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Foreign interventions by the Soviet Union

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eastern Bloc

Over the course of its history, the Soviet Union intervened in foreign countries on numerous occasions.

YouTube Encyclopedic

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  • USA vs USSR Fight! The Cold War: Crash Course World History #39
  • Foreign Policy: Crash Course Government and Politics #50
  • Top-5 Myths About the Soviet Union #2 - Cold War Documentary
  • Ideology of the Cold War: Capitalism vs Communism
  • Top 7 countries threatened by the Soviet Union with an invasion

Transcription

Hi, I’m John Green, This is Crash Course World History and today we’re gonna talk about the Cold War, which actually lasted into my lifetime, which means that I can bore you with stories from my past like your grandpa does. When I was a kid, they made us practice hiding under our desks in the event of a nuclear attack, because, you know, school desks are super good at repelling radiation. [formica is magical stuff] Mr. Green, Mr. Green! Right, remember in elementary school there was this special guest who’d defected from the Soviet Union, and he had-- --Like this crazy Russian accent and he kept going on and on about how-- Reagan should spit in Gorbachev’s face instead of signing treaties with him. And I was like, whoa dude calm down. You’re in a room full of third graders. And then for like months afterward on the playground, we’d play Reagan:Gorbachev and spit in each other’s faces. Those were the days. Sometimes I forget that you’re me, Me from the Past. [ahhh… so sweet!] Yeah, it’s just really nice to talk to you and feel like you’re lis— You’re boring. Cue the intro. [ah ha! there it is.] [BEST] [intro music] [intro music] [intro music] [intro music] [intro music] [EVER!] So the Cold War was a rivalry between the USSR and the USA that played out globally. We’ve tried to shy away from calling conflicts ideological or civilizational here on Crash Course, but in this case, the “clash of civilizations” model really does apply. Socialism, at least as Marx constructed it, wanted to take over the world, and many Soviets saw themselves in a conflict with bourgeois capitalism itself. And the Soviets saw American rebuilding efforts in Europe and Japan as the U.S. trying to expand its markets, which, by the way, is exactly what we were doing. So the U.S. feared that the USSR wanted to destroy democratic and capitalist institutions. And the Soviets feared that the US wanted to use its money and power to dominate Europe and eventually destroy the Soviet system. And both parties were right to be worried. It’s not paranoia if they really are out to get you. [tinfoil hats, always in season] Now of course we’ve seen a lot of geopolitical struggles between major world powers here on Crash Course, but this time there was the special added bonus that war could lead to the destruction of the human species. That was new for world history, and it’s worth remembering: It’s still new. Here’s the period of time we’ve discussed on Crash Course. And this is how long we’ve had the technological capability to exterminate ourselves. So that’s worrisome. Immediately after World War II, the Soviets created a sphere of influence in eastern Europe, dominating the countries where the Red Army had pushed back the Nazis, which is why Winston Churchill famously said in 1946 that an “Iron Curtain” had descended across Europe. While the dates of the Cold War are usually given between 1945 and 1990, a number of historians will tell you that it actually started during World War II. Stalin’s distrust of the U.S. and Britain kept growing as they refused to invade Europe and open up a second front against the Nazis. And some even say that the decision to drop the first Atomic Bombs on Japan was motivated in part by a desire to intimidate the Soviets. That sort of worked, but only insofar as it motivated the Soviets to develop atomic bombs of their own— they successfully tested their first one in 1949. From the beginning, the U.S had the advantage because it had more money and power and could provide Europe protection what with its army and one of a kind nuclear arsenal while Europe rebuilt. The USSR had to rebuild itself, and also they had the significant disadvantage of being controlled by noted asshat Joseph Stalin. I will remind you, it’s not cursing if he’s wearing an ass for a hat. [way to hang your asshat on a technicality] Oh, I guess it’s time for the open letter. [professionally propels toward prop like a perfectly poised & practiced projectile] An Open Letter to Joseph Stalin. But first, let’s see what’s in the secret compartment today. Oh, it’s silly putty. Silly putty: the thing that won the Cold War. [gotta be a Reagan joke in there somewhere] This is exactly the kind of useless consumer good that would never have been produced in the Soviet Union. And it is because we had so much more consumer spending, on stuff like silly putty, that we won the Cold War. Go team! Dear Joseph Stalin, You really sucked. There was a great moment in your life, at your first wife’s funeral, when you said, “I don’t think I shall ever love again.” And then later, you had that wife’s whole family killed. [solid case for NOT putting a ring on it] Putting aside the fact that you’re responsible for tens of millions of deaths, I don’t like you because of the way that you treated your son, Yakov. I mean, you were really mean to him and then he shot himself and he didn’t die and you said, “He can’t even shoot straight.” And then later, when he was captured during World War II, you had a chance to exchange prisoners for him, but you declined. And then he died in a prison camp. You were a terrible leader, a terrible person, and a terrible father. Best wishes, John Green Alright, let’s go to the Thought Bubble. Europe was the first battleground of the Cold War, especially Germany, which was divided into 2 parts with the former capital, Berlin, also divided into 2 parts. and yes, I know the western part was divided into smaller occupation zones, but I’m simplifying. In 1948, the Soviets tried to cut off West Berlin, by closing the main road that led into the city, but the Berlin airlift stopped them. And then in 1961, the Soviets tried again and this time they were much more successful building a wall around West Berlin, although it’s worth noting that the thing was up for less than 30 years. I mean, Meatloaf’s career has lasted longer than the Berlin Wall did.[Oh y-- NOOO!!] The U.S. response to the Soviets was a policy called containment; it basically involved stopping the spread of communism by standing up to the Soviets wherever they seemed to want to expand. In Europe this meant spending a lot of money. First the Marshall Plan spent $13 billion on re-building western Europe with grants and credits that Europeans would spend on American consumer goods and on construction. Capitalism’s cheap food and plentiful stuff, it was hoped, would stop the spread of communism. The US also tried to slow the spread of communism by founding NATO and with CIA interventions in elections [looked better on paper] where communists had a chance, as in Italy. But despite all the great spy novels and shaken not stirred martinis, the Cold War never did heat up in Europe. Probably the most important part of the Cold War that people just don’t remember these days is the nuclear arms race. Both sides developed nuclear arsenals, the Soviets initially with the help of spies who stole American secrets. Eventually the nuclear arsenals were so big that the U.S. and USSR agreed on a strategy appropriately called MAD, which stood for “mutually assured destruction.” Thanks Thought Bubble. And yes, nuclear weapons were, and are, capable of destroying humanity many times over. [regardless of Iran's access to Photoshop] But only once or twice did we get close to nuclear war: during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and then again in 1983, when we forgot to give the Russians the heads up that we were doing some war games, which made it look like we had launched a first strike. OUR BAD! [closer to ultimate fail than epic fail] But even though mutually assured destruction prevented direct conflict, there was plenty of hot war in the Cold War. The Korean War saw lots of fighting between communists and capitalists, as did the Vietnam War. I mean, these days we remember “the domino effect” as silly paranoia, but after Korea and especially China became communist, Vietnam’s movement toward communism seemed very much a threat to Japan, which the U.S. had helped re-make into a vibrant capitalist ally. So the US got bogged down in one of its longest wars while the Soviets assisted the North Vietnamese army in the Viet Cong. But then we paid them back by supporting the anti-communist mujaheddin after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Of course, as we now know, nobody conquers Afghanistan …unless you are the mongols. [The tune of truly tendering terror to tons of tearfully troubled tribes] So after 10 disastrous years, the Soviets finally abandoned Afghanistan. Some of those mujahedeen later became members of the Taliban, though, so it’s difficult to say that anyone won that war. But it wasn’t just Asia: In Nicaragua, the US supported rebels to overthrow the leftist government; in El Salvador, the US bolstered authoritarian regimes that were threatened by left-wing guerrillas. The United States ended up supporting a lot of awful governments, like the one in Guatemala, which held onto power through the use of death squads. [like i said, looked better on paper] Frankly, all our attempts to stabilize governments in Latin America led to some very unstable Latin American governments, and quite a lot of violence. And then there were the luke-warm conflicts, like The Suez Crisis where British and French paratroopers were sent in to try to stop Egypt from nationalizing the Suez canal. Or all the American covert operations to keep various countries from “falling” to communism. These included the famous CIA-engineered coup to overthrow Iran’s democratically elected prime minister Mohammed Mossadeq after his government attempted to nationalize Iran’s oil industry. And the CIA helping Chile’s General Augusto Pinochet overthrow democratically elected Marxist president Salvador Allende in 1973. And lest we think the Americans were the only bad guys in this, the Soviets used force to crush popular uprisings in Hungary in 1956 and in Czechoslovakia in 1968. So, you may have noticed that our discussion of the Cold War has branched out from Europe to include Asia, and the Middle East, and Latin America. And in fact, almost every part of the globe was involved in some way with the planet being divided into three “worlds.” The first world was the U.S., Western Europe and any place that embraced capitalism and a more or less democratic form of government. The Second World was the Soviet Union and its satellites, mostly the Warsaw Pact nations, China and Cuba. The Third World was everyone else and we don’t use this term anymore because it lumps together a hugely diverse range of countries. We’ll talk more about the specific economic and development challenges faced by the so-called “Third World countries,” but the big one in terms of the Cold War, was that neither the U.S. nor the Soviets wanted any of these countries to remain neutral. Every nation was supposed to pick sides, either capitalist or communist, and while it seems like an easy choice now, in the 50s and 60s, it wasn’t nearly so clear. I mean, for a little while, it seemed like the Soviets might come out ahead, at least in the Third World. For a while, capitalism, and especially the United States, seemed to lose some of its luster. The US propped up dictatorships, had a poor civil rights record, we sucked at women’s gymnastics. Plus, the Soviets were the first to put a satellite, a man, and a dog into space. Plus, Marxists just seemed cooler, which is why you never see Milton Friedman t-shirts... until now available at DFTBA.com. I like that, Stan, but I’m more of a centrist. Can I get a Keynes shirt? Yes. That, now that’s hot. But Soviet socialism did not finally prove to be a viable alternative to industrial capitalism. Over time, state-run economies just generally don’t fare as well as private enterprise, and people like living in a world where they can have more stuff. More importantly, Soviet policies were just bad: collectivized agriculture stymied production and led to famine; suppression of dissent and traditional cultures made people angry; and no one likes suffering the humiliation of driving a Yugo. But why the Cold War ended when it did is one of the most interesting questions of the 20th century. It probably wasn’t Ronald Reagan bankrupting the Soviets, despite what some politicians believe. The USSR had more satellite states that it needed to spend more to prop up than the U.S. had to invest in its Allies. And the Soviet system could never keep up with economic growth in the West. But, probably the individual most responsible for the end of the Cold War was Mikhail Baryshnikov. [Um...] No? Mikhail Gorbachev? Well, that’s boring. [and far less lycra-clad] I always thought the Soviets danced their way to freedom. No? It was Glasnost and Perestroika? [not the cultural resonance of White Nights?] Alright. but Gorbachev’s Perestroika and Glosnost opened up the Soviet political and economic systems with contested local elections, less restricted civil society groups, less censorship, more autonomy for the Soviet Republics, more non-state-run businesses and more autonomy for state-run farms. Glasnost or “openness” led to more information from the west and less censorship led to a flood of criticism as people realized how much poorer the second world was than the first. And one by one, often quite suddenly, former communist states collapsed. In Germany, the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 [pulled down with the Gipper's own hands] and East and West Germany were reunited in 1990. In Poland, the Gdansk dockworker’s union Solidarity turned into a mass political movement and won 99 of the 100 seats it was allowed to contest in the 1989 election. Hungary held multiparty elections in 1990. The same year, mass demonstrations led to elections in Czechoslovakia. In 1993, that country split up into Slovakia and the Czech Republic, the happiest and most mutually beneficial divorce since Cher left Sonny. Of course sometimes the transition away from communism was violent and painful. In Romania, for instance, the communist dictator Ceaucescu held onto power until he was tried and put before a firing squad at the end of 1989. And it took until 1996 for a non-communist government to take power there. And in Yugoslavia, well, not so great. And in Russia, it’s a little bit Putin-ey. Ah! Putin. But just twenty years later, it’s hard to believe that the world was once dominated by two super powers held in check mutually assured destruction. [sure didn't work for Harry & Voldemort] What’s really amazing to me, though, is that until the late 1980s, it felt like the Cold War was gonna go on forever. Time seems to slow as it approaches us, & living in the post-Cold War nuclear age, we should remember that the past feels distant even when it’s near, and that the future seems assured— even though it isn’t. Thanks for watching. I’ll see you next week. [don't ask. you try & corral the talent when they're a NYT best-selling author] Crash Course is produced and directed by Stan Muller. Our script supervisor is Meredith Danko. Our associate producer is Danica Johnson. The show is written by my high school history teacher Raoul Meyer and myself. And our graphics team is Thought Bubble. [where time may be cold, but not too war-y] Last week’s phrase of the week was "Justin Bieber" [Johnny Bookwriter is a full-on Belieber] Thanks for that suggestion. [he said, sincerely] If you’d like to suggest future phrases of the week, you can do so in comments where you can also ask questions about today’s video that will be answered by our team of historians. [or fought out amongst yourselves with varying degrees of merit and clarity] Thanks for watching Crash Course and as we say in my hometown, don’t forget Folly and Desperation Are Ofttimes Hard to Tell Apart.” [Did you know John is a triple threat?] Ow.

Invasions of Afghanistan (1929-1930)

Two Soviet invasions of Afghanistan took place between 1929 and 1930.

The first intervention was a special operation aimed at supporting the ousted king of Afghanistan, Amanullah Khan, in a civil war against the Saqqawists and Basmachi. The Soviets occupied the Balkh Province however they withdrew after the King fled the country. Thus, the Saqqawists took control in January 1929.

The second intervention took place after the Afghan Saqqawist government allowed Basmachi insurgents (an anti-Russian Islamic movement) to operate from northern Afghanistan against the Soviets. Despite the overthrow of Saqqadist government in October 1929 and restoration of the monarchy, Basmachi bases remained in northern Afghanistan with threats of declaring independence from Afghanistan. As such the new Afghan government agreed to a Soviet intervention by June 1930. The result was the Basmachi bases largely being destroyed.

Invasion of China (1934)

In 1934, Ma Zhongying's troops, supported by the Kuomintang government of the Republic of China were on the verge of defeating the Soviet client Sheng Shicai during the Battle of Ürümqi (1933–34) in the Kumul Rebellion.

Ma Zhongying, a Hui (Chinese Muslim), had earlier attended the Whampoa Military Academy in Nanjing in 1929, when it was run by Chiang Kai-shek, who was also the head of the Kuomintang and leader of China.[1][2]

Ma Zhongying then was sent back to Gansu after graduating from the academy and fought in the Kumul Rebellion where, with the tacit support of the Kuomintang government of China, he tried to overthrow the pro-Soviet provincial government first led by Governor Jin Shuren then Sheng Shicai. Ma invaded Xinjiang in support of Kumul Khanate loyalists and received official approval and designation from the Kuomintang as the 36th Division.

In late 1933, the Han Chinese provincial commander General Zhang Peiyuan and his army defected from the provincial government side to Ma Zhongying's side and joined him in waging war against Jin Shuren's provincial government.

In 1934, two brigades of about 7,000 Soviet GPU troops, backed by tanks, airplanes and artillery with mustard gas, crossed the border to assist Sheng Shicai in gaining control of Xinjiang. The brigades were named "Altayiiskii" and "Tarbakhataiskii".[3] Sheng's Manchurian army was being severely beaten by an alliance of the Han Chinese army led by general Zhang Peiyuan, and the 36th Division led by Ma Zhongying.[4] Ma fought under the banner of the Kuomintang Republic of China government. The joint Soviet-White Russian force was called "The Altai Volunteers". Soviet soldiers disguised themselves in uniforms lacking markings, and were dispersed among the White Russians.[5]

Despite his early successes, Zhang's forces were overrun at Kulja and Chuguchak, and he committed suicide after the battle at Muzart Pass to avoid capture.

Even though the Soviets were superior to the 36th Division in both manpower and technology, they were held off for weeks and took severe casualties. The 36th Division managed to halt the Soviet forces from supplying Sheng with military equipment. Chinese Muslim troops led by Ma Shih-ming managed to hold off the superior Red Army forces armed with machine guns, tanks, and planes for about 30 days.[6]

Ma Hushan, Deputy Divisional Commander of the 36th division, became well known for victories over Russian forces during the invasion.[7]

At this point, Chiang Kai-shek was ready to send Huang Shaohong and his expeditionary force which he assembled to assist Ma Zhongying against Sheng, but when Chiang heard about the Soviet invasion, he decided to withdraw to avoid an international incident if his troops directly engaged the Soviets.[8]

Winter War (1939–40)

A Soviet light tank, seen from its left side, is described by the Finnish photographer as advancing aggressively in the snowy forested landscape during the Battle of Kollaa.
Soviet T-26 Model 1937 "advancing aggressively", as described by the photographer, on the eastern side of Kollaa River during the battle of Kollaa

On 30 November 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Finland, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peace Treaty on 13 March 1940. The League of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the Soviet Union from the organisation.

The conflict began after the Soviets sought to obtain some Finnish territory, demanding among other concessions that Finland cede substantial border territories in exchange for land elsewhere, claiming security reasons—primarily the protection of Leningrad, 32 km (20 mi) from the Finnish border. Finland refused, so the USSR invaded the country. Many sources conclude that the Soviet Union had intended to conquer all of Finland, and use the establishment of the puppet Finnish Communist government and the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact's secret protocols as evidence of this,[F 1] while other sources argue against the idea of the full Soviet conquest.[F 2] Finland repelled Soviet attacks for more than two months and inflicted substantial losses on the invaders while temperatures ranged as low as −43 °C (−45 °F). After the Soviet military reorganised and adopted different tactics, they renewed their offensive in February and overcame Finnish defences.

Hostilities ceased in March 1940 with the signing of the Moscow Peace Treaty. Finland ceded 11 percent of its territory representing 30 percent of its economy to the Soviet Union. Soviet losses were heavy, and the country's international reputation suffered. Soviet gains exceeded their pre-war demands and the USSR received substantial territory along Lake Ladoga and in northern Finland. Finland retained its sovereignty and enhanced its international reputation. The poor performance of the Red Army encouraged Adolf Hitler to think that an attack on the Soviet Union would be successful and confirmed negative Western opinions of the Soviet military. After 15 months of Interim Peace, in June 1941, Nazi Germany commenced Operation Barbarossa and the Soviet-Finnish theater of World War II, also known as the Continuation War, flared up again.

World War II (1939–45)

A Soviet T-26 light tank and its crew in Tabriz, Iran.

The Soviet Union policy during World War II was neutrality until August 1939, followed by friendly relations with Germany in order to carve up Eastern Europe. The USSR helped supply oil and munitions to Germany as its armies rolled across Western Europe in May–June 1940. Despite repeated warnings, Stalin refused to believe that Hitler was planning an all-out war on the USSR.[18] Stalin was stunned and temporarily helpless when Hitler invaded in June 1941. Stalin quickly came to terms with Britain and the United States, cemented through a series of summit meetings. The U.S. and Britain supplied war materials in large quantity through Lend Lease.[19] There was some coordination of military action, especially in summer 1944.[20][21]

In 1944–45, the Red Army completely or partially occupied Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, and Norway.[22]

As agreed with the Allies at the Tehran Conference in November 1943 and the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the Soviet Union entered World War II's Pacific Theater within three months of the end of the war in Europe. The invasion began on 9 August 1945, exactly three months after the German surrender on 8 May (9 May, 0:43 Moscow time). Although the commencement of the invasion fell between the American atomic bombing of Hiroshima, on 6 August, and only hours before the Nagasaki bombing on 9 August, the timing of the invasion had been planned well in advance and was determined by the timing of the agreements at Tehran and Yalta, the long-term buildup of Soviet forces in the Far East since Tehran, and the date of the German surrender some three months earlier; on 3 August, Marshal Vasilevsky reported to Premier Joseph Stalin that, if necessary, he could attack on the morning of 5 August. At 11pm Trans-Baikal (UTC+10) time on 8 August 1945, Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov informed Japanese ambassador Naotake Satō that the Soviet Union had declared war on Japan, and that from 9 August the Soviet government would consider itself to be at war with Japan.[23]

Cold War

Korean War (1950–53)

Though not officially belligerent during the Korean War (1950–53), the Soviet Union played a significant, covert role in the conflict; it provided material and medical services, as well as Soviet pilots and aircraft, most notably MiG-15 fighter jets, to aid the North Korean-Chinese forces against the United Nations forces. The Soviets claimed 510 UN aircraft shot down in just the first year of the war and a total of 1,300 during the entire war while losing only 345 of their own.[24]

Hungarian Revolution of 1956

Soviet T-54 tanks in Budapest on 31 October

After Stalinist Hungarian dictator Mátyás Rákosi was replaced by Imre Nagy following Stalin's death[25][failed verification] and Polish reformist Władysław Gomułka was able to enact some reformist requests,[26] large numbers of protesting Hungarians compiled a list of demands,[27] including free secret-ballot elections, independent tribunals, and inquiries into Stalin and Rákosi Hungarian activities. Under the orders of Soviet defense minister Georgy Zhukov, Soviet tanks entered Budapest.[28] Protester attacks at the Parliament forced the collapse of the Soviet-backed government.[29]

The new government that came to power during the revolution formally disbanded the Hungarian secret police, declared its intention to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact and pledged to re-establish free elections. The Soviet Politburo thereafter moved to crush the revolution with a large Soviet force invading Budapest and other regions of the country.[30] Approximately 200,000 Hungarians fled Hungary,[31] some 26,000 Hungarians were put on trial by the new Soviet-installed János Kádár government and, of those, 13,000 were imprisoned.[32] Imre Nagy was executed, along with Pál Maléter and Miklós Gimes, after secret trials in June 1958. By January 1957, the Hungarian government had suppressed all public opposition. These Hungarian government's violent oppressive actions alienated many Western Marxists,[who?] yet strengthened communist control in all the European communist states, cultivating the perception that communism was both irreversible and monolithic.

Invasion of Czechoslovakia (1968)

Czechoslovaks carry their national flag past a burning Soviet tank in Prague.

A period of political liberalization took place in 1968 in Eastern Bloc country Czechoslovakia called the Prague Spring. The event was spurred by several events, including economic reforms that addressed an early 1960s economic downturn.[33][34] In April, Czechoslovakian leader Alexander Dubček launched an "Action Program" of liberalizations, which included increasing freedom of the press, freedom of speech and freedom of movement, along with an economic emphasis on consumer goods, the possibility of a multiparty government and limiting the power of the secret police.[35][36] Initial reaction within the Eastern Bloc was mixed, with Hungary's János Kádár expressing support, while Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and others grew concerned about Dubček's reforms, which they feared might weaken the Eastern Bloc's position during the Cold War.[37][38] On 3 August, representatives from the Soviet Union, East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia met in Bratislava and signed the Bratislava Declaration, which declaration affirmed unshakable fidelity to Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism and declared an implacable struggle against "bourgeois" ideology and all "anti-socialist" forces.[39]

On the night of 20–21 August 1968, Eastern Bloc armies from four Warsaw Pact countries – the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Poland and Hungaryinvaded Czechoslovakia.[40][41] The invasion comported with the Brezhnev Doctrine, a policy of compelling Eastern Bloc states to subordinate national interests to those of the Bloc as a whole and the exercise of a Soviet right to intervene if an Eastern Bloc country appeared to shift towards capitalism.[42][43] The invasion was followed by a wave of emigration, including an estimated 70,000 Czechs initially fleeing, with the total eventually reaching 300,000.[44] In April 1969, Dubček was replaced as first secretary by Gustáv Husák, and a period of "normalization" began.[45] Husák reversed Dubček's reforms, purged the party of liberal members, dismissed opponents from public office, reinstated the power of the police authorities, sought to re-centralize the economy and re-instated the disallowance of political commentary in mainstream media and by persons not considered to have "full political trust".[46][47] The international image of the Soviet Union suffered considerably, especially among Western student movements inspired by the "New Left" and non-Aligned Movement states. Mao Zedong's People's Republic of China, for example, condemned both the Soviets and the Americans as imperialists.

Vietnam War (1964-1975)

A regiment of Soviet military advisors of the 238th Air Defense Missile Regiment of the Vietnam People's Army.

Some 3,300 Soviet military experts, among them spetsnaz, were sent to Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.[48] Within South Vietnam, rumors persisted for years that men with blue eyes were reportedly spotted doing recon missions and testing their new SVD Dragunov sniper rifles. John Stryker Meyer was with Studies and Observation Group RT Idaho and had two encounters with what they believed were spetsnaz units operating in Laos in 1968.

Their mission was twofold. One, help a communist nation defeat an American ally and two, test and evaluate their most sophisticated radars and missiles directly against the best American aircraft had to offer. Soviets recovered at least 2 very important American intelligence gear, a cryptographic code machine and an F-111A escape capsule, which now sits in a Moscow Museum.[49]

Other wars

Soviet "military advisors" played an important role in at least four wars:

Invasion of Afghanistan (1979–89)

Soviet infantry at the time of deployment

During a 1978 coup d' état in Afghanistan, where the communist party took power, it started a series of radical modernization reforms throughout the country that were forced and deeply unpopular, particularly among the more traditional rural population and the established traditional power structures.[54] The regime's nature[55] of vigorously suppressing opposition, including executing thousands of political prisoners, led to the rise of anti-government armed groups, and by April 1979 large parts of the country were in open rebellion.[56] The ruling party itself experienced deep rivalries, and in September 1979 the General Secretary of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), Nur Mohammad Taraki, was murdered under orders of the second-in-command, Hafizullah Amin, which soured relations with the Soviet Union. Eventually the Soviet government, under General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev, decided to deploy the 40th Army on 24 December 1979.[57] Arriving in the capital of Kabul, they staged a coup,[58] killing PDPA general secretary Amin and installing Soviet loyalist Babrak Karmal from a rival faction.[59] The deployment had been variously called an "invasion" (by Western and Non-Aligned media and the rebels) or a legitimate supporting intervention (by the Soviet Union and the Afghan government)[60][61] on the basis of the Brezhnev Doctrine.

In January 1980, foreign ministers from 34 nations of the Islamic Conference adopted a resolution demanding "the immediate, urgent and unconditional withdrawal of Soviet troops" from Afghanistan.[62] The UN General Assembly passed a resolution protesting the Soviet intervention by a vote of 104 (for) to 18 (against), with 18 abstentions and 12 members of the 152-nation Assembly absent or not participating in the vote;[63][64] only Soviet allies Angola, East Germany and Vietnam, along with India, supported the intervention.[65] Afghan insurgents began to receive massive amounts of aid and military training in neighboring Pakistan and China,[66] paid for primarily by the United States and Arab monarchies in the Persian Gulf.[67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74] As documented by the National Security Archive, "the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) played a significant role in asserting U.S. influence in Afghanistan by funding military operations designed to frustrate the Soviet invasion of that country. CIA covert action worked through Pakistani intelligence services to reach Afghan rebel groups."[75] Soviet troops occupied the cities and main arteries of communication, while the mujahideen waged guerrilla war in small groups operating in the almost 80 percent of the country that was outside government and Soviet control, almost exclusively being the rural countryside.[76] The Soviets used their air power to deal harshly with both rebels and civilians, levelling villages to deny safe haven to the mujahideen, destroying vital irrigation ditches, and laying millions of land mines.[77][78][79][80]

The international community imposed numerous sanctions and embargoes against the Soviet Union, and the U.S. led a boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics held in Moscow. The boycott and sanctions exacerbated Cold War tensions and enraged the Soviet government, which later led a revenge boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles.[81] The Soviets initially planned to secure towns and roads, stabilize the government under new leader Karmal, and withdraw within six months or a year. But they were met with fierce resistance from the guerillas,[82] and were stuck in a bloody war that lasted nine years.[83] By the mid-1980s, the Soviet contingent was increased to 108,800 and fighting increased, but the military and diplomatic cost of the war to the USSR was high.[84] By mid-1987 the Soviet Union, now under reformist leader Mikhail Gorbachev, announced it would start withdrawing its forces after meetings with the Afghan government.[85][86] The final withdrawal started on 15 May 1988, and ended on 15 February 1989, leaving government forces alone in the battle against the insurgents, which continued until 1992 when the former Soviet-backed government collapsed. Due to its length, it has sometimes been referred to as the "Soviet Union's Vietnam War" or the "Bear Trap" by the Western media.[87][88][89] The Soviets' failure in the war[90] is thought to be a contributing factor to the fall of the Soviet Union.[91]

As many as a 620,000 Soviet troops participated in the nine-year occupation, and 11,897 were killed and 51,367 were wounded.[92] More than 1,000,000 Afghans—mostly civilians—were killed, and at least 4,000,000 were externally displaced by the fighting.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ See the relevant section and the following sources:[9][10][11][12][13][14]
  2. ^ See the relevant section and the following sources:[15][16][17]

References

  1. ^ Lars-Erik Nyman (1977). Great Britain and Chinese, Russian and Japanese interests in Sinkiang, 1918-1934. Esselte studium. p. 52. ISBN 9124272876. Retrieved 2010-06-28.[verification needed]
  2. ^ Andrew D. W. Forbes (1986). Warlords and Muslims in Chinese Central Asia: a political history of Republican Sinkiang 1911-1949. Cambridge, England: CUP Archive. p. 53. ISBN 0-521-25514-7. Retrieved 2010-06-28.[verification needed]
  3. ^ S. Frederick Starr (2004). Xinjiang: China's Muslim borderland. M.E. Sharpe. p. 79. ISBN 0-7656-1318-2. Retrieved 2010-06-28.[verification needed]
  4. ^ David D. Wang (1999). Under the Soviet shadow: the Yining Incident : ethnic conflicts and international rivalry in Xinjiang, 1944-1949. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press. p. 52. ISBN 962-201-831-9. Retrieved 2010-06-28.[verification needed]
  5. ^ Andrew D. W. Forbes (1986). Warlords and Muslims in Chinese Central Asia: a political history of Republican Sinkiang 1911-1949. Cambridge, England: CUP Archive. p. 302. ISBN 0-521-25514-7. Retrieved 2010-06-28.[verification needed]
  6. ^ Andrew D. W. Forbes (1986). Warlords and Muslims in Chinese Central Asia: a political history of Republican Sinkiang 1911-1949. Cambridge, England: CUP Archive. p. 120. ISBN 0-521-25514-7. Retrieved 2010-06-28.[verification needed]
  7. ^ M. Rafiq Khan (1963). Islam in China. Delhi: National Academy. p. 63. Retrieved 2010-06-28.[verification needed]
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  9. ^ Manninen (2008), pp. 37, 42, 43, 46, 49
  10. ^ Rentola (2003) pp. 188–217
  11. ^ Ravasz (2003) p. 3
  12. ^ Clemmesen and Faulkner (2013) p. 76
  13. ^ Zeiler and DuBois (2012) p. 210
  14. ^ Reiter (2009), p. 124
  15. ^ Chubaryan (2002), p. xvi
  16. ^ Trotter (2002), p. 17
  17. ^ Lightbody (2004), p. 55
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  38. ^ Navrátil 2006, pp. 36 & 172–181
  39. ^ Navrátil 2006, pp. 326–329
  40. ^ Ouimet, Matthew (2003). The Rise and Fall of the Brezhnev Doctrine in Soviet Foreign Policy. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill and London. pp. 34–35.
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  46. ^ Goertz 1995, pp. 154–157
  47. ^ Williams 1997, p. 164
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  52. ^ "Jimmy Carter and the Second Yemenite War: A Smaller Shock of 1979? | Wilson Center". www.wilsoncenter.org. Retrieved 2022-05-21.
  53. ^ "32. South Yemen (1967-1990)". uca.edu. Retrieved 2022-05-21.
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  55. ^ Raymond Whitaker (December 6, 1996). "Obituary: Babrak Karmal". The Independent. Retrieved January 19, 2018.[verification needed]
  56. ^ Kepel, Gilles (2002). Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam. I.B.Tauris. p. 138. ISBN 978-1-84511-257-8.[verification needed]
  57. ^ "Timeline: Soviet war in Afghanistan". BBC News. Published February 17, 2009. Retrieved March 22, 2009.[verification needed]
  58. ^ "How Soviet troops stormed Kabul palace". BBC. December 27, 2009. Retrieved July 1, 2013.[verification needed]
  59. ^ Kepel, Gilles (2002). Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam. I.B.Tauris. p. 138. ISBN 978-1-84511-257-8.[verification needed]
  60. ^ Semyorka, Russkaya (January 12, 2017). "7 things you probably didn't know about the Soviet war in Afghanistan". www.rbth.com. Retrieved March 3, 2019.[verification needed]
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  62. ^ "Moslems Condemn Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. January 29, 1980.[verification needed]
  63. ^ "Moslems Condemn Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. January 29, 1980.[verification needed]
  64. ^ "U.N. General Assembly Votes to Protest Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan". Toledo Blade. January 15, 1980.[verification needed]
  65. ^ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1980/01/12/india-supports-soviets-afghan-position-in-un-debate/17dd1eb5-93f9-44bf-9f95-ecda7285843c/[verification needed]
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  72. ^ Total aid from the CIA is estimated at $3 billion. The precise figures as well as a description of the mechanics of the aid process are given in Barnett R. Rubin, The Fragmentation of Afghanistan. Yale University Press, 2002[verification needed]
  73. ^ According to Milton Bearden, former CIA chief in charge of the Afghan department, "The Saudi dollar-for-dollar match with the US taxpayer was fundamental to the success [of the ten-year engagement in Afghanistan]" (from Milton Bearden Interview. PBS Frontline.)[verification needed]
  74. ^ Kinsella, Warren. "Unholy Alliances", Lester Publishing, 1992[verification needed]
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  76. ^ Amstutz, J. Bruce (1986). Afghanistan: The First Five Years of Soviet Occupation. Washington D.C.: NDU Press, p. 127.[verification needed]
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