When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the United States and President Carter were not pleased. We let the Soviet Union know this invasion was not justified or acceptable. However, the Soviet Union wouldn’t leave Afghanistan. Thus, the United States developed a plan to deal with this situation. President Carter ordered an embargo on the sale of grain to the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union depended on grain from our country, and President Carter hoped this would encourage the Soviet Union to leave. When this didn’t happen, President Carter announced the United States would not take part in the 1980 Summer Olympic Games that were being held in the Soviet Union. Other countries also agreed to boycott the 1980 Summer Olympic Games. This was somewhat controversial because athletes who had trained for years felt they were being punished. These athletes felt they were being used as political pawns and weren’t happy about it. President Carter also provided aid to the Afghan rebels who were fighting the Soviet invasion. The group we helped was the Taliban. Aiding the Taliban came back to haunt us many years later.
