Soviet Union Invasion and the United States Response

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1980 Olympics in Moscow (Newell, 174). The Soviet Union and United States relations were severely damaged by the Soviet Union’s actions.

As stated previously, Soviet Union and United States relations were severely damaged. The United States action’s showed that the relationship with the Soviet Union was very much damaged by the invasion. President Jimmy Carter said that the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was “the gravest threat to world peace since WWII” (Hartman, 468). In 1980, Ronald Reagan was elected president. Reagan called the Soviet Union the “Evil Empire”. When elected, President Ronald Reagan promised an even more anti-communist foreign policy. Reagan’s approach to the Soviet invasion was almost the same as President Carter, except he promised a more harsh approach towards communism. Reagan in office didn’t change the Soviet Union and United States relations. Reagan made it clear he didn’t like the Soviet Union. Reagan took a better approach during his presidency. Some of President Carter’s actions didn’t affect the Soviets in Afghanistan. Boycotting the olympics made the United States look childish. Reagan overall did a better job in responding to the Soviet Union Invasion of Afghanistan.

In December of of 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan to try to spread the communist government. This began a frustrating military conflict with Afghanistan and Soviet Union. Almost an entire decade of fighting started and neither the Soviet Union or Afghanistan could gain ground on the other side. In the end neither side had an outright victory. The Soviet Union’ gamble to invade had a costly return. Around 15,000 Russian soldiers died in Afghanistan. The Soviet Union also got major debt problems. The cost was billions of dollars. The invasion also made the not so good relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union got even worse. President Carter didn’t like the Soviets actions and took actions that showed relations were badly hurt. In 1988 the Soviet Union signed the Geneva Accords with the United States, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The Geneva Accords was a timetable for the Soviets withdrawal from Afghanistan. Finally on February 15,1989 the Soviet Union left Afghanistan. The occupation lasted almost ten years and nothing was really accomplished. The Soviet Union made a bad choice when they decided to invade Afghanistan.