Soviet-Afghan War
Moscow's Vietnam equivalent
The Soviet-Afghan War was a conflict from 1979 to 1989 in which Soviet forces occupied Afghanistan to support a communist government against mujahideen insurgents.
The United States and other nations backed the resistance fighters, making it a Cold War proxy conflict.
The war ended in Soviet withdrawal and contributed to the USSR's eventual collapse.
The Soviet-Afghan War created the conditions for decades of subsequent Afghan instability.
- freedom fightersArmed opponents of oppression
- AfghanistanCentral Asian landlocked nation
- Khyber PassMountain corridor between nations
- PakistanSouth Asian nation
- Cold WarProlonged East-West standoff
proxy war · Red Army · Taliban · blowback · Saudi Arabia · Kabul · CIA · covert operations · bear trap · insurgent · United States · opium · jihad · holy war · Kremlin · mountains · Reagan · Stinger
- Cold WarBerlin Wall, Iron Curtain, arms race, Warsaw Pact, Cuban Missile Crisis
- PakistanIslamabad, Karachi, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan
- Asian WarsKorean War, Vietnam War, Russo-Japanese War, Pacific War, Chinese Civil War
- Cold War AsiaNorth Korea, Vietnam, Korean War, Mao, Stalin
- Cold War ConflictsKorean War, Vietnam War, Cuban Missile Crisis, Berlin Wall, Bay of Pigs
- Eastern WarsCrimean War, Winter War, Russian Civil War, Russo-Japanese War, Russo-Ukrainian War
Soviet-Afghan Warcivil war
Domestic armed conflict
internal conflict · revolution · coup d'état · negotiated settlement
Soviet-Afghan WarVietnam War
Cold-era Indochina military engagement
Soviet-Afghan Wardétente
Easing of strained relations
peaceful coexistence · diplomatic relations · Geneva Accords · peace agreement · ceasefire