Word: airlifted
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...first dramatic signs of the Soviet action appeared on Christmas morning. Moscow suddenly began a massive airlift of combat soldiers to Afghanistan. The suspected motive at the time: to help the Afghan regime put down the rebellion of conservative Muslim tribesmen. In full sight of arriving and departing passengers, wave after wave of Soviet An-12 and An-22 transports landed at Kabul's international airport and unloaded not only combat troops but equipment ranging from field kitchens to armored vehicles...
...right to assist any socialist state in trouble. Moscow, of course, claimed that it intervened only at the request of the Karmal government under the terms of a 20-year friendship treaty signed in December 1978. The Russians made no attempt to disguise the fact that the airlift began two days before the coup that brought Karmal to power, thus making a mockery of their rationale...
...military buildup had, in fact, begun several weeks before the airlift. The best analysis of U.S. intelligence at that time was that the Soviets were matching Washington's naval and air buildup in the Middle East. It later seemed, however, that apart from any U.S. buildup, Moscow acted primarily to meet a situation in Afghanistan it could no longer effectively control. The Russians apparently decided to make their show of force in the shadow of the Iranian problem, much as they had intervened in Hungary in 1956 while the West was preoccupied with the Suez crisis. Moscow made...