1980+Summer+Olympics+Matsuba

1980 Summer Olympic's Boycott   Background:  The Games of the XXII Olympiad took place in Moscow, Soviet Union. The Olympics started on July 19,1980. The Olympics of 1980 was much different then other Olympics because in the summer of 1980, a number of Western Nations boycott the Olympics. There are 65 nations who were involved with the boycott like The United States, Japan, Western Germany, China, the Philippines, Canada and many more other western countries. Also the United Kingdom, France and Greece was part of the boycott but allowed a small group of athletes to compete in the Olympics.80 other nations were able to compete in the summer olympics. 

Why did they protest? The United States and other countries were against the Soviets invasion in Afghanistan. As a protest many countries were planning a boycott against the Summer Olympics of 1980. On January 20th, 1980 President Carter announced by February 20th, 1980 Soviet needs to pull out their troops out of Afghanistan. By then the Soviets didn’t pull out their troops, United States and other countries will not be competing in the Summer Olympics. Even though IOC (International Olympic Committee) said that the Olympics should be based on politics and is not happy with the United States actions of boycotting. But that didn’t stop the United States and they kept on protesting. The IOC had no authority to decide for the National Olympic Committee if they should their athletes to the Olympics or not. As a result, many other countries still send their athletes to compete but many didn’t. Also at the Summer Olympic few countries didn’t march under their own country flag instead they marched under the Olympic flag. 

What was the Soviet Union Invasion?  President Jimmy Carter announced a protest to protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan that took place in December of 1979. But, before the invasion there was an Iranian hostage situation that involved 52 Americans as hostages. Which the Soviets thought that President Carter would but more focus on then the Soviet invasion. In December of 1979 Russian troops landed in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. At that time Afghanistan was in its own civil war, which is still taking place now. Hazifullah Amin, the prime minister of Afghanistan wanted the country to be more open and not a focused Muslim tradition, which brought chaos to the country. Many Muslims leaders were arrested by Amin’s police also many other Muslims leaders fled to the mountains and the capital to escape the police. Also many people were against Amin’s way of leading the country in a communist way which rejects a choice of religion’s practice. Many Muslim came and join Mujahideen, there mission was the over throw Amin’s government. Then the Russians came in saying that they were invited by Amin’s government to join and that they are not invading Afghanistan. They said that they were here to support Amin’s government and that Mujahideen are just terrorist. But then on December 27, 1979 the Russians shot Hazifulla Amin and replaced him by Babrak Kamal. The only reason why Babrak had all the power was because of the Russian military. He needed about 85,000 solders to keep in power. Russian’s solders were kept in Afghanistan until they realized they can not win the war.  Sources: [] [] [] [|http://www.currybet.net/images/articles/2008/olympic_dissent/1980_logo.png]__ [] [] [] [] __