The CIA and the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan

Abstract

The chapter provides a background to the proxy conflict between the US and the USSR in Afghanistan, where the CIA supplied the Afghan Mujahedin with resources and weapons. It offers an insight into the Soviet’s decision to invade, charting Brezhnev’s initial reluctance to mobilise a full scale military assault on the Communist Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and their brutal regime, and how this changed on Christmas Day 1979. The CIA monitored the situation closely, and assessed the likelihood that the Soviet army had walked into a quagmire. Documents: Strategic Warning Staff’s Performance; USSR-Afghanistan Memoranda from Strategic Warning Staff; The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan.