Anybody old enough to remember the “duck and cover” drills that America’s youth was forced to endure during the height of ’50s and ’60s Cold War tensions probably never thought they’d be thankful for those moments of terror, cowering under their desks and wondering if an actual thermonuclear warhead was on its way.
But the fact is, thankful is exactly what they should have been — for two reasons.
The first reason was that the escalation in weapons research and manufacturing, especially the ultra-costly uranium and plutonium enrichment and ICBM development programs that gave rise to those duck-and-cover drills, helped, in no small way, to financially destroy the USSR.
War-Making Through Research and Development
Unable to keep up with the USA’s vastly superior industrial production capacity, the USSR lost the Cold War without having to fire a single bullet directly at American assets.
This brought about an ending to one of the most oppressive regimes in modern history and allowed the U.S. to elevate itself to the position of sole global superpower.
The beneficiaries of this unprecedented saber-rattling weren’t just the duck-and-cover kids and their kids, but everyone living under the iron fist of the politburo as well.
The USSR’s inability to keep up technologically while at the same time managing the burdens of running an enormous nation helped show which economic system was more viable — thus benefiting (hopefully) future generations as well.
And just like the lesson in human social dynamics that the failure of communism clearly illustrated, the second factor also continues to benefit us, young and old alike, decades after the Cold War came to an official end.
The USSR’s competition with the USA, in all realms of scientific endeavor, left behind a technological legacy that helped usher in what we now know as our modern age.
No Knowledge is Ever Inherently Dangerous
Cellular technology, advanced microprocessors, advancements in semi- and super-conductive materials, alternative energy generation technology… All of it, and more, finds its roots in the technical advancements pioneered during the Cold War.
The Internet itself, which was named “ARPANET” (Advanced Research Projects Agency) in its early stages, was initially a network of four computers at four major American universities (Stanford, UCLA, University of Utah, and UCSB).
In 1962, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) took over the development of the network as a means of accelerating the sharing of information between engineers working the various fields of defense technology.
It wasn’t until more than 20 years later that networking personal computers became prevalent in the civilian sphere, but at its core, the idea and the manpower required to make it function was inspired and fed by the arms race.
The satellites that today allow your cell phone to pinpoint your location on the Earth’s surface were created and put into place to do the same thing for military assets.
Those solar panels you may have considered putting on your roof to cut your electrical bill also trace their roots back to military satellites, which required an external power source to operate.
The same goes for countless other innovations, up to and including those perpetually shrinking computer chips that allow all of your electronic devices to get smaller, faster, and smarter every year, year after year.
This phenomenon is nothing new.
Before You March, Familiarize Yourself With History
Before the Cold War pitted the USA and the USSR against one another in a battle of technological one-upmanship, the U.S. and Great Britain engaged in a similar competition with Nazi Germany during World War II — a competition that led directly to the advent of nuclear fission, radar, jet and liquid-fueled rocket propulsion, and a long list of other world-altering technologies.
The same thing happened during World War I. The same thing happened during the American Civil War, and so on, and so on.
Today, with the new administration just starting to make itself at home in the Oval Office, the threat of a 21st century arms race looms over us.
Both Trump and Putin have either stated concrete plans or taken actual steps to advance their respective nuclear arsenals.
Both leaders have pledged or promised to pledge added resources into their defense programs.
Trump’s plans, if carried out, will bring the U.S. national defense budget past the $1 trillion mark for the first time ever.
To his detractors, a newly invigorated buildup of military equipment and material means an equally invigorated attitude towards armed conflict.
This premise, however, has proven to be erroneous in modern history. What is definite is a new era of technical innovation for the civilian sectors.
Jobs, growth, and, yes, even an improvement to the quality of our lives, as has been handed to us by the non-deadly fruits of the previous arms race, will almost definitely be at our doorstep once these plans come full circle.
Is this a reason to become an overnight fan of Trump? Probably not. What it isn’t, however, is a reason to hate him even more.
Until next time,
John Peterson
Pro Trader Today