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: In addition to battling the Soviets politically and culturally, these presidents waged economic warfare with the Soviet Union. Economically speaking, the Soviets and the Americans we as different during the Cold War as they were politically. The Americans advocated free market capitalism while the Soviets promoted communism. Both sides touted the benefits of their system and the deficiencies of the other while claiming greater freedom for their citizens. For the Americans, this meant championing the innovation and affluence that capitalism brought; 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).