Iran
Mohammed Mossadeq
Muhammad Reza-Shah Pahlavi
Ayatollah Khomeini
1979 Revolution – US Embassy
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Afghanistan: A Soviet Vietnam
When?
1979-1989
Soviet-Afghan War
Why?
1. The new communist regime in Afghanistan was threatened with overthrow?
2. The Afghan mujahedin (muslim holy warriors) might spread their ideas to other Soviet Muslim republics.
3. Soviets wanted control of the Strait of Hormuz through which passes much of the world’s oil.
Similar to Vietnam
• 120,000 Soviet troops sent
• 15,000 died
• No end in sight
• Morale and drug problems
• Government told people little
• Afghans received arms from US
• Soviets pull out in 1989
Why did communism collapse?
• Doomed from the start? (No incentive for new ideas)
• Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms– Last Soviet leader– Glasnost: greater freedom of speech– Perestroika: Economic restructuring– Soviet Union collapsed
Boris Yeltsin
• Won Russian election• 1st President of Russia• Brought democracy back to
Russia…for awhile
Vladimir Putin
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)