How did the Cold War impact domestic policies and politics in both the United States and the Soviet Union?
The Cold War had a profound effect on the international spaces of the Third World, affecting many wars and their development in particular. U.S. and the USSR have been influential for helping governments and corporations align their ideologies to express their objectives. This led to more proxy warsRead more
The Cold War had a profound effect on the international spaces of the Third World, affecting many wars and their development in particular. U.S. and the USSR have been influential for helping governments and corporations align their ideologies to express their objectives. This led to more proxy wars, where the superpowers provided support to opposing sides in peripheral conflicts rather than in direct combat. In Vietnam, for example, the United States intervened aggressively to contain the ongoing expansion of communism, especially the protracted and devastating war. Similarly, the Soviet Union’s involvement in Afghanistan in the 1980s led to a protracted war, with great suffering and instability. Economically, the international centers of the Third World were increasingly forced to act along capitalist or socialist lines depending on their alignment with great powers Countries with the US. integrated in Latin America mostly used capitalist strategies, while some African countries followed socialist strategies with Soviet support of this external influence influenced their Economic strategies and developed reform strategies, once in a while through foreign resources on special closure. Some countries including India joined the Non-Cooperation Movement and tried to stay in the US. Or a faction of the Soviet Union but made a difficult transition to neutrality under intense geopolitical pressure from both sides. Overall, the Cold War legacy of the Third World includes a history of war, economic crisis and political division, which has led to lasting change and equilibrium.
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For both the United States and the Soviet Union, there were harrowing effects on domestic policy and politics. Anti-communism gave birth to McCarthyism in the U.S., which launched political witch hunts and put a damper on civil liberties. Similarly, this was an era of gigantic military budgets and aRead more
For both the United States and the Soviet Union, there were harrowing effects on domestic policy and politics. Anti-communism gave birth to McCarthyism in the U.S., which launched political witch hunts and put a damper on civil liberties. Similarly, this was an era of gigantic military budgets and an Overpowering military-industrial complex. Domestic policies had to compete with the USSR by investing in education, science, and technology.
In the Soviet Union, Cold War issues underpinned authoritarian control. The regime clothed its repression and limitation of personal freedoms in the rhetoric of fighting Western influence. The massive allocations to the military and technological development to face the challenge from the West resulted in a lack of consumer goods directly affecting the quality of life for citizens.
With a view to national identity, ideology burrowed deep into the flesh of capitalism and communism in both countries. It then entered political rhetoric: both parties demonized each other’s systems. The fear of nuclear war penetrated both societies, influencing public opinion and, ultimately, policy decisions.
It configured social movements like in United States, civil rights activists were accused of communist sympathies, while in the Soviet Union, the dissident movements were suppressed as possible Western collaborators.
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