Were we better off during the Cold War?

I grew up at the end of the Cold War, and was too young to understand what was going on in the world. I hardly remember the first Gulf War (i was only in the first grade.)

Just curious what the older members feel about this. Do you think the World was a better place when their were two superpowers, with a clear cut enemy that was easily identifiable? Or has the collapse of the Soviet Union made the world a better place. Today it seems like nothing falls into the "black and white" perceptions of the world of the past, and most of it all falls into different shades of gray. So I'm just asking for your opinions on how you feel about this.

Well I can tell you what I think.
The world would be better off without any superpowers. The coldwar was a bunch of guys jumping around yelling "I have bigger balls than you do!" and so on. Personally I feel after the former soviet union fell, a bigger problem was created. Because now they were selling everything they had to the first person who would buy. Now all their weapon tech was scattered(mostly concentrated in china, as was proven during vietnam. How else were russian migs in the air space above north viet!) and uncontrolled. Not that anyof that matters now, as its too late. The most important thing these days is to STOP global decimation, ie pollution, and the indiscriminate penis envy of every wannabe country tyrant...err leader. Another that bothers me, didn't your school or parents teach anything pertaining actual history?! Education should be added to the list of broken crap in this world. Ireland and Japan seem to be the only places to recieve a good learning. Somebody please step in I need a death stick, as this world makes me sick.

Most thought wars were no more, due to MAD (Mutually Assurred Destruction), where nobody would launch a first strike, due to it being their end as well. Personally, it was much better when there was one big identifiable enemy, vs. lots of smaller enemies lurking in the shadows, and 911 style threats... Not to mention, the fall of Russia rather ended my espionage career aspirations, but oh well....

Originally posted by AF1
Were we better off during the Cold War?

Definitively.....YES !!!

" We " were thinking that we were the goods guys, and the " others " were the bad guys. " The others " guys were thinking that " they " were the good ones and "us" the bad ones. Everything was clear as pure crystal.

It was allmost a black and white world without any grey.

You just had to chose your side/camp. Pretty easy. Nowadays, it's very different. Everybody is allied with everybody, but also, everybody is the ennemy of allmost everybody. What a new world order !!!

In fact, it's a new world disorder.

I'm really happy that communism have been defeated ( unfortunately, not completely ), but sometimes, I would like to go back in time, when things were so clears.

Also, we didn't have any NBC threat as we have now. It's true that former Varsaw Pact nations were helping many terrorist networks ( communist/socialist terrorists ), but at least, those terrorist had not any NBC weapons and we were able to count on the Soviets to stop them when they were trying to go to far in their terrorist actions.

And before I forget....I HATE GORBATCHEV !

I hate to admit it, but the aptly named concept MAD did work perfectly for the better part of 50 years.

It is a sad state of affairs when global survival hinges on the promise of global suicide.