The United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union was enacted by US President Jimmy Carter in January 1980 in response to the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The embargo remained in effect until Ronald Reagan ended it in 1981 upon taking the office of president.
American farmers felt the brunt of the sanctions, and it had a much lesser effect on the Soviet Union, which brought the value of such embargoes into question.[1] During the presidential election campaign of 1980, Reagan, the Republican nominee, promised to end the embargo, but Carter, the incumbent Democratic nominee, was not willing to do so.[2]