The Soviet war in Afghanistan was a nine-year war during the Cold War
fought by the Soviet Army and the Marxist-Leninist government of the
Democratic Republic of Afghanistan against the Afghan Mujahideen
guerrilla movement and foreign "Arab–Afghan" volunteers. The mujahideen
received wide military and financial support from Pakistan, also
receiving direct and indirect support by the United States and China.
The Afghan government fought with the intervention of the Soviet Union
as its primary ally.
The initial Soviet deployment of the 40th Army in Afghanistan began on
December 24, 1979 under Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. The final troop
withdrawal started on May 15, 1988, and ended on February 15, 1989 under
the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. Due to the interminable
nature of the war, the conflict in Afghanistan has sometimes been
referred to as the "Soviet Union's Vietnam War" or "the Bear Trap".
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