How the Cold War May Have Given Birth to the War on Terror

America needs an enemy. That statement is a generalization in the worst sense of the word, yet it also happens to be true. The American economy is based on consumption; if people aren’t buying what America is selling, the economy would quickly tank. The number one product sold in America since the World War II has been fear. The Great Depression proved that an economy built upon the ability of people to buy things they don’t need is more than capable of collapsing. Since the attack on Pearl Harbor, America has had precious few days without an enemy around which our economy can be directed. Following the successful liberation of the world from the threat of fascism, American politicians quickly generated a new evil: communism. The great irony of the 20th century is that it was the demonization and the all-out assault to bring down communism that gave rise to a far more dangerous public enemy number one: fundamentalist Islamic terrorism.

The pursuit of the end of communism did precious little to improve the lives of Americans despite its high cost both in terms of money and lives, and the greater and more profound legacy of rabid anti-communist policies may lie in its contribution to bringing about the rise of Islamic terrorism. The Soviet Union was the centerpiece for the great ideological threat for America following World War II and the nearly half-century long cold war stemmed from the uncertainties about their capabilities brought about due to the lack of technological sophistication. The simple fact is that Russia was far too large for the US government to really know exactly what their capabilities were. In essence, then the Cold War was really based more on the fear of communism than any real knowledge of it.