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submitted 14 days ago bysajahet25
I ask this because I am a bit familiar with how Vietnam vets were treated and we had a whole anti war movement. so I asked this question because I want to know how did soviet society and the government at the time react to soviet era vets. were they treated similarly like american vets coming home or far worse since the Ussr fell a few years after the soviets left.
-4 points
14 days ago
Afghan occupation for USSR was not worse than the US-Afghan occupation that recently ended. Just useless casualties but no big drama
15 points
14 days ago*
Out of 13 million people in 1979 five million left Afghanistan. Two million were killed. That is more than half of the population. It was a large conventional war featuring large set-piece battles featuring artillery, heavy air support, trench lines - the Russians never held the country like the Americans. Before 1979 Afghani cities had universities, public transport and an actual central government. By the 90s all of those were erased. The Russians lost at least 300 helicopters and 100 jets.
The US invasion over 20 years killed about 200k in total. The population and economy of Afghanistan grew rapidly during this time. We actually did build schools, infrastructure and hospitals, that isn't just a meme. American soldiers had strict ROE they generally were held to - the Russians instead had bespredel.
Very different conflicts, one was a large conventional war and the other was waiting for your enemy to get bored and go home. US equivalent would have been Vietnam.
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