This played a role in shifting Carter's viewpoint on the Soviet Union to a more assertive one, a shift that finalized with the impending Soviet-Afghan War.[241]
In his 1980 State of the Union Address, Carter emphasized the significance of relations between the two regions: "Now, as during the last 3½ decades, the relationship between our country, the United States of America, and the Soviet Union is the most critical factor in determining whether the world will live at peace or be engulfed in global conflict."[242]

Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
Communists under the leadership of Nur Muhammad Taraki seized power in Afghanistan on April 27, 1978.[243] The new regime signed a treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union in December of that year.[243][244] Due to the regime's improvement of secular education and redistribution of land coinciding with mass executions and political oppression, Taraki was deposed by rival Hafizullah Amin in September.[243][244][245] Amin was considered a "brutal psychopath" by foreign observers and had lost control of much of the country, prompting the Soviet Union to invade Afghanistan on December 24, 1979, execute Amin, and install Babrak Karmal as president.