Afghanistan Crystal Mancilla Michelle Martinez

Brezhnev’s Foreign Problems

Brezhnev’s Doctrine (November 1968) ❖ The Soviet Union wanted to come to an agreement on arms limitation with the USA to prevent war ❖ Czechoslovak government introduced reforms that went against the communist regime ❖ Brezhnev stated that all communist regimes were to remain communist and he would not let them be overthrown internally nor externally

Agreement with the USA ❖ The USA and the USSR wanted to avoid nuclear war ❖ In May 1972 the USA and the USSR came to an agreement on arm limitations ❖ The Helsinki Final Act in 1975 finalised the post-war frontiers in Central and Eastern Europe ❖ Soviets agreed to comply with international conventions on human rights

Involvement in Africa and the Solidarity Movement ❖ The Portuguese withdrew from their African colonies after the Portuguese revolution in 1974 ❖ Marxists groups first recruited the assistance of the Cubans and then the Soviets ❖ The Soviets put an end to regime of Haile Selassie in Ethiopia and put in place a communist revolutionary government

Involvement in Africa and the Solidarity Movement (Cont.) ❖ The Solidarity movement started in the late 1970s in Poland ❖ The USSR wanted to invoke the Brezhnev Doctrine however due to its involvement in Afghanistan it was reluctant to do so

The USSR’s involvement in Afghanistan ❖ The USSR wanted to compete with Britain for power in Afghanistan ❖ The USSR military had trained Afghan officers which made them supportive of the Marxist cause in their own country ❖ The Afghan army took power in 1978 and killed the president and prime minister ❖ Nur Muhammad Taraki became the president of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA) and was put into power the Marxist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA)

The USSR’s involvement in Afghanistan (Cont.) ❖ The USSR signed an agreement with Afghanistan in December 1978 ❖ The Afghan government became more reliant on Soviet support which weakened the moral authority of the government ❖ The Mujahideen (rebel forces) started to object to the PDPA and the role of religious bodies in Afghanistan was starting to become more important

The USSR’s involvement in Afghanistan (Cont.) ❖ In 1979 Taraki was overthrown by Hafizullah Amin ❖ The USSR invaded Afghanistan in December 1979 ❖ Within the Soviet government there were disputes on why to proceed and how to proceed ❖ The KGB seemed to want a limited operation which would stabilize the situation and prevent it from spreading into surrounding countries ❖ The defence ministry wanted to overthrow the PDPA to prevent Pakistan or Iran from invading Afghanistan ❖ The Soviet army executed Amin and all those who saw the assassination

The USSR’s involvement in Afghanistan (Cont.) ❖ This was the start of a ten year intervention in Afghanistan which cost the USSR many lives and billions of dollars ❖ The US limited grain sales to the USSR and also boycotted the 1980 summer Olympics which were due to be held in Moscow ❖ The rebels received the support from the US and President Carter allowed the CIA to conduct operations in Afghanistan

❖ By 1982 the USSR realized that it could not win the war in Afghanistan but refused to admit defeat ❖ Instead it continued a war that was costly and very unpopular as it had invoked the Brezhnev Doctrine and could not withdraw The USSR’s involvement in Afghanistan (Cont.)

Youtube Video

OPVL- Student Activity The authorization to invade Afghanistan, December 12, The Soviet leadership was so anxious about maintaining secrecy that they hand-wrote the document and circulated to individual Kremlin leaders for their signatures, which appear diagonally across the page. [Source: Fond-89]

OPVL ❖ Origin: Primary, December 12, ❖ Purpose: To give the authorization to invade Afghanistan ➢ Hand-written → To keep secrecy ❖ Value: Official view of the Soviet Leadership ❖ Limitation: Translation: Russian → English