Editing Soviet–Afghan War (section)

=== International positions on Soviet invasion ===
The Christmas-time invasion of a practically defenseless country was shocking for the international community, and caused a sense of alarm for its neighbor Pakistan.<ref name="Noor-2007">{{cite thesis |url=http://prr.hec.gov.pk/jspui/bitstream/123456789/1322/1/799S.pdf |title=The Causes of the Failure of Government of Afghanistan Under Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani (Afghanistan from Geneva Accords to the rise of Taliban (1988–96)) |last=Noor |first=Ahmad |publisher=University of Peshawar |date=December 2007 |access-date=26 December 2021}}</ref> On 2 January 1980 President Carter withdrew the [[Strategic Arms Limitation Talks|SALT-II treaty]] from consideration before the Senate,<ref name=pco1>{{cite web|last=Glass|first=Andrew |title=Carter withdraws SALT II accord, Jan. 2, 1980|url=http://politi.co/2qejDLf|access-date=13 November 2021|website=POLITICO|date=January 2018}}</ref> and on 3 January he recalled US Ambassador [[Thomas J. Watson Jr.|Thomas J. Watson]] from Moscow.<ref name=wapo1>{{Cite news|last1=Walsh|first1=Edward|last2=Goshko|first2=John M.|date=3 January 1980|title=U.S. Ambassador to Moscow Recalled|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1980/01/03/us-ambassador-to-moscow-recalled/11954a73-b0b4-435a-8fde-170d3c757217/|access-date=13 November 2021|issn=0190-8286}}</ref> On 9 January the [[United Nations Security Council]] passed [[Resolution 462]]. Following the resolution, the [[Sixth emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly]] took place. Soviet military activities were met with strong criticism internationally, including some of its allies at the [[UN General Assembly]] (UNGA),<ref name="Borshchevskaya 2022 24">{{Cite book |last=Borshchevskaya |first=Anna |title=Putin's War in Syria |publisher=I. B. Tauris |year=2022 |isbn=978-0-7556-3463-7 |location=50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK |pages=24 |chapter=2: The Soviet Union in the Middle East and the Afghanistan Intervention |quote=}}</ref> but the Soviet machine scored a victory when, in the words of political scientist [[William Maley]], "the General Assembly accepted the credentials of the delegation of the Soviet-installed puppet regime in Kabul which duly voted against the resolution."<ref name="maley89">{{cite book |date=1989 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511598869.003 |title=The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan |chapter=2 - The Geneva Accords of April 1988 |pages=12–28 |last=Maley |first=William }}</ref> The UNGA passed a resolution on 15 January by a vote of 104–18 protesting the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite news |date=15 January 1980 |title=U.N. General Assembly Votes to Protest Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan |newspaper=Toledo Blade |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=MQwVAAAAIBAJ&pg=6049,7393411&dq=soviet+invasion+of+afghanistan&hl=en}}{{dead link|date=January 2022|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> On 29 January foreign ministers from 34 Muslim-majority countries adopted at the [[Organisation of Islamic Cooperation]]<ref name="rgics21">{{Cite journal |date=July 2021 |title=India-Afghanistan Relations: What Choices does India have in the Emerging Context? |url=https://www.rgics.org/wp-content/uploads/Policy-Watch_July-21.pdf |journal=Policy Watch |volume=10 |issue=7 |pages=20}}</ref> a resolution which condemned the Soviet intervention and demanded "the immediate, urgent and unconditional withdrawal of Soviet troops" from the Muslim nation of Afghanistan.<ref name="ppg1">{{cite news |date=29 January 1980 |title=Moslems Condemn Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan |newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |page=2 |url=https://post-gazette.newspapers.com/image/89560644/?match=1&terms=urgent%20and%20unconditional%20withdrawal |agency=Associated Press}}</ref><ref name=rgics21/> According to political scientist [[Gilles Kepel]], the Soviet intervention or invasion was viewed with "horror" in the West, considered to be a fresh twist on the geo-political "[[The Great Game|Great Game]]" of the 19th century in which Britain feared that Russia sought access to the Indian Ocean, and posed a threat to Western security, explicitly violating the world balance of power agreed upon at [[Yalta Conference|Yalta]] in 1945.{{sfn|Kepel|2002|p=138}}

The general feeling in the United States was that inaction against the Soviet Union could encourage Moscow to go further in its international ambitions.<ref name="Noor-2007" /> President Carter placed a trade embargo against the Soviet Union on [[United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union|shipments of commodities such as grain]],<ref name=bryan81>{{cite web |publisher=The Heritage Foundation - "Backgrounder" |last=Bryan |first=Paige |title=The Soviet Grain Embargo |url=https://www.policyarchive.org/handle/10207/8930 |date=12 January 1981 |access-date=26 September 2024 |website=Policy Archive}}</ref> while also leading a 66-nation [[1980 Summer Olympics boycott|boycott]] of the [[1980 Summer Olympics]] in Moscow.<ref name="milestones">{{cite web|url=http://history.state.gov/milestones/1977-1980/Olympic |title=The Olympic Boycott, 1980 |work=state.gov |publisher=U.S. Department of State |access-date=7 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100204004633/http://history.state.gov/milestones/1977-1980/Olympic |archive-date=4 February 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Carter later suspended high-technology exports to the Soviet Union.<ref name="Brown-2013" /> The invasion, along with other concurrent events such as the [[Iranian Revolution]] and the [[Iran hostage crisis|hostage stand-off]] that accompanied it showed the volatility of the wider region for U.S. foreign policy. This was identified on 4 January during President Carter's Address to the Nation:

{{Blockquote|text=Massive Soviet military forces have invaded the small, nonaligned, sovereign nation of Afghanistan, which had hitherto not been an occupied [[Satellite state#Soviet Union|satellite of the Soviet Union]]. [...] This is a callous violation of international law and the [[United Nations Charter]]. [...] If the Soviets are encouraged in this invasion by eventual success, and if they maintain their dominance over Afghanistan and then extend their control to adjacent countries, the stable, strategic, and peaceful balance of the entire world will be changed. This would threaten the security of all nations including, of course, the United States, our allies, and our friends.|author=U.S. President Jimmy Carter<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-the-nation-the-soviet-invasion-afghanistan|title = Address to the Nation on the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan &#124; the American Presidency Project}}</ref>}}

China condemned the Soviet coup and its military buildup, calling it a threat to Chinese security (both the Soviet Union and Afghanistan shared borders with China), that it marked the worst escalation of Soviet expansionism in over a decade, and that it was a warning to other Third World leaders with close relations to the Soviet Union. Vice Premier [[Deng Xiaoping]] warmly praised the "heroic resistance" of the Afghan people. Beijing also stated that the lacklustre worldwide reaction against Vietnam (in the [[Sino-Vietnamese War]] earlier in 1979) encouraged the Soviets to feel free invading Afghanistan.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/19800502_IB80006_cdb9eeda3b49cdfce9a4d95a0bb0eb61bd4130cc.pdf |title=Afghanistan: Soviet Invasion and U.S. Response Issue Brief Number IB80006 |author=Afghanistan Task Force |publisher=Library of Congress Congressional Research Service |date=10 January 1980 |access-date=26 December 2021}}</ref>

[[Ba'athist Syria]], led by [[Hafez al-Assad]], was one of the few states outside the [[Warsaw Pact]] that publicly favoured the invasion. Soviet Union expanded its military support to the Syrian government in return.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Borshchevskaya |first=Anna |title=Putin's War in Syria |publisher=I. B. Tauris |year=2022 |isbn=978-0-7556-3463-7 |location=50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK |pages=24, 25 |chapter=2: The Soviet Union in the Middle East and the Afghanistan Intervention |quote=}}</ref> The [[Warsaw Pact]] Soviet satellites (excluding Romania) publicly supported the intervention; however, a press account in June 1980 showed that [[Polish People's Republic|Poland]], [[Hungarian People's Republic|Hungary]] and Romania privately informed the Soviet Union that the invasion was a damaging mistake.<ref name="nsarchive2.gwu.edu" />

In his 2009 book, Maley excoriated "the West", which "allowed the issues for these negotiations to be determined substantially by the USSR—a
classic weakness of Western negotiating style. On 14 May 1980, the Kabul regime issued at Moscow's behest a statement directed at Iran and Pakistan, outlining a program for a 'political solution' to the 'tension that has come about in this region'. Its program was to be precisely mirrored in the agenda of the
subsequent negotiations conducted under UN auspices, which dealt with the withdrawal of the foreign troops, non-interference in the internal affairs of states, international guarantees, and the voluntary return of the refugees to their homes. This was a notable victory for the Soviet Union: the issue of self-determination
for the Afghan people, also mentioned by the General Assembly, of course did not figure in Kabul's program, and its exclusion effectively subordinated the General
Assembly's conditions for an acceptable settlement to those specified by the Soviet leadership."<ref name=maley89/>