Title: Cold War Influences on American Culture, Politics, and Economics | Shad's Blog
Headings: Cold War Influences on American Culture, Politics, and Economics
Cold War Influences on American Culture, Politics, and Economics
Content: while correlating communism with oppression. In contrast, the Soviets preached egalitarianism among all citizens and portayed the West as being greedy and materialistic. In the wake of the Cold War, Americans felt it was their patriotic duty to buy consumer goods to help the economy grow. In turn, the U.S. became the world’s dominant economic power and continues to be so today. This “Consumer culture demonstrated the superiority of the American way of life to communism and virtually redefined the nation’s historic mission to extend freedom to other countries” (Foner 878). The United States used its economic might as a weapon against the Soviets in the Cold War. In the 1980s, President Reagan helped stimulate massive economic growth with his tax cuts and deregulation. In the windfall, federal tax revenue increased dramatically as the economy grew. President Reagan directed much of this money to military spending. Much of this went to the lofty Strategic Defense Initiative and to military aid for American allies all over the world (Foner 991).