11.9: Chapter Summary and Key Terms

End of the Cold War

By 1970, the United States began to run massive trade deficits. The value of American exports dropped, and the prices of its imports skyrocketed. Coupled with the huge cost of the Vietnam War and the rise of oil-producing states in the Middle East, growing trade deficits sapped the United States’ dominant position in the global economy. President Ronald Reagan entered office as a committed Cold Warrior. He believed it was the duty of the United States to speed up the inevitable demise of the Soviet Union. The Reagan Doctrine expanded the defense budget and provided support to anticommunist forces everywhere in the world. Yet, ironically, the Cold War came to an end as a result of diplomatic negotiations, a strategy Reagan had once scorned.

The economic shocks of the 1970s and 1980s made promises untenable for both sides: energy and financial markets placed immense pressure on governments. Rather than make promises, political leaders were forced to break them. US President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher shut down industries, imposed austerities and favored the interests of capital over labor. They managed to promote austerity in the West as an antidote to the excesses of ideological opponents and set the stage for a neoliberal global economy. Within the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev’s proposed reforms unraveled the decaying Soviet system rather than bringing stability (see next chapter, chapter 12, for details). By 1991 the Soviet Union itself had vanished, dissolving into a Commonwealth of Independent States. The Cold War as a system of states ended in December 1991, when Gorbachev signed the USSR out of existence. Communism ceased to exist as a practical idea to organize society. As the socialist state fell apart, a new oligarchy emerged and assumed ownership of Russia’s riches. The economic transition to capitalism was a catastrophe for most Russians. 

The collapse of the Soviet Union left the US as the world’s most powerful, secure, and prosperous nation. The US gained unparalleled freedom to reshape the world without significant risks. Neoliberalism became the dominant political ideology of the world. Francis Fukuyama described the Soviet Union’s collapse as “the end of history” because the alternatives to liberal capitalism and democracy had failed. Most liberals hoped that American hegemony would lead to world peace. The collapse of the Soviet Union did not lead to global peace or stability. In fact, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, plunged the United States into protracted conflicts around the world. At home, economic recession, a slow recovery, stagnant wage growth, and general pessimism infected American life as contentious politics and cultural divisions poisoned social harmony, leading directly to the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Racism is ingrained in modernity and remains a clear category of power structuring. The development of global neoliberalism has played a major role in silencing and making racism invisible. Apart from the decay of the nation state as a provider of welfare, the neoliberal reforms and restructuring have led to a shift of the national wealth to the elites. This in turn has led to the paradox of the loss of public control over capital flow, while racialization is ongoing. The lack of explicit discussion of race and racism makes it difficult to challenge discrimination and enables white supremacy groups to ignore how racism is entangled with unequal power relations. During the slave trade and colonial period, the enemy could be clearly identified. Today the enemy is invisible.

During the Cold War both superpowers provisioned, supported, and sometimes even orchestrated and participated directly to advance their political and economic ideologies in smaller nations such as South Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Angola. In countries such as Argentina and El Salvador, dictators or military juntas replaced democratically elected governments. Both the Soviet Union and the United States used their resources and agencies to advance their interests in several nations across the world and shaped their political and economic trajectories in the postwar period. While the US played a significant role in putting pressure on the Soviet Union through military buildups, economic sanctions, and conflicts in Africa and Asia, it is important to emphasize that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a complex and multifaceted event that was influenced by many factors beyond the control of the US. 

Key Terms

•  Grand Strategy: This term refers to a government’s calculated use of resources to defend and achieve its desired international and domestic goals. During the Cold War both superpowers adopted aggressive strategies to shape the global order.
• Double V Campaign: The goal of the Double V campaign to promote democracy for African Americans in the US and overseas during World War II. The "V for victory" sign was prominently displayed by countries fighting "for victory over aggression, slavery, and tyranny," but the second "V" referred to the double victory for African Americans fighting for freedom in the US as well as overseas.
• Special Period in Cuba: The "Special Period" was a euphemism for the harsh austerity measures and hardships of Cubans during the 1990s, after the collapse of the USSR.
• Afghan Mujahideen: The Afghan Mujahideen (aka Afghan Resistance) comprised several groups that united to fight the Soviets and pro-communist forces during the Afghan-Soviet War. 
• Operation Condor: Operation Condor was the code name for a clandestine inter-American counterinsurgency network, whose key members were Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Brazil. It allowed members to share intelligence and to hunt down, seize, and execute political opponents in combined operations across borders during the Cold War.
• UNITA: The Ovimbundu people formed the base of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), which was established in 1966 and founded by a prominent former leader of the FNLA, Jonas Savimbi. During the 1980s, UNITA received training, weapons, medicines, food, and financial aid from several countries, including South Africa, US, Senegal, Israel, and Tanzania.
• MPLA: The People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), formed in December of 1956 as an offshoot of the Angolan Communist Party, had as its support base the Ambundu people. The MPLA received the bulk of its funding from the USSR, Cuba, and the People’s Republic of Congo. The sale of Angolan oil and diamonds (not already secured by UNTA) also financed the MPLA.
• FNLA: The National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA), founded in 1962, was rooted among the Bakongo people. The FNLA received support from several countries including the PRC, France, Israel, and the US.