The USA was not only superior at the start of the Cold War; it was superior all during this conflict. The “space race” clearly showed the USA’s favorable position as it was the first country ever to be able to put a man on the moon which was the main goal of the race. The USSR was ahead at the beginning of this competition as it was the first to start developing space technology, demonstrated as it was the first one to launch a satellite into space in 1957 and it was called Sputnik. This alarmed the USA as one of the main reasons why the space race begun was because both countries wanted to be able to put satellites in space in order to spy on each other. As the USA was alarmed, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was created and on 1958, it selected 7 men to become astronauts. Later on, the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first human being to go to space on April 2, 1961 and landed safely after 108 minutes out of the earth. This was a major Russian accomplishment, but they didn’t maintain their superiority. Then, the USA got ahead of them by launching the “Apollo 11” into space on July 16, 1969, reaching the moon, and most importantly, the astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin being able to walk on the moon. Then, the space race was over, and North America had won. This confirmed the USA excellence in everything (scientific aspects, space discoveries, between others) and created fear in the USSR as now, America was ahead of them in every aspect possible and they were able to launch satellites, intercontinental missiles and/or nuclear weapons to the USSR. This made the USSR even more vulnerable against the USA superpower, and this competition was able to be won thanks to the USA’s advantages at the start of the war.
The USSR was not only vulnerable compared to the USA in specific aspects such as science development, the space race, the military and kind of weapons advance. It was also vulnerable because of the regime itself was breaking down. A great example which demonstrates this fully is the Hungarian Uprising. This event took place from the 23re of October until the 10th of November of 1956, just after Stalin died, during Khrushchev’s period in power. Khrushchev took the leadership of the Soviet Union just after its previous leader Stalin, who imposed a terror regime in the USSR, died. Khrushchev was a completely different commander who wanted to end with all the things Stalin had started with, including the intense fear he had set in the mentioned country and make it a more liberal, free society. To do this, he begun a period called the “de-Stalinization” in which he decided to replace the prime minister of Hungary who had been placed by Stalin, by another more liberal one and he also chose to withdraw the red Army form the mentioned country. When this new minister Imre Nagy took over Hungary, he started to completely change everything. Elections started to appear, freedom of speech was given to the people including radio stations and broadcasts in which the citizens could argue against the communist regime; it all started to look like capitalist democracy. When Khrushchev got notice of what was going on in Hungary, he made the red Army re-enter in this territory and they began to kill all of the Protestants and basically everyone against the USSR who were fighting for their rights. They also took Imre Nagy and killed him. At the end of this chaotic event, the Soviet Army killed over 2,500 Hungarians, left more than 1,000 citizens badly injured and beyond 200, 000 people left this country looking for safety. This chaotic event clearly demonstrates the instability of the USSR and the lack of control of the citizens held by the government. This is also evidence that shows the superiority of the capitalist system as the USA never had any weaknesses during the war which involved a revolution of its citizens. As it has been demonstrated, the USA had a better political system which was a key ingredient in the recipe of them winning the Cold War.
Throughout the war, it was made evident that the USA was superior than the USSR, but the end of this conflict was the one that really made or clearly showed the difference between both powers. When the USSR realized that this war was already lost, it saw itself inwards and that’s when all of the intern conflicts began bursting out. Movements like “solidarity” (anti-communist party which consisted on all of the workers of Poland who were arguing and looking for a way to have their rights) began being created and very popular among the citizens. Also, the economy was devastated from the Afghanistan war (which they lost just as the Americans lost the Vietnam War), as they spent a lot of money, military, armament and weapons trying to impose the communist regime in this country. As the whole Soviet Union was in crisis, the leader at that time decided to let some western markets in, including the USA and it’s capitalism regime, which brought with it the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and for it to be practiced, therefore, there was now freedom of thought, of speech, between others in the USSR. Also, elections began being made, and soon, the countries were free from the communist regime, imposing capitalism instead. The USSR and it’s leaders didn’t do any significant movement against it as it was evident that the USA was going to win, especially because of the advantages it had at the beginning of the war and because it knew how to preserve this position.
To conclude, the advantages the USA entered the war with helped win it and all of the other conflicts which took place at the same time, except the Vietnam War, and the great knowledge of this nation to keep the superior position made a great impact. Also, the USSR was weakened by all of its intern conflicts such as the Hungarian Uprising, which re-assured the victory of the United States of America.
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*2 : Juan Pablo Valdes told me this information.