Soviet Union Invasion and the United States Response

Soviet Union Invasion and the United States Response

In 1973 Mohammed Daoud started a new regime. At the time, the king of Afghanistan, Zahir Shah, was in Italy having an operation. While King Shah was in Afghanistan, Daoud organized a coup. When he took over, he named himself the first president of Afghanistan instead of naming himself King. In his years as president, Daoud made many changes. In 1977, Daoud had a meeting in Moscow. During the meeting, the Russians indicated that they were not supportive of the Afghans aligning with American NATO forces. President Daoud got very angry, because he assumed the Russians were trying to control him. He said, “We will never allow you to dictate to us how to run our country or who we employ in Afghanistan. Afghanistan will remain poor, if necessary, but free in its acts and decisions.” In April of 1978 an Afghan Communist Party leader was murdered. This led to Daoud being overthrown and murdered. After all of the madness, the head of the Communist Party, Mohammad Taraki, took over. A couple of months later, Afghanistan and the Soviet Union signed a friendship treaty that was expected to last twenty years. In September of 1979, Taraki was overthrown and murdered. The Soviet Union saw an opportunity and in December of 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, the United States intervened and stopped the Soviets from furthering the spread of communism.

On December 24, 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan (Office of the Historian). The Soviet Union sent thousands of troop into afghanistan. The Soviet Union invasion is a good example on how the Soviets were trying to spread and expand (Hartman, 468). The invasion also marked the first Soviet military occupation since WWII (Hartman, 468). At the time, the United States had some military presence in the Middle East. The United States also had political presence in the Middle East. The invasion of Afghanistan was an embarrassing display of the United States political and military presence not only in afghanistan, but in the entire Middle East (Newell, 172). The Soviet Union was in Afghanistan lasted ten years. The invasion started a 10 year long attempt by moscow to conquer the civil war going on in Afghanistan. Also, they wanted to keep a nice and socialist government on the border (Office of the Historian). The United States reacted in a way that showed they were surprised and responded in a way that showed this was the United States main priority.

The United States was very surprised about the Soviet Union’s actions. Even though United States officials knew about the movement of Soviet Union troops in 1979, the fact that there was an invasion and their response showed that the United States didn’t actually think the Soviet Union would invade (Newell, 173). United States military started to build up in the Middle East after the invasion in 1979 (Newell, 174). At the time of the invasion, President Carter was in office. President Carter didn’t think the Soviet Union would invade and threaten world peace (history.com Staff). President Carter took action almost immediately. “Let our position be absolutely clear: an attempt by an outside force to gain control of the Persian gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the united states. it will be repelled by use of any means necessary including military” (Newell, 174). Carter asked the senate to postpone the Salt-II Nuclear Weapons Treaty (History.com Staff). President Carter also sent the United States ambassador to the Soviet Union (History.com Staff). Carter also took other actions. He said that if the Soviet Union didn’t withdraw their forces from Afghanistan, the United States would boycott the