U.S. Economy May Not Help Win a Cold War With China
The American system was superior to the Soviet Union’s. The same advantage doesn’t hold against a new adversary.
Cold War battleground.
Photographer: Keystone Features/Hulton ArchiveAn increasing number of policy makers and pundits argue that the U.S. is heading for a new Cold War. With tensions rising between the U.S. and China, the possibility of an extended great-power struggle is all too real. But would-be 21st-century cold warriors should remember how and why the U.S. prevailed in its 20th-century contest with the Soviet Union. It was a strong economy and effective institutions that allowed the U.S. to outlast its mighty foe.
The U.S. and the USSR never went to war directly. They did engage in a series of proxy conflicts and interventions, but ultimately the Cold War wasn’t decided on a third-world battlefield. Nor was it James Bond-style spycraft that ultimately made the difference or soaring speeches about liberty. Simply put, the U.S. won the Cold War because its economic and political system produced broadly shared prosperity and the USSR’s system did not.