The Soviet intervention in Afghanistan
Soviet forces entered Afghanistan in late December 1979, killing the incumbent leader and installing a replacement, in support of a communist government that was losing control of the country. The war that followed lasted more than nine years, drew very large American, Saudi and Pakistani support to the Afghan resistance channelled through Pakistani intelligence, and ended with a Soviet withdrawal completed on 15 February 1989. It is the mirror image of Vietnam in the proxy pattern, and its consequences ran well past 1991 in the weapons, networks and political structures it left behind.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- Proxy war · concept · not located
- Mikhail Gorbachev · person · Soviet Union · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
The Cold War: A New History
Named as the general narrative authority behind this pack's framing of the period, and cited in the Journey's own declared references. V55 verification basis: NOT consulted in this session. It is also a work with a definite interpretive position — broadly, that Soviet conduct drove the confrontation and that Western pressure and Soviet internal failure ended it — and this pack cites it as one reading rather than as a neutral summary.
Penguin · 2005 · Partly verified
John Lewis Gaddis, The Cold War: A New History, Penguin, 2005
Recorded on Proxy war
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- The Soviet Union is formally dissolved · 1991-12-26
- The Belavezha accords · 1991-12-08
- The attempted coup against Gorbachev · 1991-08-19 – 1991-08-21
- The Berlin Wall opens · 1989-11-09
- The INF Treaty is signed in Washington · 1987-12-08
- The Reykjavik summit · 1986-10-11 – 1986-10-12
- The Vietnam War · 1955–1975 (major US ground commitment 1965–1973)
- The Korean War · 1950-06-25 – 1953-07-27