The Growth of American Power Through Cold and Hot Wars 345each other, or their allies, from gaining too much power or support.
While the Cold War was declared over in the early 1990s when the Soviet
Union and Communist governments in Eastern Europe fell apart, the conse-
quences were already evident, and the policies created after 1945 for the most
part remained in place. The U.S. was certainly wealthier and stronger, but
global affairs had taken a turn toward wars and a greater gap between the
powerful countries and those that were weaker. As events in the 1950s would
show, the forces unleashed in World War II and the postwar era would not
decrease, but instead lead to more conflict and discord at home. U.S. military
spending in the entire Cold War era may have exceeded $10 trillion, and the
U.S. would lose over 100,000 soldiers in wars in Korea and Vietnam alone,
while many millions would die in those countries and other areas where
Capitalism and Communism came into dispute. Both the U.S. and Soviet
Union would build massive arsenals of nuclear weapons, including missiles
with the ability to travel thousands of miles to destroy an enemy. The
Americans reached a high of over 30,000 warheads and the Russians over
40,000, enough to destroy the world many times over. Instead of peace and
prosperity for all, the world continued to hang from a cross of iron, bombs,
tanks, missiles, bullets and hostility.