Who won the Cold War?

Who won the Cold War has long been debated by historians who study the Cold War and its proxy wars. Learn why who won the Cold War is a hard question to answer. read more

For more than 45 years, the elephantine superpowers of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the United States fought the Cold War-- and some might argue the grass was, in this case, the rest of the world. read more

After World War II, the United States’ standing army likely would have shrunk back to the small peacetime numbers that existed for most of our history if it weren’t for the Cold War. Instead, the U.S. military spread across the world, allegedly to keep the country free from the horrors of Communism. read more

The Cold War defined the political role of the United States after World War II—by 1989 the United States had military alliances with 50 countries, with 526,000 troops stationed abroad, with 326,000 in Europe (two-thirds of which in west Germany) and 130,000 in Asia (mainly Japan and South Korea). read more

If we’re talking about who won the Cold War, well, the choice is among the US, the USSR, or neither, since those two were the primary belligerents. And the US is the clear winner. The Soviet Union collapsed and ceased to exist, all the Soviet republics and satellite states renounced communism and instituted democracies, and perhaps most importantly, McDonald’s is now in Moscow. read more