Soviet air and ground deployments into Afghanistan expand

The treaty deepened bilateral cooperation under President Taraki. It preceded the Soviet military intervention by a year and should not be confused with an open-ended authorization for the 1979...

The Shah’s departure followed a mass revolutionary movement against monarchy and foreign influence. Moscow watched a regional upheaval shaped by Iranian actors, whose diverse political visions...

Chinese forces crossed into Vietnam after months of worsening relations. The USSR condemned the attack and supported Vietnam under their 1978 treaty, while Vietnamese communities faced a devastating...

The agreement set limits on strategic nuclear delivery systems, though the U.S. Senate never ratified it. Arms control addressed superpower arsenals while leaving the wider militarized order intact.

Afghan President Nur Muhammad Taraki was critically injured in an internal power struggle, and Hafizullah Amin consolidated control. The episode reflects factional conflict within Afghanistan’s ruling...

Soviet forces assaulted government sites in Kabul, killed Hafizullah Amin, and installed Babrak Karmal. The intervention intensified resistance and displacement; Afghans were political actors, not a...

Emergency Special Session Resolution ES-6/2 deplored the armed intervention and demanded the immediate, unconditional, and total withdrawal of foreign troops. The vote made Afghan sovereignty a...

President Carter publicly called for the Games to be moved or boycotted unless Soviet forces left Afghanistan. The decision linked sport to the intervention and placed athletes in the middle of a...

The Games opened with many countries absent or represented under alternative flags after the Afghanistan invasion. Soviet organizers staged a global spectacle, while the boycott highlighted the...

Workers at the Lenin Shipyard struck after Anna Walentynowicz was dismissed, building on earlier labor protests and local grievances. The strike committee connected workplace demands with political...