In Christmas of 1979, the Russian paratroopers landed in the city of Kabal, which is the capital of Afghanistan. The county was already in the brink of a civil war. The prime minister, Hazifullah Amin, tried to sweep aside Muslim tradition within the nation and he wanted a more western slant to Afghanistan. This outraged the majority of those in Afghanistan as a strong tradition of Muslim belief was common in the country. During this time thousands of people in Afghanistan joined the Mujahdeen, which was a guerilla force on a holy mission. They wanted to overthrow the Amin government. The people in the Mujahdeen group declared a holy war- on the supporters of Amin. At this time the Russians who were in Afghanistan, were trying to keep the power of the Amin governemnt. The Russians had claimed that they had been invited by the Amin government and they were never invading the country of Afghanistan. They claimed that their task was to support a legitimate government and that the Mujahdeen were no more than terrorists. On december 27, 1979 the leader of the government who was Amin was shot by the Russians and was later replaced by Babrak Kamal. His positon on the government as being the head was entirely based on that he needed help from the russian military as a support to keep him in power. Many Afghan soldiers had deserted to the Mujahdeen and the Kamal government needed 85,000 Russian soldiers to keep him in power. The Mujahdeen proved to be a formidable opponent. They were equipped with old rifles but had a knowledge of the mountains around Kabal and the weather conditions that would be encountered there. The Russians resorted to using napalm, poison gas and helicopter gun ships against the Mujahdeen but they experienced exactly the same military scenario the Americans had done in the country of Vietnam. By 1982, the Mujahdeen controlled 75% of Afghanistan despite fighting the might of the world's second most powerful military power. Young conscript Russian soldiers were no match against men fuelled by their religious belief. Though the Russian army had a reputation, the war in Afghanistan showed the world just how poor it was outside of military displays. army boots lasted no more than 10 days before falling to bits in the harsh environment of the Afghanistan mountains. Many Russian soldiers deserted to the Mujahdeen. Russian tanks were of little use in the mountain passes. The United Nations had condemned the invasion as early as January 1980 but a security council motion calling for the withdrawal of Russian forces had been vetoed by Russia. America put a ban on the export of grain to Russia, ended the salt talks taking place then and boycotted the Olympic Games due to be held in Moscow in 1980. Other than that, America did nothing. Why ? They knew that Russia had got itself into their own nd it also provided American Intelligence with an opportunity to acquire any new Russian military hardware that could Vietnam be used in Afghanistan. Mujhadeen fighters were given access to American surface-to-air missiles though not through direct sales by America.Mikhail Gorbachev took Russia out of the Afghanistan fiasco when he realised what many Russian leaders had been too scared to admit in public that Russia could not win the war and the cost of maintaining such a vast force in Afghanistan was crippling Russia's already weak economy.By the end of the 1980's, the Mujahdeen was at war with itself in Afghanistan with hard line Taliban fighters taking a stronger grip over the whole nation and imposing very strict Muslim law on the Afghanistan population.