When I chose to research the Cold War, a topic I’ve studied before, I believed I had all the answers in my head planned out and it would be a cake walk. Fortunately, I am not only wrong on that notion but, instead, more enlightened and knowledgeable. The hours of reading and source searching opened me up to more thought provoking interesting facts, questions and analysis.

Before conducting research, I originally planned to do comparisons between the US and USSR and to make America seem like it had either won the Cold War or at least ahead in the game. Now I see there are many more possibilities. New questions that I’ve discovered from restudying the Cold War is “Who Was America really fighting and what for?”, “Did the United States fight themselves more than fight the expansion than communism?”, “Did the Cold War thaw or does it continue?” and more. This is how my research made me more knowledgeable and enlightened on the modern day effects of the Cold War.

Entry 1 Analysis:

In my first entry, I once again scrutinized two main forms of government: democracy and communism. The key examination that started my thought provoking questions was when I read the sources’ criticism of both forms. This lead me to look for historical evidence from the Cold War in future entry sources that proves these criticism correct. The first criticism I analyzed deeply was communism.

Communism is when the government control everything. The article I used stated the following: “Communism has been criticized as an ideology because it leads to slow technological advance, reduced incentives, and reduced prosperity. It has also been criticized as unfeasible.” Not only is this accurate due to most communist countries being very poor, but the fall of the USSR is the embodiment of lacking in money and prosperity. The poverty rate under the Soviet Union was 20%. That is about 9.5% greater than the US poverty rate today. For their economy, they experienced growth initially but slowly declined. Leaders like Gorbachev tried using western economic policies to improve it, but it only destabilized the country more thus the USSR collapsed.

The criticism of communism made me realize in detail how antiquated the form of government is through the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The fall of the USSR is the best historical evidence in my opinion that justifies and proves criticism of modern failures of communism because the Soviet Union’s economy rapidly declined. That alone shows how impractical a command economy can be. It can also be seen through this detail that of the modern world that amazes me: there are only about 5 major countries in the world that use communism and most of them are poor.

The article also criticized democracy. Democracy is a form of government where the people vote for officials. The article criticized for allowing tyranny of the majority to abuse their power over minorities. During the Cold War, the United States exploited this not only towards their own people, but people of other nations while under the premise of lies (notably in Vietnam).

During the Vietnam War, America cranked up their involvement within Vietnam, a country that was enduring a civil war. America set up a controversial Draft Select system that affected people who were skeptic of the war as while as African-Americans who were already experiencing racial oppression at home. How America abused their power towards foreign minorities was by targeting mostly civilians in Vietnam instead of the Viet Cong combatants in through massacres such as the Mai Lai massacre.

America has demonstrated tyranny of the majority since the founding of the Constitution. After researching modern effects of the Cold War in America I agree with the criticism while also being more aware of how the US government plays a big role in doing so. One way is through government deception which happened during Vietnam War.

(My Take) – Entry 1 has made me come to the conclusion that democracy is not perfect but more effective and practical than communism. The USSR collapsed and remains weakened till this day, which is evident of slow and weaker incentives. Not only is the collapse of the USSR evident itself, but the amount of communist countries, whom are mostly poor, being only five compared to there being 123 democratic countries. However, democracy’s imperfection is shown through the majority using its power to attack minorities both domestic and foreign. The United States did more damage to themselves by dividing their citizens, sending American people to be damaged and slaughtered, and further tarnishing the American legacy of being an outspoken nation for world peace and human rights, but instead partook in an unnecessary war that is remembered for permanently damaging and killing millions of innocent people for the world to witness and remember.

Entry 2 Analysis:
My second entry was an analysis of economical effects that transpired during the Cold War that plays a role in modern day life. This entry made me question how it changed the world and if the Cold War continues economically through another nation. The research I conducted informed me of how important a stable economy is and how it dictated the movement of the Cold War.

As referenced in Entry 1, a command economy is slow and ineffective versus a mixed economy which is more flexible and practical This is how the Soviet Union collapsed due to an ineffective economy. How it happened was a combination of military inefficiency and implementing capitalistic policies. Most growth economic growth arose from military action in the USSR for a lot of their money was invested in their military. However, under Nikita Khrushchev, the USSR pulled out of most military operations causing the economy to decline as well as Khrushchev’s credibility. Mikhail Gorbachev tried using western policies to revive the economy but it only caused the economy to decline more rapidly. Ultimately, the failed economy resulted in the collapse of the USSR.

America’s economy outlasted the Soviet Union. It practiced a system of supply and demand. This means Americans spending money for a return of goods fed the economy. Not only did the economy improve, but so did technological advancement. During the Cold War, America and Russia competed in the Space Race, which ultimately lead America to achieve putting the first man on the moon through greater advanced technology. America also started international trade.

(My Take) – The US and USSR economic competition ended when the USSR collapsed thus proving that America is also ahead in terms of economics. However, the Cold War continues economically through the country that substitutes USSR’s former position: China. What I learned from the research conducted in Entry 2 is that China took Russia’s place in the Cold War. During the Cold War, the US opened up international trade with China under president Nixon. This mutual trade that continues today helped ease international animosity with the US and China while also elevating China to have the second largest economy in the world while America remains the largest. Russia’s economic success ended prematurely and abruptly, leaving them with the worlds 11th largest economy. China, on the contrary, is just beginning and can pose a greater threat today due to being a more healthier and established nation.

Entry 3 Analysis:
My third entry was my longest and my most examined source of evidence throughout the entire study of the Cold War and its effects on the modern day world. It is also what taught me the most and gave me a better understanding of America’s flaws and importance of geopolitics. What I learned is the Cold War did not end, but has changed courses over the years. Many things caused this geopolitical transition but two things that should be acknowledged are nuclear weapons and proxy warfare that still effect the world we live in.

What I learned more in depth is how nuclear weapons changed how the world responds with warfare that goes on today. After the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended WWII in the pacific, the world has since feared nuclear annihilation. This fear is what lead to most countries attain nuclear weapons to defend themselves. Despite the alarming dangers, the mutual fear that all countries share of a nuclear war is what created peace. This is evident due to the Japanese atomic bombings being the only time in history nuclear weapons was used in warfare.

This fear is what elevated the use of proxy wars during the Cold War which receives mixed reception due to how some proxies were controversially carried out. The Vietnam War is perhaps the most controversial proxy during the Cold War. It overall rippled the country leaving lasting scars on the United States as a whole. This ripple revealed to me many of flaws this country suffers: American prejudice and how it negatively impacts the world.

(My Take) – I learned the United States did okay in spreading influence to cement allies with other nations as well as containing the spread of communism. There are more democratic nations that are allies for there is the United Nations. However, the US failed itself with its major flaw of tyranny of the majority through a corrupt and prejudice government by dividing American citizens amongst each other as well as tainting their reputation for being a pro human rights nation by committing human rights violations. This is overall straining America’s potential to be fully complete.

How America tarnished its legacy is through various forms of deception and discrimination committed by the government. War mongering people, who hated communist expansion, sought to increase America’s participation in war through fabrication like Gulf of Tonkin incident that caused millions of injuries and deaths. Another way is withholding the events they are guilty of. For instance, the hoax of the Gulf of Tonkin was not released to the public until 30 years after the was concluded. Finally, government operations motivated by spite, discrimination, nativism and jingoism from the government also deteriorates America’s potential. The American white majority has a history of racially discriminating minorities through law, including Asian Americans. Ex: Chinese exclusion Act, Japanese Internment Camps, Fong Yue Ting vs United States, Korematsu vs United States.

My Overall Conclusion:
Based on all my entries that I invested a lot of research in, I can conclude that the United States has won most of the battle but has yet to win the war. The Cold War has not fully thawed because China has substituted in Russia’s place as America’s main competitor, thus the Cold War continues. I believe America has the edge for now but because of the nations’ self induced problems, we cannot fully progress to significant results. Instead, we are making similar issues that the USSR did and what America has done during the Vietnam war which is slowly progress down. Issues such as government deception and civil unrest cause us to fight each other. Continuing this path will halt progression and may potentially cause the United States to fall behind and/or collapse if we do not change.

The people who need to read and study this message is the youth and young ones within minority classes. Election Day is coming soon [at the time of this publication] and is an opportunity to practice the right vote for change. The youth must be exposed to non-biased versions of the truth so they can make the right choices and fix America’s domestic problems. Without young people being educated, progress dies. Teachers, elderly, and history majors have a mission to ensure our future makes it.