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 cultural effects of the Cold War were primarily domestic, political battles between the Soviet Union and the United States were mostly fought on an international stage. Politically speaking, the United States and the Soviet Union were polar opposites at the end of WWII. Decolonialization by European countries and the withdrawal of Axis forces of occupied lands left a “vacuum of power” in Europe and around the globe (Fry). Both the Americans and the Soviets sought to influence new governments in these countries with the Americans being “the world’s foremost proponents of democratic representative government, and” the Soviets “the world’s foremost proponents of authoritarian communism” (Fry). At the end of WWII Soviet forces occupied much of Eastern Europe and they wanted to occupy those lands to provide a buffer zone against further invasions. The United States was unwilling to commit military forces to remove the Soviets so Eastern Europe fell under control of the Soviets for the next 45 years. At the same time, the Soviets were devastated after WWII and did not want to risk war with the U.S. so they left Western Europe to fall under U.S. influence. In turn, the U.S. formed formal alliances with Western Europe with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and in response the Soviets formed the Warsaw Pact with its Eastern European allies. While tensions between the two sides were high, these tensions coupled with mutual fear have prevented large scale war in Europe since WWII. Political battles between the U.S. and Soviet Union were not limited to Europe.