The Pros And Cons Of The Cold War

Words: 1998
Pages: 8

The Cold War was a long placed out conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States. The struggle between the two powers had most parts of the world in disarray and panic . The Cold War carried on for more than 4 decades, from the period of 1945 to 1989, the USSR was in conflict with the West, except that conflict never came to open warfare (‘hot war’). This was due to the fact that there weren't any fighter planes flying over countries dropping bombs, no tanks no ground troops, no actual use of weapons, and there was no direct armed conflict between the two continental giants. However there were a stockpile of nuclear weapons, money was being spent like an actual War was being fought, propaganda was being spread , and there were …show more content…
They had an initial advantage, but they had fewer total forces than NATO (which was a coalition force between various countries in Europe and the United States), a smaller population, and a much weaker economy. The Soviets spent much more of their GDP on defence during the Cold War, while the US spent a significantly less of its GDP and still had around the same amount of dollars spent and had more substantial capital than the Soviet Union. The Soviets knew in a long war NATO's advantages of economy and population and would ultimately win. Secondly, another reason the war didn't turn into a "hot war" is because both sides thought they would lose and one can deduce that,no one begins a war they think would lose, and lastly the, the unrest about the Warsaw Pact and the issue of American democracy which would have caused significant disapproval from the population. Finally,no president in the US wanted to be the one who started a shooting war, as the high casualties would likely cause him/her to lose re-election and his/her party would lose seats in Congress. There is a reason why it took so long to enter the World Wars. And in most areas under the influence of the Warsaw Pact, the Communist governments were very …show more content…
For example the Soviet union spent a significant amount of their Gdp on their army. The United States spent relatively the same amount of money as the Soviet Union but used significantly less of their GDP Then the Soviet Union. Thus, this lead to a significant disadvantage for the Soviets whom were vastly outnumbered in terms of population and economic power. The book ``The Cold War`` by Brian longbody, showcases the fault in the soviet political economic policy, as-well as its severe disadvantage in both economical demographics and socio economic power. The author, demonstrates that The Soviet Union was at a severe disadvantage, although the Soviet economy was growing at a steady rate the budget and the capital that was being generated by the Soviet union was grossly mishandled. This was one factor of why the Cold war did not turn ``into a hot war.``Secondly The Book ``The Cold War`` also explains the severe disadvantage of why the Cold war never turned into a ``hot war.`` Although the Soviet union was disadvantaged on an socio economic level they were also disadvantaged on a technological level. Due to the United States being more well of economically more capital was invested in it`s weapon development program which was vastly more advanced then any weapons possessed by the Soviet Union. The book also showcases that at a certain