I think the Soviet Onion fighting Afghanistan led to the collapse of their empire. Lifetime political hacks rose to power but didn’t have a clue how to think or lead.
Do I have to spell out the obvious?
The Soviets left the ‘stan in Feb, 1989. The Soviet was in ruin by then....
The Soviet fully collapsed in spurts from 1988 thru 1991.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union
You could say the Afghan invasion was the last gasp of a failing/failed state
I heard it said that the Soviet Red Army was the only institution that the Soviet people had absolute faith in. Afghanistan destroyed the army’s institutional credibility and the Soviet Union fell shortly thereafter.
American institutional collapse has been broad and simultaneous.