Policies and actions taken by the United States during the Cold War, which ran from the end of World War II to the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall and subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union, included adoption of a policy of containment, which involved engagement against communist governments and insurgencies in what were known as “proxy wars” across the developing world. Alongside this, the US embarked on the accumulation of vast military forces at the cost of trillions of dollars.

The war-time alliance between the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union was one of expediency and necessity in the face of Nazi Germany’s expansionist militarism. Tensions between the allies were sublimated to the existential threat from Germany. Once that threat was defeated, underlying distrust and hostility emerged into the open, manifested in the Soviet-inspired communist insurgency in Greece and destabilizing pro-communist activities in Italy and elsewhere. In addition, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ordered his allies in Eastern Europe to seize control in Poland and Czechoslovakia while consolidating his hold over East Germany and Hungary. Meanwhile, France’s determination to reclaim colonies in Southeast Asia seized by Japan would facilitate the development of a large communist-nationalist movement in Vietnam that would become a focal point of the policy of containment adopted by the United States. The communist regime ruling North Korea, at the instigation of Stalin, attacked the south, leading to three years of bloody combat.

The policy of containment represented the core US foreign policy throughout the Cold War. Realizing the difficulty if not impossibility of removing the communist regime in Russia and fearful of Stalin’s regional ambitions and ruthlessness, the Truman Administration sought to contain communism by buttressing friendly anti-communist governments while seeking to undermine pro-communist regimes around the world. The conflicting agendas of the two sides resulted in the series of proxy wars that characterized the Cold War era in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Another major action taken by the United States involved the development, deployment, and maintenance of large military forces, including long-range nuclear missiles as well as nuclear bombs and cruise missiles carried by bombers. While building these military forces, and consistent with the policy of containment, the United States also adopted a policy of providing financial and technical assistance to allied and other friendly governments to help them recover from World War II.

The effects of these policies and actions were to ultimately exhaust and defeat the Soviets at the cost of trillions of dollars in expenditures on the military and foreign aid programs. In addition, millions of civilians perished in those proxy wars and many of the countries involved, such as Angola, Nicaragua, Mozambique, Laos, Vietnam, Somalia, and others were left ruined by years of conflict. Over 58,000 Americans died in Vietnam in a war that was a direct extension of Cold War hostilities, and another 36,500 were killed during the Korean War, another direct manifestation of Cold War hostilities. The nuclear weapons complex built by the United States to deter Soviet aggression cost American taxpayers over $1 trillion from the end of World War II through the end of the Cold War.

In addition to the economic ruin that afflicted poorer countries in Africa and elsewhere was a legacy of the guerrilla wars around the world in Africa and Southeast Asia: land mines. Unexploded, hidden mines continued to terrorize and kill civilians years after the conflicts ended. While the United States does not bear sole responsibility for these outcomes of the Cold War, policies and actions intended to deter or counter Soviet-led communist insurgencies around the world unquestionably resulted in problems such as unexploded ordnance that killed or maimed innocent people. Certainly, American bombing raids in Southeast Asia can be blamed for much of the problem of unexploded ordnance in that region.

What were the Soviet Union's main policies and actions during the Cold War?

The Soviet Union and the United States participated in a Cold War during most of the twentieth century. The Soviet Union secretly detonated its own nuclear weapon, thus leading US intelligence agents to correctly assume that the Soviet Union had a robust espionage program. The Soviet Union further developed its military and nuclear capacities after WWII, thus leading the United States to build up its own nuclear armament programs and military. This arms race became more expensive every year and was one of the key factors in the demise of the Soviet Union.

The Soviet Union also clamped down on internal dissent. Ukrainian, Polish, and Georgian nationalists vanished in secret police raids. Religious groups had to practice in secret. Any criticism of the Kremlin government was handled harshly. As a result, the United States was able to contrast the freedoms found in the US with the authoritarian nature of the Soviet Union. This painted the Soviet Union in an unfavorable light and allowed US politicians to characterize the fight between the Soviet Union and the US as a struggle of good versus evil.

The Soviet Union also established puppet governments throughout Eastern Europe. East Germany, Hungary, and Bulgaria were all led by leaders favorable to the Kremlin. These countries were prohibited by Moscow from receiving any Marshall Plan money after the war to rebuild their shattered infrastructures and for decades the wealth disparity between Eastern and Western Europe was very apparent. The United States united Western Europe together under NATO to potentially combat any Soviet incursions. The Soviet Union and its puppet governments united under the Warsaw Pact.

Perhaps the greatest undertaking of the Soviet Union was backing leftist governments throughout the developing world. The Soviet Union fought the United States by proxy during the Vietnam War with North Vietnam being supported with Soviet advisers and weapons against the United States and its ally in South Vietnam. The Soviet Union also backed Fidel Castro and this nearly led to the Cuban Missile Crisis ending in nuclear warfare between the two superpowers. The United States backed right-wing governments throughout the developing world because these governments promised to take a hard stance against communism. In many circumstances, these US-backed governments were corrupt or cruel against the people who lived in their countries. The Cold War has left a long shadow in the developing world since the US and Soviet Union used warring factions in order to weaken each other by proxy.