Did we win the Cold War?

[AFB]

Explain.

 

[Feldenak]

Did we win the Cold War?

Try to find U.S.S.R. on a current map.

 

[Kibbo]

Their economic system was unsustainable. The distortions caused by their command economy were too great to allow for gradual reform, as you see in China. Glasnost led to complete collapse.

 

[Colt45]

gorbie fvcked up, plain and simple

 

[Infohawk]

There was a lot of discussion of this around the time Reagan kicked the bucket. The Soviet Union came apart from the inside in the end IMO.

 

[sandorski]

Depends on how you define Win.

 

[Pliablemoose]

My favorite explanation was that Gorbachov fvcked with the black market (what was really allowing the Soviet economy to survive) & imploded the USSR's economy in the process, true communism was unsustainable.

We also forced them to spend billions in the arms & space race, which also helped to tank their economy.

 

[conjur]

More like the Soviet Union lost it.

We outspent them (Afghanistan hurt the Soviets badly.)

 

[Kibbo]

Originally posted by: Colt45
gorbie fvcked up, plain and simple

Gorbie was a hero, IMO. He realized something had to be done, and he did something. I don't think that anything would have helped at that point.

 

[miketheidiot]

They lost it but we didn't win it. Afghanistan ran them into the ground, much worse than vietnam fvcked our economy.

 

[GreenGhost]

It ended due to the lack of sponsors for the TV crews. Or maybe someone realized it was all a lie just to scare people to keep the arms industry going. Remember that people were really afraid from the Sputnik. Ask your folks.

 

[slurmsmackenzie]

most definitely... and i feel one of the most decisive moments was the korean war. as much as a disaster it turned out to be, holding south korea was huge.

 

[bigal40]

Originally posted by: sandorski
Depends on how you define Win.

Maybe we didn't win but we didn't lose and we didn't tie so.....

 

[Forsythe]

They tried to go through the industrial revolution in 30 years, and really tried hard, that just couldn't be done. Byt 1928 the soviet industrial production was as good as zero. Stalin wrote a record by using 70% of the budget on the armsrace. I just wasn't feasible, it was bloody stupid.
But no, you didn't win, nobody would have been able to win it. If anybody won, it would have been the populations that did not have to experience nuclear war. (And btw, there has never been communism in russia)

 

[Abraxas]

I agree with Forsythe, it wasn't communism and we didn't beat them.

They were plagued by internal problems that would have brought them down completely absent of any intereference from the US. They beat themselves.

 

[Kibbo]

Of course, I always say that a victory by default is a victory nonetheless.

 

[Forsythe]

Originally posted by: Kibbo
Of course, I always say that a victory by default is a victory nonetheless.

But where's the sportsmanship in that?
I admit, you don't have much of it in iraq either.

 

[raildogg]

Originally posted by: Infohawk
There was a lot of discussion of this around the time Reagan kicked the bucket. The Soviet Union came apart from the inside in the end IMO.

he helped speed up the process

 

[gutharius]

Did we win? I would have to ask what was there to win in the first place?

I see neither nation as having won anything from this long term socialism vs. capitalism ideological war. While America has outlasted the Soviet Union, I am now starting to see America as a loser in this war as well. As capitalism and illicit backdoor corporate manipulation of our government has religated us as citizens of this nation to backseat consumption addicted passengers with no real power to effect change in our nation other than not buy this or that product.

 

[B00ne]

No, we the people behind the Iron Curtain won it. You just didnt lose, or helped to end it. But ultimately the winners are us people that had to live under Stalinistic rule.

 

[RabidMongoose]

Sure, seems like the US 'won' it.

 

[Rainsford]

Yeah, we won...because the USSR lost. Did we "beat" them? I wouldn't say so, their system had many, MANY fatal flaws and they eventually beat themselves.

 

[Burbot]

USA did not win. USSR, just like many empires before it, killed itself. It's death was caused by detachment of leaders from reality, corruption, and lack of transparency in decision making. USA is currently suffering from the same symptoms, and, unless direction in which it is moving drastically changes, it will suffer the same fate.

 

[BBond]

America didn't win the Cold War. We've simply become the U.S.S.R.

 

[rudder]

Originally posted by: BBond
America didn't win the Cold War. We've simply become the U.S.S.R.

Get out of the coffee shop and travel a little. When you have to stand in a line for 2 hours to buy a loaf of bread and when Micheal Moore gets released from the Gulag, come talk to me about the US becoming the USSR.