Cold War & American Defense Spending

9 Pages 2365 Words

The Soviet Union Lost the Cold War, but American Defense Spending did not Defeat it.
A critical analysis of the Soviet Economy’s effect on the end of the Cold War


Introduction
The end of the Cold War is heralded as one of the defining moments of the 1980s. For all it grew to represent in its existence, its end was certainly a celebrated and monumental event. The Cold War commanded both Russian and American foreign policy for several years, as well as the minds of both countries’ leaders. As nuclear power became increasingly used, both governments began to fear one another—and from that fear came increased arms buildup. For both Americans and Russians, the fear of nuclear war was a reality. Later, as the war finally drew to a close in the late 1980s many theorists and scholars rushed to call a winner. In his book, How an Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary Leader, Dinesh D’Souza pronounces Reagan the clear winner due to his hard line stance on foreign policy towards the USSR. However, upon critical inspection, one can see that this contention is false and not encompassing of key changes happening in Russia both before and during the war. The collapse of the Russian economy and the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev were the primary reasons that lead to end of the Cold War. Both of these factors were independent of any US foreign policy.

Decline of the USSR
The roots of the Soviet economic collapse pre-dated the Cold War. Long before Gorbachev rose to power, he observed that, “since the late 1950s certain difficulties began to be felt in [Russia’s] economic development.” According to the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) the annual growth of the Soviet Gross National Product (GNP) dropped from nearly four percent in the early sixties to less than three percent in the seventies. This percentage dropped to a mere two percent in the 1980s. Figures reported by the Soviets were higher but showed the same downward trend in ...