Soviet Occupation of Afghanistan
In the 1950s, Soviet influence increased in Afghanistan. The Soviets invaded in 1979 because of a Muslim revolt that posed a threat to Afghanistan's Communist regime. The Afghan rebels, called mujahideen (holy warriors), were supplied by the U.S. because the Soviet invasion threatened Middle Eastern oil supplies. Also, U.S. President Jimmy Carter stopped the U.S. grain shipments to the Soviet Union and boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics in protest of the invasion. By 1989, the Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev withdrew Soviet troops.