Economic Impacts Of The Cold War

The Cold War was a state of political antagonism between countries categorized by intimidations, propaganda, and other processes that don’t include violence and open warfare. A rivalry between the US and the USSR was created through their race to spread their ideas and influence to other countries across the globe with the US being the Capitalist superpower and the USSR being the contending communist power. Policies of America during the time of the Cold War reflect the time when communism was an active threat to the country and politics were affected immediately by the Cold War. National security was also immediately affected by the Cold War and America saw a divide between its people on the correct response; either be militarily aggressive …show more content…
One of the more obvious impacts of the Cold War on America was the fact that the funding of the Cold War came from federal taxes on the people. America was impacted immediately by this economically because this was a change from the previous isolationist stand America had on foreign conflicts as the people didn’t have to pay any of these new, high federal taxes. Government had to increase defense budget which is one of the biggest drivers of the national debt which had also increased when the government started subsidizing homes for the people to preset united front. The United States also gave economic aid to Greece and Turkey and other Western European countries during the Cold War so they could battle communistic influences from the Soviet Union. The American people felt the changes economically during the Cold War when America decided to adapt foreign policies that aid other countries financially to stop communism ideas to spread. One of the long term economic impacts of the Cold War was that the US and the USSR exploited economic and social tensions throughout countries around the world as part of their rivalry and it has had lasting impacts and tensions throughout the end of the Cold War into the Post-Cold War Era. Economically, the rest of the world felt tensions that America and the Soviet Union created during the Cold war as they rivaled their ideas …show more content…
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was created after WW2 and its policies include maintaining plenty of political strength and political unity with the goal of easing tension between the East and the West, however the opposite happened during the Cold War which led to national and international politics being affected. (Kennan) This fact shows how global organizations were affected by the Cold War in how they built their policies around the rivalry between the US and the USSR which led to other parts of the world being affected by these change in politics and policies. In the way the Cold War affected America domestically, it gave a common enemy to US politicians who used the red scares and fear of communism to get the American people’s votes. American politics were impacted by the Cold War not only in the policies that were created, but how the politicians of this era conducted themselves and how they used the situation to gain political power. The Cold War also had instigated strong anti-communism within the US that led to drastic policies and acts to be put into place such as the McCarran Act and the Communist Control. (Brzezinski) These Acts were just a few of the many that aided America’s goal of stopping the spread of communism. On the other hand, the Cold War in addition affected America’s foreign policies as it ended America’s self-imposed isolationist drive