Well Soviet Russia is gone and Capitalist America is still here so I think it should be pretty clear that the US won.
BUT WAIT!! The United States pulled out of Viet Nam!! Could it be that it was actually Communism that prevailed and won the war?? dun dun dunnnn
I would like to point out the Soviet unions collapse shocked a lot of people, not many where expecting it. Tough the Soviet union wasn't even the soviet union anymore by the time the 80s and 90s came around> Also Afghanistan, Hey look its some guy named Osama bin laden lets help him for this will never come back to haunt us.
Yeah pretty much, oh what fun is to know the latest wars have been a direct reaction to our actions fighting the spread of communism and Iranians.
Since there was never a full out war I cannot say anyone won a clear victory. Though I'd say the US got the better of the conflict so I guess that's as far as you could get to 'winning' the cold war.
This topic has got me thinking: who really won the Punic Wars? I mean suuuure, Carthage was burned to the ground, its women and children sold into slavery, its men slaughtered, the earth where it once stood was salted; but Rome collapsed a mere 7 centuries later. At best it should be considered a draw.
Well the US had a recession barely a decade and a half or so after the fall of the Soviet Union, so it follows that the Cold War successfully defeated capitalism!
It's more like everyone after the Cold War was like "LAISSEZ FAIRE FREE MARKET FTW!!11!1!!!" and now it's coming round to bite us in the ass. I hope the Left becomes stronger as a result of this financial crisis, restoring some balance to world politics IMO. I'd say that the US winning was more or less inevitable, even if Gorbachev was successful and the USSR survived it would never be the same again (it would probably be like China or something)
Who won the Cold War, eh? My money is on Finland. EDIT: On more serious note I would go with Soviet peoples for they were the one who toppled the Soviet government.
Then they got Yeltsin and went into an entire decade of economic downfall, yeah so they so won with that.
Even if they did engage in conflict it would not be definitive. Even if the communists could somehow destroy the American army; the people living in the US would never accept the rule of a foreign occupation. Neither would the Russian people, but I said US people first because they all got gunz. You could say it was the test to determine if communism or capitalism won, but with that said corruption affected both and capitalism won. So I dunno about that whole argument.
Why do people admittedly assume that united states would rise up against there oppresers, if a country (be in the soviet union or China) had manged to defeat the entire united states military. Then a bunch of people in the backwoods of the homeland would fair any different (with little to no military training) unless the people have a vast military support then there is no way they will have any organization to revolt (it will be reported like Syria but would be incredibly stupid) Next your going with the fact of guns, first of all wouldn't the people who just conquered us take the guns away (i know i would) yes there might be some backlash but when my tanks come rolling in (see defeating miltary) then the population will get over it or die. also we assume the average american will get up and do something (they rarely ever do) the same thing goes with Russians. Yes you could argue that it was a test to see if communism or capitalism was better, but then every conflict where there where two ideology different groups going at it would have a loser thus making the losers ideology invalid and mute thus having no sway and who would follow the losers ideas. what im trying to say is just because it lost doesn't make it better or worse then capitalism (tough capitalism had the support of the majority) but when the soviet union fell it was not communist anymore, it was capitalist just it was a military power going against the united states. Tough its downfall was kinda unexpected by most united states politicians.
It's the Soviet Swiss Union now! Edit: but seriously, I think all the soviet leaders are chuckling in their graves because although the us came out alive, has it REALLY been a victory? That's where my believe that if the us hadn't gotten involved with The soviet invasion of Afghanistan, than we wouldn't be in this situation. That being said, George bush probably wouldnt have taken office because he would have no 9/11 to repeat to get votes.
You do have a point because if you look at history when a country is occupied people don't like it but most people just try to live and don't do anything. You are going to have resistance groups but really you would need another country to back you up. If there was an occupation of the US I think the rest of NATO would of try to support the resistance fighters if it did happen and if the rest of NATO wasn't already taken over of coures.