In his farewell address, President George Washington warned America to beware of foreign entanglements. But by the 20th century, the U.S. was rushing back and forth to Europe to save the United Kingdom and her allies in the World Wars. Despite Washington’s 1796 warning, the post-World War II world became an entangled mess of diplomatic agreements as the free world opposed communism.
“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent,” Winston Churchill famously said in a 1946 speech. But the adversary Churchill described wasn’t the Soviet Union, it was communism.
Yes, the Soviet Union and its allies were the bearers of the Marxist torch at the time, but the Cold War was a war of ideas that cost many people their lives in actual conflicts around the world. We called our enemies communists during the Cold War, but Karl Marx didn’t demonstrate a distinct difference between socialism and communism in his manifesto. To him, socialism was simply a stage en route to communism.
Cold War battle lines were quickly drawn as each side hurried to ink diplomatic treaties defining their respective allies. Unlike in World War I, the United States remained in Europe following World War II. By 1949, we implemented the Marshall Plan, conducted a year-long emergency airlift to supply Berlin, deployed advisors to Greece and Turkey to resist the communists, and founded the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for security cooperation and collective defense.
In a nascent nuclear era without intercontinental or submarine-launched ballistic missiles, NATO allowed our growing arsenal of nuclear-capable bombers to base forward in Europe. Similarly, prepositioned American troops augmented by NATO member forces were seen as a strong deterrent to communism spreading to Western Europe.
Alabama’s sons and daughters in uniform were a big part of this Cold War history as they were sent to stand against communism on the front lines. Likewise, our folks back home directly supported the nation’s defense efforts on Fort Rucker, Maxwell Air Force Base, Fort McClellan, Anniston Army Depot, and Redstone Arsenal. Every taxpayer contributed to an unrivaled defense budget protecting our way of life. Yes, Alabamians did their part to win the Cold War.
Unfortunately, there’s a tendency to look at the military aspects of this era and minimize other variables in play. Yes, the Warsaw Pact is in the dustbin of history. Russia is no longer governed by the Communist Party. Germany is unified, and the former Soviet Republics, along with Poland and Czechoslovakia, gained their freedom. While notable outcomes, they don’t capture the entire story of Cold War victory.
While our tank main gun barrels pointed east, Marxist ideology was seeping back into Western Europe and America. The socialists had already made inroads into Western Europe before the end of the World War I in 1918, and following the defeat of socialist Germany and fascist Italy, it looked like socialism was on the ropes. Unfortunately, memories are short. As conditions in post-World War II Western Europe improved, successive governments were taken over at the ballot box by socialists using various party names.
The United Kingdom fell to the Labour Party in 1945, switching back and forth every few years with the Conservative Party, a trend continuing today. France, a socialist stronghold since 1946, experienced a peak in socialist power between 1981 to 1995 under President François Mitterrand. Even the current French president, Emmanuel Macron, is a former member of the Socialist Party. In West Germany, the Social Democratic Party came to power with Chancellor Willy Brandt in 1969, holding a strong coalition presence on and off since then.
When the Cold War ended, our Western European allies cut back on military spending, challenged the existing international monetary system with the introduction of the Euro, and repeatedly refused to stand with the U.S. in international affairs. Remember, France, Germany, and several other Western European allies openly opposed the U.S., while NATO partner Turkey refused the U.S. use of their air space during the Second Gulf War in the early 2000s.
Fast forward to 2026, and our Western European and NATO allies are singing the same tune. Denmark’s Social Democrat prime minister, backed by other NATO members, openly opposed the U.S. over Greenland, including deploying military forces for reconnaissance and exercises. The Spanish Socialist Workers Party prime minister has called for the formation of a European Union Army and stood in vocal opposition to military operations in Iran. Multiple allies again denied us use of their airspace or facilities.
While Western European governments were using the U.S. security umbrella for cover to build elaborate social welfare states during the Cold War, propagandists were busy operating closer to home in our school systems and, later, online. Younger generations don’t remember the Cold War. They didn’t live with the fear of nuclear Armageddon or stories of Soviet atrocities against their own people and satellite states. No, young people simply lack practical knowledge of a Soviet communist system that utterly collapsed by the end of 1991.
Post-Cold War Marxism has returned as a theoretical paradise, complete with catchy t-shirts and slogans proving one is part of the group. A recent survey suggests 62% of American adults under age 30 have a “favorable” view of socialism. Let that sink in. Only 33 years after the Cold War, the majority of young Americans polled had a “favorable” view of socialism.
Given that, who really won the Cold War?
Dr. Tobias Vogt von Heselholt (shortened to “Vote”) is a retired U.S. Army officer, former professor, author, and elected member of the Alabama Republican Executive Committee. For more, see his author page at Amazon.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to [email protected].
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