Tactics of The Cold War

Tactics of the Cold War: United States vs. Soviet Union The Cold War can be defined as two superpowers: the United States of America and the Soviet Union, in a conflict involving ideology, paranoia, communication blunders, and constant speculation of who was the on the offensive or defensive.1 This conflict created one of the most famous rivalries in history, one which was conducted by several means on both sides. From the start of the Cold War post World War II, when the opposing ideologies of the United States and Soviet Union clashed, to the end of the Cold War signaled by the break of the Soviet Union in 1991, each superpower had its own way of stepping toe to toe with their divergent economic policies, various forms of aid to other countries, covert operations abroad and ideological competition. By looking at the aforementioned means of waging the Cold War, one can better ascertain the role each played in continuing the rivalry for so many years. The superpowers had two opposing ideologies that shaped their economic policies. The United States is a capitalistic nation, whose economics focuses more on free-trade without government restriction and the Soviets, a communistic nation, sought to create a more centralized economy that focused on industrialization and collectivization. The capitalism of the United States is defined by James Fultcher, in his work, Capitalism: A Very Short Introduction is an investment of capital in order to gain a profit.2 The United States used its capitalistic economic policy to not only help with its containment policy, but obtain more global markets. This can be seen within the Marshal Plan speech given by Secretary of State George Marshall, when he suggests that it is over the next three or four years Europe will be buying most products primarily from the United States until they can rebuild from war devastation.3 Leslie Holmes, author of Communism: A Very Short Introduction discusses how there are