Soviet and American Views of the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan

Abstract

The thesis will focus on the events happening before the American interference, namely the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. This military conflict is often mentioned as the Soviet Union’s Vietnam War. Thus, it seems that history repeats itself in several ways. Beyond the comparison of the Soviet invasion with the Vietnam War, we can conclude further historical analogy. Specifically, the United States is fighting a war in Afghanistan, which resembles to the Soviet intervention of the 80’s in many aspects. In both cases, the actual struggles were preceded with huge amount of aid for the Afghans. Henceforward, it is officially emphasized that the American soldiers fight there to help and protect Afghan people. The emphasized reason of the conflict seems to be similar. Furthermore, the escalation of the war also suggests some parallelism.