Moscow+1980+4

=**Moscow 1980**= Robbie,Will M., and Jonathan

Who- The U.S. boycotted with Britain, France and many other nations in the 1980 Summer Olympic games in Moscow. Britain and France allowed their athletes to compete. Only 80 out of 147 participated in the Olympics. This is the least amount of participation since 1956. The President Jimmy Carter tried to cancel or move the Olympics and was unable to do either so he asked the USOC to withdraw in April. The reason for the boycott is because the U.S. and other nations were against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Why-The 1980 Olympics in Moscow were controversial because of the Soviet Union’s invasion in Afghanistan in 1979, as you already know. Why did did they invade though? The president, Sadar Muhammed Daud Khan, was assassinated in 1978 and the Soviets saw this as an opportunity to make Afghanistan communist. This made a lot of other countries angry and it led to many protests, including the largest boycott in the history of the Olympic movement led by the U.S with 60 other countries. What happened to lead to the boycott? President Jimmy Carter asked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to move the Olympics to a different city, particularly Greece. The IOC refused but the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) agreed to boycott the Olympics, and that sparked many other countries to follow their lead. The Afghans were particularly angry about the invasion, wanting the Soviets out of their land. The 1979 invasion lasted 10 years. The USSR took control of Kabul in plan to control the country and all of its people. Another reason for the invasion was that they wanted to expand their influence on Asia. One more being they wanted to save their Communist government which has been falling apart do to lack of support besides the military. But one thing that I think may also be a reason for the whole process being unsuccessful, was that they are trying to make Afghanistan Communist, when they can barely even keep themselves Communist. These were the main reasons for the trouble in Moscow, 1980.http://flickr.com/search/?q=moscow+olympics&l=3 by Radio Rover Story Board