Why didn't China support its ally, the Soviet Union, during the Soviet-Afghan war?
China supported its ally, the United States, during the Soviet-Afghan war. China provided training, safe havens, weapons, and supplies to the mujahedeen and Maoist groups fighting the Soviets alongside the US and Pakistan during the Soviet-Afghan war. Chinese landmines, small-arms, rocket artillery, and crew-serviced weapons extracted a toll on Soviet and Afghan government forces; they were also in many cases compatible with captured Soviet-produced weapons as they were Chinese copies of Soviet designs. In return, the US sold China weapons in the 80s after removing the ban on arms sales to China in 1981.China has sought to downplay its participation as it doesn’t fit with the current image of nonintervention China is attempting to cultivate, and the intervention had a rather bloody decades-long blowback for China in its neighboring province of Xinjiang (ditto with the US and Pakistan, of course). Also, the US is now cultivated as enemy-number-one in official Chinese discourse making the late-Cold War alliance of convenience a bit of an embarrassment (for both sides, really).
Was China wrong supporting Afghan Mujahideen against the Soviet Union?
I’ll take a slightly controversial stand and say no, China and the US were not wrong to support the Afghan mujaheddin against the Soviet Union. Terrorism is a joke compared to the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union itself has a coterie of left-wing terrorist groups dependent upon it for funding and support that were active in staging terrorist attacks world-wide, and by supporting the Afghan mujaheddin against the Soviet Union we traded a greater, more dangerous enemy for a smaller, fractious one. Both the US and China have been able to take advantage of the strategic space afforded by the Soviet Union’s disintegration to aggrandize their own interests in sphere’s once dominated by the Soviet Union. Terrorists have no technological or industrial base and will always be nothing more than a nuisance. The Soviet Union at it’s peak was a behemoth stretching from Central Germany to the Pacific that could feasibly put Army Groups across from the Cliff’s of Dover (or on the banks of the Liao River) in the space of months. The Mujaheddin can manufacture AK-47 knockoffs and fertilizer bombs. While unrest in Xinjiang is annoying as the blowback from the Afghan war continues, it is a minor annoyance compared to having an intact Soviet Union on China’s northern border.
Why did the U.S. support the Mujahideen against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan?
The U.S. lended massive support to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan in an attempt to to stop the Soviet Union from gaining influence in that area. Like in most proxy battles fought during the cold war, the attempt was to weaken the other state. But in the intoxication of weakening Soviet Union, the only world power that has opposed America since the end of World War II, America paid for and persuaded Afghans, and Muslims from other parts of the Muslim world, to fight a religious war. The Soviet Union was a state of no religion, as Marx famously said "Religion is the opiate of the people." That resulted in a strong sentiment in the Muslim world that an act of aggression was committed against it, and it was moral and virtuous for it to fight against it. America capitalized on this sentiment, and helped train and arm Aghan Mujahideen. It also gave them ideological recognition, as Pres. Ronald Reagen once famously compared them to the American founding fathers who used military tactics to allow a morally sound idea to succeed. However, channeling this sentiment in the Muslim world by equipping the interested parties with weapons and training and moral legitimacy had huge consequences in the long run. That same group of people eventually took control of Afghanistan and allowed it to be used for the attacks in New York and Washington D.C. on September 11th, 2001. It plays a very significant role in the terrorism movements emanating from the Islamic world. So, the US did defeat the Soviet Union, but at a cost. A cost many Americans wouldn't have been willing to pay had they been educated on the details of how the governments they elected chose to conduct themselves.
Why did the U.S. take issue with the Soviets being in Afghanistan?
The question is based on a false premise. The US had began officially supporting Islamist's known as the Afghan Mujahideen in June 1979. The socialist PDPA government had signed a mutual defender treaty with the neighbouring Soviet Union in the previous year. Under the treaty, the Afghans could request military assistance, if the state was under threat. Knowing this, National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski advised President Carter, to officially support the Islamist rebels (covert support had already been given), in cooperation with Pakistani Intelligence (ISI). The goal of the operation was to bring the government to the point of collapse, trigger the defender pact, and oblige the Soviets to intervene. The outrage expressed by the US was just a charade. Carter's State of the Union address in January 1980, was pure fabrication made up by Brzezinski for maximum propaganda effect.In October 1979, the Afghan President Taraki, was assassinated by close advisor, and CIA mole Hafizullah Amin in a coup, and Amin assumed Presidency. The power struggle inside the PDPA that followed, and the widening insurgency, brought the state to near collapse. Taraki had made frequent requests for Soviet intervention before the coup. The Soviet leadership was very reluctant to become involved, believing it could be a trap. As order was breaking down in December, Amin also requested assistance in the north. Finally, convinced Amin was not to trusted, the Soviets intervened in late December, removing Amin. How Jimmy Carter and I Started the Mujahideen
Why did the Soviets invade Afghanistan in the late 1970's?
The Soviets had a puppet government there that was in danger of falling, and they were "invited" in to the country. They desired a satellite state that would be adjacent to Iran (although they had other shared borders) and Pakistan - both were US allies at the time. They desired to limit US influence in the region and position their bases to "cushion" or provide a hedge between US allies and actual Soviet territory. There is little of value in Afghanistan, and their prolonged war ended badly. It was largely the introduction of the Stinger missles provided by the CIA that ended the Soviet occupation.
What did Israel think of the U.S.'s support of the Mujahideen during the Soviet-Afghan War?
Ironically enough, Israel was more or less directly one of the main weapons suppliers to the Mujaheddins. The Israelis had huge stocks of soviet made weapons that were seized over the years in wars against the soviet-backed Arabs (keep in mind that in '82 Israel was waging its own war against the PLO in Lebanon) In the beginning of the 80s the former congressman Charlie Wilson (of Charlie Wilson's War) famously brokered the arms trade between Pakistan and Israel, allowing for a steady flow of weaponry into the hands of the Afghan rebels either via the CIA or via direct deals with Pakistani generals.
Why did The Soviet Union invade Afghanistan during the Cold War?
Speaking as someone who grew up in the Soviet Union and my younger brother served there and was seriously wounded, it was officially to support the Marxist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan at their own request, against the Islamist Mujahideen Resistance. You see, Afghanistan had a long relationship with the Soviet Union, almost right after the Marxist revolution of 1917. The US had been supporting Jamiat-e Islami for several years prior to the Soviet invasion. The Afghan military who was very pro Soviet, seized control in 1973. The communists within the military seized complete power in 1978. Shortly thereafter, they signed a peace treaty with the Soviets stating they would invite the Soviets into Afghanistan if they could not control these Muslim militants. A year later the Soviets were invited in. By then militants with US support had completely destabilized Afghanistan. Some of the militants later became the people we now prop up. Others became the Taliban. Bear in mind these are not progressive people. Soviet influence meant lights and running water for Afghanistan.They didn't want the progress they were offered. They certainly didn't want outsiders and Marxists coming in. The USA thinks they can "help" or "change" Afghanistan. Afghanistan doesn't want it. They will reject America just like they rejected the Soviets. The 1 million or so Marxists of Afghanistan have largely perished, changed sides or left Afghanistan. These were the only Afghans interested in what ANY outsider has to offer.
Explain the connection between the united states' effort against the soviets in afghanistan?
Lori, I am taking the same class. I found a few websites that may help you. Here they are. http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07272007/alqaeda.html http://www.fbi.gov/congress/congress01/caruso121801.htm http://www.mideastweb.org/alqaeda.htm http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=islamic_jihad http://www.marxists.org/history/afghanistan/timeline.htm http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report.pdf GOOD LUCK!!!
What were the U.S's plans for a conventional war in the 80s against the Soviets?
I dunno about “hold the line”. Rigid defense was out. A then captain on active duty told this tale of achievement and vexation during practice. On maneuvers, the “Red” team tank regiment was pitted against his recon company. It’s all a game, but I’ll tell the story like it was real.Soviet advance scores breakthrough at the Fulda gap. Expected; US and German forces don’t have much right there on the border. Soviet tank regiment rolls forward and is engaged by recon company. Recon company has some Javelins or whatever they were called then and hits a couple of tanks before retiring. Tank regiment advances some more. Rinse and repeat. They just can’t lay a glove on Capt. Knight and his band.They can gain ground, but it isn’t all that fast a process. And then they lose another tank. Drip drip. Halfway into the battle, the tank regiment is half gone and the recon company is half gone but that’s an insupportable exchange ratio for the Red team. Referee steps in and rules the recon company destroyed, just to give an interesting problem of defense and meeting engagement to the rest of the game.It was a training/real world equivalent of beating the game master and wrecking the game.