HIS 243 · Cold War History

The Cold War Was For Capitalism That Never Ended

Imtiaz Mahmud•Professor Soheil Asefi•May 23, 2025

The mainstream Western historian will tell us that the Cold War was a conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union, which officially ended on December 26, 1991. They will say it was a war between the freedom of the Western world and the dictatorship of the East. In history classes across the United States and much of the Western world, students are taught that the U.S. and NATO fought for individual freedom and God-given rights, while the Soviet Union was nothing but pure evil toward its own citizens and the rest of the world. But this common understanding is not fully accurate. The United States of America and NATO mainly fought to protect capitalism and the interests of big corporations, and in a sense, the Cold War is still ongoing. For the United States, the Cold War was never about protecting the Global South from oppression by their governments, but it was about spreading unchecked capitalism, so the rich in the Global North could become even richer. The so-called freedom of being protected was the freedom of markets, not people.

As Antonio Gramsci, once wrote in his prison notebook, “The starting-point of critical elaboration is the consciousness of what one really is, and is ‘knowing thyself’ as a product of the historical processes to date, which has deposited in you an infinity of traces, without leaving an inventory.”1 In other words, what Gramsci, is saying is that what we accept as “common sense” is often created by the dominant ideologies that only serve the elites of our society. Understanding the Cold War as a war for capitalism, not freedom, helps explain why the logic behind it never really ended. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was no global peace, it only paved the way for the United States to expand its economic model, which is taking advantage of the global South’s slave labor and expanding the wealth gap at home.

The American economic system sees everything that humans need to live as just a commodity. In an economic system where basic needs for humans are regarded as a social good are a threat for the ruling class. One of the big examples of this a housing in the Soviet Union vs the United States. Author Morton writes, “In the Soviet Union, housing is regarded primarily as a social good, while in the United States it is treated essentially as a commodity.”2 If all the poor of a nation have to worry about how they are going to survive by putting a roof over their head, then they will not have time to question or fight for equality. And it is beneficial for the elites to make sure that the poor thinks this is the only way of living life. That this unchecked free market capitalism is the best and only economic structure for a country. The same way in the era of feudalism, Kings made sure that the common people didn’t have any ideas about a new way of living life. If the US economic system is perfect, then why was the US involved in so many regimes changed throughout the Cold War? Most of them were trying out socialism like Vietnam, Indonesia, and many South Asian and South American countries.3 All of these countries are from the Global South. If they were trying out an evil system of living, then why the United States just let them fail by themselves?

USA Income Inequality 1970–2015: Top 1% vs. Bottom 50%

The main reason for intervention was to keep these Third World countries under United Sates capitalism, so US corporations can use them as cheap and dirty factories.4 After all this intervention of socialist countries all over the Third World, the United States corporations moved all their production from home to third world. This widens the wealth gap in the United States of America. If we look at the graph above, we can clearly see that the top 1% of people had more money than the bottom 50% right after the end of the Cold War as we know it, or the fall of the Soviet Union. It was a big win for the man of capital.

People who defend the current economic model use modern tech innovation to show us how capitalism is the best of all. Capitalism does not innovate. The iPhone is the example of choice for those who defend the current economic model. The story goes something like this – A genius man, Steve Jobs, built Apple and invented the iPhone from his garage to the front stage of America and the World. They will say that to reject capitalism is to reject this miracle of technology that we use every day. But this logic could not be any further from reality. Almost every single component that makes a iPhone and other modern tech products are invented by public funding. Things like Microprocessors, memory chips, Solid State hard drive, LCD, lithium batteries, touch screens and internet and GPS that makes a smartphone smart come from public funding and RnD.5 All these innovations happened without market competition and most importantly without private capital.

We can see that again if we compare United States with other countries that do not have unchecked late-stage capitalism. Most new innovation that are coming from the United States are not to benefit the common people but only to get them addicted, so the rich can get more wealthy.6 Just look at the public transportation of China compare to the United States.7 A fully capitalist society will make crap car for poor people which will break every four years instead of fast reliable public transportation. So the corporations can increase the shareholder profits. All the tech innovation that came from the US recently, on the shoulders of publicly funded research in and development in 60s to 80s, are getting people addicted like social media for example. It is getting very hard to find modern innovation from an unchecked capitalist society like the US, where it benefits the common people.

Another giant elephant in the room is United States health insurance companies. Only reason we have a private health insurance company so wealthy shareholders can make money off the poor people’s death bodies. All these are Cold War for capitalism that are still going on here in the United States and overseas.

In conclusion, the Cold War was not about bringing world peace by dismantling of the Soviet Union, and it’s reach around the Third World’s countries. It was all about making sure the rich gets richer and capitalism stays as only economical way of living all over the world.

“For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”8

This is only true as long as capitalism rules the world.

Notes

  1. Antonio Gramsci, Prison Notebooks, Volume 2: 1930–1932, ed. and trans. Joseph A. Buttigieg (New York: Columbia University Press, 1971), 324.
  2. Morton, Henry W. “Housing in the Soviet Union.” Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science 35, no. 3 (1984): 69–80. https://doi.org/10.2307/11741.
  3. “United States Involvement in Regime Change,” Wikipedia, last modified May 20, 2025, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change.
  4. Death by Design. Directed by Sue Williams. Ambrica Productions, 2016. Accessed May 21, 2025. deathbydesignfilm.com
  5. Peter L. Singer, Federally Supported Innovations: 22 Examples of Major Technology Advances That Stem From Federal Research Support (Washington, D.C.: Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, 2014), www2.itif.org/2014-federally-supported-innovations.pdf
  6. De, D., El Jamal, M., Aydemir, E., & Khera, A. (2025). Social Media Algorithms and Teen Addiction: Neurophysiological Impact and Ethical Considerations. Cureus, 17(1), e77145. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.77145
  7. Aditi Shrikant, “Why US Public Transportation Is So Bad — and Why Americans Don’t Care,” Vox, September 26, 2018, vox.com/the-goods/2018/9/26/17903146
  8. Bible Hub, s.v. “Matthew 13:12,” accessed May 21, 2025, biblehub.com/matthew/13-12.htm.

Bibliography

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“United States Involvement in Regime Change,” Wikipedia, last modified May 19, 2025, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change.

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Westad, Odd Arne. The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.