Changes

[[File:Afghan-war.jpg|thumb|460px]]

[[File:Afghan-war.jpg|thumb|460px]]

==Origins==

==Origins==

The world was stunned in 1979 when the Soviets sent their army into Afghanistan, which had always been neutral and uninvolved.<ref>Christian Ostermann, “CWIHP Conference Report: New Evidence on the 1979-1989 War in Afghanistan.  “ (May 20 2002) [http://lists101.his.com/pipermail/intelforum/2002-May/006251.html online]</ref>  

The world was stunned in 1979 when the Soviets sent their army into Afghanistan, which had always been neutral and uninvolved.<ref>Christian Ostermann, “CWIHP Conference Report: New Evidence on the 1979-1989 War in Afghanistan.  “ (May 20, 2002) [http://lists101.his.com/pipermail/intelforum/2002-May/006251.html online]</ref>  

The old monarchy was replaced by democratization and the rise of the Marxist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA).  The Afghanistan crisis began in April 1978 with a [[coup d'état]] by Afghan Communists called "the Saur Revolution".<ref>A. Z. Hilali, "The Soviet Penetration into Afghanistan and the Marxist Coup." ''Journal of Slavic Military Studies'' 2005 18(4): 673-716. Issn: 1351-8046</ref> They tried to impose scientific socialism on a country that did not want to be modernized—indeed, which was heading in the opposite direction under the lure of Muslim fundamentalism of the sort that had topped the [[Shah]] in next-door [[Iran]]. Disobeying orders from [[Moscow]], the coup leaders systematically executed the leadership of the large [[Parcham clan]], thus guaranteeing a civil war among the country's many feuding ethnic groups. In addition the Communists in Afghanistan were themselves bitterly divided between the Khalq and Parcham factions. Moscow confronted a quandary. Afghanistan had been neutralized for sixty years, and had never been part of the Cold War system. Now it appeared that radical fundamentalist Muslims, supported by Pakistan and Iran, and probably by [[China]] and the United States, were about to seize power. The Communist regime in Kabul had no popular support; its 100,000-man army had fallen apart and was worthless. Only the Soviet army could possibly quell the growing rebellion by Parcham, the fundamentalist "mujahideen", and allied tribes who opposed the anti-religious, feminist modernizers.

The old monarchy was replaced by democratization and the rise of the Marxist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA).  The Afghanistan crisis began in April 1978 with a [[coup d'état]] by Afghan Communists called "the Saur Revolution".<ref>A. Z. Hilali, "The Soviet Penetration into Afghanistan and the Marxist Coup." ''Journal of Slavic Military Studies'' 2005 18(4): 673-716. Issn: 1351-8046</ref> They tried to impose scientific socialism on a country that did not want to be modernized—indeed, which was heading in the opposite direction under the lure of Muslim fundamentalism of the sort that had topped the [[Shah]] in next-door [[Iran]]. Disobeying orders from [[Moscow]], the coup leaders systematically executed the leadership of the large [[Parcham clan]], thus guaranteeing a civil war among the country's many feuding ethnic groups. In addition the Communists in Afghanistan were themselves bitterly divided between the Khalq and Parcham factions. Moscow confronted a quandary. Afghanistan had been neutralized for sixty years, and had never been part of the Cold War system. Now it appeared that radical fundamentalist Muslims, supported by Pakistan and Iran, and probably by [[China]] and the United States, were about to seize power. The Communist regime in Kabul had no popular support; its 100,000-man army had fallen apart and was worthless. Only the Soviet army could possibly quell the growing rebellion by Parcham, the fundamentalist "mujahideen", and allied tribes who opposed the anti-religious, feminist modernizers.