How The Soviet Union Won The Cold War

by Daniel Carter
After World War II, the victors began a mission to mold the world in their own image. However, the images of the United States and the Soviet Union, the two most powerful and influential countries after WWII, were the antithesis of each other. The United States was intent on spreading the principals of personal freedom and democracy, while the Soviet Union was intent on spreading the principals of Marxism/Communism. The differences between the two powerful countries led to the military standoff known as the Cold War.
The Cold War started in 1947 and ended when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. The Cold War was a time that struck fear into Soviet citizens, US citizens and many other people around the world. The world had just been introduced to the astonishing power of nuclear weapons when the US essentially erased Nagasaki and Hiroshima from the earth at the end of WWII. With the Soviets and the US heavily armed with these new instruments of mass destruction, the world sat anxiously, never quite knowing if the two nations would set off a chain reaction that would annihilate life on earth.
As we now know, the moment of all out nuclear warfare never came. The Cold War never turned hot. However, that does not mean the countries weren’t successful in spreading their ideology. It is abundantly clear how successful the US was in their efforts. The United States has built the most powerful empire the world has ever known. Their influence in the world is unparalleled, and their hundreds of military bases around the world (shown below) prove it. The next most powerful country in the world today, China, just opened their first overseas military base in Djibouti.   

(Source: 5W Infographics)
At first glance, the United States appears to have won their competition with the Soviet Union. However, the Soviets discovered a weapon even more powerful than nuclear arms; a weapon that is still being used today, even though the Soviet Union no longer exists. Their “not so secret” weapon was their ideology itself. Much of the Eastern world, especially the USSR, experienced firsthand how powerfully corrosive and influential the idea of Marxism/Communism was. Marxism is an idea that can be planted on the grassroots level of a society that eventually transforms the society into a top-down dictatorship. In other words, the best way to gain control and influence over another society is to simply plant the idea of Marxism.
The ideological subversion the Soviets used against the US and other countries was not fast, loud and decisive. It is a slow-moving process that eventually leads to a total transformation into a full-fledged communist society. As history suggests, a communist society is also a society that self-destructs. It is an ideology that is responsible for the most mass murder and authoritarianism in history. The Soviets realized it was their greatest weapon and willfully spread it to the US.
Below is a video of KGB defector, Yuri Bezmenov, explaining how the Soviet Union slowly and methodically used the communist ideology against the US. It’s 13 minutes long, but it’s well worth watching the entire video.

Communist ideals first contaminated the US education system. Now those ideals have spread through the media, government, Hollywood, the business world and society at large. The US system won the short-term battle but the Soviets appear to be winning the war from beyond the grave. Just in case anyone still doubts the effectiveness of the Soviet Union’s ideological subversion, I’ll leave you with this video: