Was the Cold War just an American Delusion of Victory?

Was the Cold War just an American Delusion of Victory?

The Cold War rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States, which lasted for decades and led to suspicion between the two superpowers, created a lot of fear in the world. The two superpowers were on the brink of a nuclear disaster, and they mobilize their resources to encounter each other. Cold War broke out after World War II. During World War II, both the Soviet Union and the United States fought together as allies against Axis powers, though the relationship was tense due to suspicion between the two countries. Americans were wary of Joseph Stalin’s tyrannical rule and communist ideas. Again, for a long period of time, the US had refused to treat USSR as a legitimate part of the international community, and this tension still existed during the Second World War. Thus, the end of the Second World War marked the beginning of a new chapter in the world’s politics.

Why the Cold War was just an American Delusion of Victory

Delusions about Russia

The United States had created a delusion about Russia to be a dangerous country which must be contained if the world was to be assured of its security. The US wanted to be considered as the most powerful nation in the world. However, the US feared going head to head into the war with Russia. Therefore, the only way to claim victory was to claim a delusion about Russia as an outright enemy of the peace and a country which could trigger mortal threats to its neighbors anytime. Accordingly, most Russians have deeply resented the treatment of their country by the West as a defeated nation, yet there is no evidence to prove the claim. The delusion about Russia has created by the United States is an interesting story. After the Cold War, the Russians thought they would be considered as a courageous country that played an indispensable role in the destruction of the Soviet bloc[1]. Instead, the West treated Russia like a defeated country which unconditionally surrendered their supremacy to the US. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US came up with different versions of the war and how they made Russia surrender. The US may have succeeded in preventing the spread of the communist idea to other parts of the world, but that does not mean the won the war.

There is one thing that one needs to understand from the Cold War. The Soviet Union comprised of many states, and Russia was one of the countries which form the union. According to Russians, they play a greater role in the destruction of the Soviet Union as a US ally. However, when the war came to an end, the Russians political elites who strongly supported the West felt betrayal and offended[2]. They saw a diktat from the US and believed that the US created a story out of the collapse of the cold war to humiliate the country.

For the Americans who claim that the US won the war, there is little evidence to support their claims. The collapse of the Soviet Union was mainly precipitated by the infighting among the countries which made up the union. For instance, Ukraine was seeking for its political independence, while countries making up of Yugoslavia also wanted their political independence. The infighting within the USSR intentionally led to its collapse, and the US lack moral authority to claim victory at the expense of Russia. In any case, Russia stood with the US and other nations, which were against the activities of the Soviet Union, which directly led to the loss of life and destruction of property.

The Cold War as a system of states ended on December day in Moscow 1991 when Mikhail Gorbachev signed a document that led to the inexistence of the Soviet Union. However, even at the times when the document was signed, communism had lost its taste, and fewer countries in the world supported communist ideas. For instance, Bulgaria was part of the Soviet Union, but its leader Todor Zhivkov opposed the communist ideas and promised if given opportunity, he could do it again; he would not even be a Communist[3]. He admitted that the Soviet Union started on a wrong basis and on the wrong premise. The foundation of socialism was wrong. When Cold War collapsed in 1990, the US took credit for winning the fight though the truth is that countries making up the Soviet Union agreed to put to an end their ideological differences by dissolving the union. Again, there are studies which indicate that the Cold War, an ideological struggle disappeared in parts despite Communism implosion and the claims by the US as the nation responsible for the end of the war is a delusion created by the US to gain mileage[4]. The worst thing is that Americans still believed that they humiliated Russia, which was part of the Soviet Union, which, in reality, is not the truth. Russia had its own policies and, to some extent, supported the US interventions in the Soviet Union. Therefore, the claim of victory over Russia is yet another delusion which the United States has used to serve its self-interest in winning the Cold War.

Cold War was American self-delusion with famous people within the country such as American arts, athletics, and civil activism Paul Robeson unapologetically refusing to acknowledge the checkered legacy of the government claiming to have won the war. Paul Robeson’s love for the Soviet Union began when he arrived in Moscow after stopping in Berlin, where he was harassed and threatened by the Nazi storms.  After a warm reception in Moscow, Paul Robeson documented how the Russian is good and welcoming. He believed that the cold war was a philosophy created and force on the Russians to claim victory for the war, which never took place in the first place[5]. The next question associated with the cold war is how much the US gained from that war. The government spends a lot of resources on the war to build a nuclear plant and other weapons of mass destruction, which have never been used in any major war in the world. The space exploration was yet another invention which the government embarked on to counter Soviet Union influence[6]. Although the precise financial cost is not clear, many political analysts believed that the amount the government spends during the war outweighed the benefit the country achieved when the Soviet Union collapsed. Therefore, it is a delusion by the US to claim that the US won the war. There are also claims that the US has used the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent collapse of the cold war as a delusion to control the rest of the world. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US has intensified its foreign policy in different parts of the world[7]. For some, the US has taken the joke too much far noting that the country has not benefited from anti-communist ideologies but has continuously made the claim of winning the war, which never existed in the first place. For the US, what counts is the overwhelming power which the US is currently enjoying. In real terms, what the power means to the US is that they can invade anybody small enough and where they can win quickly enough. The consequences of this for the US are going to be very dangerous because of many countries that are rising up, such as China, which was nowhere during cold war[8]. China was not part of the cold war, but today is one of the major superpowers and has the resources to take on the US. Therefore, the claim of the US to have won the war is a delusion which lacks space in modern politics.

Although a lot of development has taken place since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the records on factors that led to the collapse of the Soviet are known, and the US has little to do with them. They may claim dominance of the world but gained nothing from the cold war to boast of economically[9]. The cold war turned the US into the hegemon of the western world. However, much has changed with China emerging as one of the major superpower[10]. In reality, the US Empire and its goals are no longer genuinely accepted. In fact, the present US policy is more unpopular than the policy of other countries such as China and other emerging superpowers. Therefore, the claim by the US to have won the war is a delusion does not hold ground on the modern politic of world affairs.

Although the US may claim to have to war cold war, the celebrated victory and the superiority which the Americans have created may not last for long. The only thing which is absolutely certain is that historically it is a temporary phenomenon if history with different empires which has ever existed in the world is anything to consider. In the course of a lifetime, the world has witnessed the end of colonial empires and the end of so-called thousand Year Empire of Germans and other regions[11]. Therefore, the US may soon be overtaken by other upcoming nations such as China, and the delusion of winning the cold war will soon be gone. Accordingly, the US needs to stop the hype with the collapse of China and focus on issues of greater importance, such as addressing the deficit if the country is to maintain its position as superpower; otherwise their victory against the Soviet Union will soon be short-lived.

In conclusion, the US won the cold war with the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, the claims of the country to have won the cold war is a mere delusion and is outdated with time. Much has taken place since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. For instance, China has risen to become a superpower though little was known about it during that time. China alone poses a major threat to the US, and instead of focusing on the cold victory, the country must focus on improving its economic growth. During the cold war period, China supported some of the ideologies of the West, but after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US took credit for everything, which in reality is not true.

References

Hobbs, Richard W. The Myth of Victory: What is Victory in War?. Routledge, 2019.

Palmer, Matthew S. “The Grand Delusion: The Creation and Perseverance of the September Campaign Mythos.” The Journal of Slavic Military Studies 30, no. 1 (2017): 61-81.

Robinson, William I. A Faustian bargain: US intervention in the Nicaraguan elections and American foreign policy in the post-Cold War era. Routledge, 2019.

Romero, Federico. “9 The pitfalls of Western triumphalism.” 1989 and the West: Western Europe since the End of the Cold War (2019): 9.

Simons, Greg. “Shaping of Cold War 2.0: The Role of Information and Identity.” Small Wars Journal (2018).

Wohlforth, William C., and Vladislav M. Zubok. “An abiding antagonism: realism, idealism and the mirage of western–Russian partnership after the Cold War.” International Politics 54, no. 4 (2017): 405-419.

[1] Wohlforth, William C., and Vladislav M. Zubok. “An abiding antagonism: realism, idealism, and the mirage of western–Russian partnership after the Cold War.” International Politics 54, no. 4 (2017): 405-419.

[2] Romero, Federico. “9 The pitfalls of Western triumphalism.” 1989 and the West: Western Europe since the End of the Cold War (2019): 9.

[3] Wohlforth, William C., and Vladislav M. Zubok. “An abiding antagonism: realism, idealism, and the mirage of western–Russian partnership after the Cold War.” International Politics 54, no. 4 (2017): 405-419.

[4] Romero, Federico. “9 The pitfalls of Western triumphalism.” 1989 and the West: Western Europe since the End of the Cold War (2019): 9.

[5], Romero, Federico. “9 The pitfalls of Western triumphalism.” 1989 and the West: Western Europe since the End of the Cold War (2019): 9.

[6] Palmer, Matthew S. “The Grand Delusion: The Creation and Perseverance of the September Campaign Mythos.” The Journal of Slavic Military Studies 30, no. 1 (2017): 61-81.

[7] Robinson, William I. A Faustian bargain: US intervention in the Nicaraguan elections and American foreign policy in the post-Cold War era. Routledge, 2019.

[8] Hobbs, Richard W. The Myth of Victory: What is Victory in War?. Routledge, 2019.

[9] Simons, Greg. “Shaping of Cold War 2.0: The Role of Information and Identity.” Small Wars Journal (2018).

[10] Ibid.

[11] Palmer, Matthew S. “The Grand Delusion: The Creation and Perseverance of the September Campaign Mythos.” The Journal of Slavic Military Studies 30, no. 1 (2017): 61-81.