Let’s Learn about the Cold War: Part 23 – The Soviet-Afghan War Published Nov. 9, 2015 By Senior Airman Sean D. Smith Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- In 1978, the Nur Mohammad Taraki government gained control of Afghanistan via a coup, immediately imposing reforms that led to open rebellion. This new Afghan government turned to the Soviets for help, and the USSR took the opportunity to stage their own coup and install a pro-socialist leader in Afghanistan with the intention of extending Soviet influence in the region. The Soviet occupation of Afghanistan didn't go smoothly; Soviet forces had to contend with powerful insurgents, and the war's length of nearly ten years has led to it being called the Soviet Union's Vietnam War. Soviet action in Afghanistan was widely condemned by the West, and the insurgents resisting Soviet forces were supported and armed by a number of countries, including the United States, elevating the conflict in Afghanistan to proxy-war status, and a significant period of the Cold War. The Soviet Army met with the same problems that the American military would two decades later; it was trained and designed for large-scale, conventional combat, and ill-suited to fighting against the insurgents' guerilla tactics. The tactics employed by the Soviet Army in Afghanistan were brutal, and the civilian body count in the Soviet-Afghan War was extremely high; this made it even more difficult for the USSR to gain a foothold in the region, and strengthened the resolve of those resisting the occupation. In addition to possibly killing as many as 1.5 million Afghan civilians, the war created as many as 10 million refugees. It wasn't a winning battle. The Soviet withdrawal began in 1988, and was completed the next year. With the Soviets gone, civil war continued between the Afghan government and the insurgents into the 1990s. The failed war in Afghanistan contributed to the fall of the already ailing Soviet Union; it was expensive, and draining on morale. The image of the Soviet Army suffered greatly after the defeat, and many Soviet veterans of the war were disenchanted and unimpressed with their leadership, which led to more participation in politics, diluting the political hegemony that dominated the Soviet government. During the Soviet-Afghan War, the United States and other nations supplied equipment and training to the Afghan insurgents to help them drive the Soviets out. While it's not clear that the United States ever directly supplied Osama Bin Laden or Al-Qaida, the weapons intended for use against the Soviets would be used against the American military less than two decades later, which has generated some controversy over the effects that past interventions in the Middle East have had on current conflicts. Next time: Ronald Reagan