The Cold War: A New History

Last Book Read: The Cold War: A New History - John Lewis Gaddis



"The world, I am quite sure is a better place, for the conflict having been fought in the way that it was and won by the side that won it." It "was a necessary contest that settled fundamental issues once and for all."

The tragedy of World War II was "victory would require the victors to either cease to be who they were or to give up much of what they had hoped, by fighting the war, to attain."

Like all wars, the Cold War contained a conflict between appearance and reality. In reality it was possible that we were always going to win the Cold War, but it did not always appear that way. There were times that the influence of the Soviet Empire seemed unstoppable. Communism not only had an appeal for poor countries, but for intellectuals, like Sartre, in developed countries. It seemed that communism was a new level of progression in human history, just as capitalism has progressed beyond feudalism. Gaddis acknowledges that the world viewed the World Wars as caused by capitalism, and that U.S. policy had to integrated elements of Socialism to reduce the "harshness" of capitalism. This capitalism promoted freedom, but at the cost of equality, which communism was able to offer.

I don't think that the intellectuals championing the cause of communism were necessarily wrong. I would argue that the Cold War, Like World War II before it, was a fight against authoritarianism, not fundamentally of economic theory. The communism offered failed because of evil and corrupt governments. The human rights abuses committed by Communist governments far outweighed any advancements of their secular progressivism. Because of this it a was an imperfect solution, and the only alternative is still an imperfect capitalism, as the problems of disparity in the free world are even more evident today than they were in the 1940s. However, the Soviet accusations of American imperialism were of course absurd, at least in relation to themselves. Soviet influence over their satellite countries reveled an extreme level of imperialism.

So, besides the fact that we had more freedom and integrity on our side, it was likely that by 1950, when the arms race escalated, we were inevitably going to win militarily. There was however, a perilous road to navigate. First, the critical factor in outlasting the Cold War was not to trigger a nuclear hot war. And , as there were times when nuclear force was threatened over quite insignificant issues, its somewhat amazing that we didn't fall into this trap and forfeit the entire game. Second, we had to follow the path of containment by playing this tug-of-war game and constantly applying to pressure to the outward expanding East Bloc. While performing this constant battle, we had to be careful not to destroy ourselves by overextending our means and becoming off-balance. The threat of economic implosion was an ever-existing challenge. After the Vietnam war had exhausted our military resources, we began to lose ground in the 1970s. The Soviets , experiencing a better economic situation through oil exports, were able to spend a higher percentage of their economy on their military. They had closed the gap and had overtaken us in several areas of strategic deployment.

Finally, numerous factors converged in the 1980s. The Soviets over-extended themselves in Afghanistan and Africa. Civil unrest exploded in Eastern Europe, under the influence of the Pope and Solidarity. And Thatcherism and Reaganism accelerated the weakening of the foundations of the Soviet Bloc. Reagan decided to play a risky game and move the Cold War into an endgame state. Once again, I think we experienced a bit of luck, as this gambit did pay off, and the inevitable implosion of the Soviet Union occurred sooner than hoped.

And so we won, but I think we did pay a big price. The world would never again be what it was in pre-war days. It had become a very dangerous place. At home, the freedoms we were fighting to protect, had to be partially given up. These misfortunes are continuing to invade our society as we enter into 21st century wars. During the Cold War, things appeared to be black and white, right versus wrong, and East versus West, had well defined boundaries. But in the aftermath, things are not as clear. Policies that we once necessary for our survival, are now possibly more detrimental to our future existence as a world leader of integrity.