In June 1979, the United States and Soviet Union sign a SALT II agreement that would have placed further limits on their nuclear weapons and launch platforms, including strategic bombers, and imposed certain notification requirements and new testing bans. But in December, the Soviet Union invades Afghanistan, starting a nine-year war in which its forces and allied Afghan communists battle the U.S.-funded mujahideen resistance. U.S. President Jimmy Carter responds to the Soviet invasion by asking the Senate to freeze consideration of the SALT II treaty and by pulling the country out of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.
