Why did the U.S. boycott in 1980?

President Jimmy Carter called for a boycott of the Moscow Games in response to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan that winter. Public support for the boycott eroded after the U.S. hosted the 1980 Winter Games at Lake Placid, N.Y., and its men’s hockey team famously upset the Soviets on the way to claiming the gold medal. That victory buttressed the argument that it would prove more embarrassing to Moscow for the U.S. to compete against