<\/p>
On 3 August 1978, the central council of the Islamic Society of Afghanistan (Jamiat-i-Islami) wrote an impassioned plea to Kurt Waldheim, secretary-general of the United Nations. In their letter, they decried Afghanistan\u2019s political leaders, the People\u2019s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), as a \u201cpower-thirsty gang\u201d intent on destroying Afghanistan\u2019s political and social fabric and lacking any respect for humanitarian norms or human rights. The Council demanded UN intercession, warning that \u201cthe continued survival of this group will endanger the peace of this region of the world\u201d.<\/p>\n
This warning soon came true. On 24 December 1979, the Soviet Politburo issued a public directive justifying the deployment of Soviet troops into Afghanistan to support their allies, the same PDPA. The Soviets, the Politburo claimed, sought \u201cto give international aid to the friendly Afghan people\u201d and to prevent \u201canti-Afghan actions from neighbouring countries\u201d.<\/p>\n
Within days, 50,000 Soviet troops were on the ground in Afghanistan. They would remain there for almost a decade as part of Soviet efforts to keep their local allies in power.<\/p>\n
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was one of the moments that defined the 1980s. It took place against the backdrop of the global Cold War<\/a>, in which the Soviet Union and the United States (as well as China) vied for supremacy. Indeed, so international was the Cold War during the 1970s and early 1980s that, while US and Soviet leaders pursued talks on limiting strategic arms and the balance of power in Europe, Soviet forces backed independence movements in southern and eastern Africa as American troops withdrew from Vietnam.<\/p>\n