ABSTRACT
Marxism–Leninism was given its chance but failed; as George Kennan had prophesied at the very outset of the Cold War, if properly contained, it was eventually bound to fail. The Cold War was not won by Western armed forces any more than it was lost by Soviet armed forces. Both performed their tedious and unrewarding tasks with great credit and can look back on their joint record with considerable satisfaction. The Soviet Union’s most powerful associate, communist China, in the eyes of many Americans its most formidable conquest, became its most dedicated adversary. If the Soviet economic and political system had worked, and if it had delivered the prosperity and social justice that its founders had promised and for which generations of Russians had suffered and died, then the Soviets would have won and would have deserved to win. Even with the disappearance of the Soviet threat, the American presence remains an intrinsic part of the European security system.
