Never Far from the Cold

Why the Cold War still matters and its lessons are worth learning.

At our current vantage point, almost three decades since the Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War officially ended, the existential turmoil of that conflict can sometimes seem a distant memory. So much has taken place in the intervening years, so much has changed, that the Cold War seems a world away. In many ways this distance is merited. Geopolitically and even militarily, the United States faces a different and more complex strategic environment today than during the Cold War years. There are more players on the field, comprised of both state and non-state actors, and technological advances have exerted a revolutionary influence on the ways in which these entities behave.

Indeed, it could be argued that there are stronger parallels between our current environment and the geopolitical conditions that preceded the First World War than between our situation and the Cold War. After all, in the place of a bi-polar system dominated by two global superpowers, the international order is increasingly moving towards a multi-polar model in which geopolitics, industry, economics, information, and even the lives of individual citizens are progressively intertwined. Despite the inherent tension associated with the Cold War, we have moved beyond the relative stability and clarity of that conflict towards a world that is more and more volatile and opaque.

However, we are living during a period where historical research into the Cold War is steadily becoming more feasible, as government records continue to be declassified, digitized, and disseminated. Authors of both academic and popular Cold War titles find an eager market for their work, and Cold War comparisons are a favorite tool of journalists and politicians seeking to make one point or another about current affairs of the day. The Cold War persists in the minds of American leaders, thinkers, and scholars alike – illustrating that while its dangers remain in the (near) past, its lessons have enduring value for both current and future generations. This essay seeks to highlight a few examples demonstrating the persistent relevance of the Cold War for our modern society, suggesting a few compelling reasons why the Cold War should be actively examined and remembered.

First of all, the basic foreign policy positions outlined in the initial years of the Cold War defined American strategy for the next several decades. As American and British leaders began to understand the post-World War II intentions of the Soviet Union, which emphasized security for Russia through political subversion in surrounding areas, they realized that preventing the ultimate collapse and Sovietization of Europe would require both investment and support from the West. The Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan, along with the consolidation of the British, French, and American zones of western Germany, were designed to provide the kind of economic support necessary for European countries to reemerge from wartime devastation and begin reconstruction. These steps also clearly defined the American position vis-à-vis the Soviet Union, as Secretary of State George C. Marshall observed – those who intended to “perpetuate human misery in order to profit therefrom politically or otherwise will encounter the opposition of the United States.” When we wonder why the United States seems so committed to global responsibilities today, these decisions form at least part of the answer. These decisions set the United States on a path that it would pursue for the rest of the Cold War and beyond, as the American responses to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and peacekeeping missions in the Balkans and Rwanda illustrate.

Furthermore, the transitional years following World War II and leading into the Cold War also witnessed the construction of the American national security state, or system, the majority of which remains in place today and forms the foundation of our military and intelligence structures. Despite rapid military demobilization at the end of World War II, American leaders understood that the country’s newfound international responsibilities would require a significant reorganization of the military as well as the intelligence community, leading to the creation of the National Security Council, the Department of Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and additional accompanying organizations. Deployed to both deter the Soviet Union as well as conduct limited ground wars and counter-insurgency operations where necessary, these were the tools and capabilities with which the United States entered the post-Cold War world, and in large part the system remains, and indeed has expanded, in the post-9/11 era. Even recent privacy debates are not, in essence, new. Concerns about the effects of a “garrison state” and military-industrial complex were familiar elements of the post-World War II and early Cold War environment.

Along with the mushrooming national security system, federal subsidization of research and development, in both academic and corporate spheres, became widespread and normal. This process had obviously begun during World War II, as American industrial capacity was enlisted to provide equipment and supplies to the war effort, and scientists were employed to research, construct, and perfect military weapons and capabilities, perhaps most notably the atomic bomb. These partnerships were continued and expanded after the war. The Cold War arms race and subsequent space race required the invention and manufacture of ballistic and intercontinental missiles, satellites, space vehicles, and life support systems. Defense-supported innovation produced modern computers, the first iteration of the Internet, and a host of other technological and scientific discoveries and developments, all generated through federal investment and collaboration. GPS, for example, ubiquitous today, was originally developed to assist in accurate delivery of nuclear weapons. These relationships persist today, supporting research and development across a wide variety of disciplines and applications, but trace their beginnings to World War II and expanded investment during the Cold War.

Finally, the ways in which the United States deploys its military power today also hearken back to Cold War strategies and perspectives. The Gulf War, with its successful application of “networked warfare” and precision munitions, developed during the waning years of the Cold War, demonstrated that, just as immediately following World War II, the American military was the mightiest in the world. The American strategy of winning “hearts and minds,” focused on relationship-building among local populations during the Global War on Terror, is a direct descendant of the same technique employed by the American military during the Vietnam War. As the years since 9/11 have demonstrated, however, strategies and capabilities developed by the United States in response to Cold War priorities do not necessarily match the challenges inherent in more recent conflicts, and by the same token, overemphasizing counter-insurgent conflict and challenges from non-state actors runs the risk of ignoring resurgent competition from near-peer rivals who have been watching, learning to emulate non-state entities to exploit American weaknesses.

With these things in mind, and recognizing the resurrection of great power competition in both military and geopolitical discussions, it is clear that echoes of the Cold War persist and remain relevant to both current and future strategies of the United States. Our imperative is to learn the lessons that the Cold warriors of the twentieth century left for us, balancing security and global responsibility with equally important domestic considerations at home. Failing to do so risks widening serious schisms between national security and democratic sustainability, as well as losing crucial ground in the international challenges we face.

We are never far from the cold.