown number of Soviet and Afghan soldiers.

In this late April photo, Soviet soldiers prepare to change their position while fighting Islamic guerrillas at undisclosed location in Afghanistan. Three Muslim rebels, one armed with a Soviet-made AK assault rifle, left, the others with older bolt-action rifles, pose on horseback during a rebel meeting at village near Herat, on February 15, Despite the presence of Soviet and Afghan government troops in the area, the rebels patrolled the mountain ranges along the Afghan-Iran border.

Soviet troops on the move in Afghanistan, mids. A troop of Muslim rebels equipped with old-fashioned rifles, east of Kabul, on February 21, At the time, anti-Communist rebels were attacking traffic at will on the main supply route from Pakistan to Afghanistan's capital. In this late April photo, Soviet soldiers observe the highlands, while fighting Islamic guerrillas at an undisclosed location in Afghanistan. A Soviet soldier runs for cover, as his armored car comes under fire from Muslim rebels, near the town of Herat, on February 13, Two Soviet soldiers taken prisoner by the Afghan resistance forces loyal to the fundamentalist faction of Hezb-i-Islami in the Afghan province of Zabul in September of The prisoners had told journalists then they would be executed by the Afghan resistance for refusing to covert to Islam to make eligible to be tried by an Islamic court.

A Soviet-style military parade, held on the occasion of 5th anniversary of Afghanistan's Saur Revolution, in the streets of Kabul on April 27, Afghan guerrillas atop a downed Soviet Mi-8 transport helicopter, near the Salang Highway, a vital supply route north from Kabul to the Soviet border, January 12, President Ronald Reagan meets with a group of Afghan freedom fighters to discuss Soviet atrocities in Afghanistan, especially the September massacre of Afghan villagers in Lowgar Province.

A Muslim guerrilla in Afghanistan's Paktia Province shows off his combat ration of peanut butter from the United States, on July 11, Many of his fellow guerrillas battling the Soviet-backed Communist government don't like the American food and had been throwing it away.

Afghan guerrilla leader, Ahmad Shah Massoud, center, is surrounded by Mujahideen commanders at a meeting of the rebels in the Panchir Valley in northeast Afghanistan in Massoud was central to much of the ant-Soviet resistance, and after the troops left, struggled with others to create a new government.

In a few years, Massoud and his forces were fighting the Taliban, and he had become an enemy of Osama bin Laden.