On January 20, 1980, in a letter to the United States Olympic
Committee (USOC) and a television interview, U.S. President
Jimmy Carter proposed that the 1980 Summer Olympics be
moved from the planned host city, Moscow, if the Soviet
Union failed to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan within
a month.

After the IOC denied Carter’s request, the USOC later voted to
boycott the Moscow games, a decision that Carter announced
on March 21, 1980.