Introduction

Historians often hesitate to draw conclusions about the recent past. They assume that the significance of events becomes more discernible with the passage of time. It is, however, interesting to speculate about what historians in the middle of the next century will say about the period from the end of World War II to the end of the so-called Cold War. Perhaps the dominant view will highlight decades of relative stability and economic growth. No world wars have erupted since 1945, and many nations attained unprecedented affluence.

The Soviet Union and its satellites, of course, did not achieve as much affluence as their counterparts in the West. The USSR achieved superpower status through an impressive arms buildup, but in the long run the shortcomings of its centrally planned economy were aggravated by the diversion of resources from consumer industries to military purposes. Apparently Soviet communism had within it the seeds of its own destruction. The satellite nations, which have long had an historic tendency to lag behind Western Europe economically, suffered serious handicaps under Soviet domination.

With the collapse of Communist regimes in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the reunification of Germany in 1990, and continued German membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (while the Warsaw Pact disintegrated), the allies could plausibly claim that they won the Cold War. The aftermath of this victory has, however, been characterized by so many problems of economic hardship, political instability, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and ethnic strife that many people have felt nostalgia for the Cold War years.