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Without advocating for either side, it seems to me that those countries that formed the Iron Curtain came out of the Cold War in better shape than those that or
by forinti 10y ago
Without advocating for either side, it seems to me that those countries that formed the Iron Curtain came out of the Cold War in better shape than those that orbited the USA (Central America, especifically).
Maybe they were in better shape to begin with. Still, I find it quite amazing that nearly every country in the Eastern Bloc built cars and all but Albania made microcomputers.
On the other hand, Guatemala came out of the Cold War in worse shape than Cuba.
- dragonwriter 10y agoYou seem to be measuring "did better" by a yardstick of "was not integrated into an international trade regime where it specialized on comparative advantage, but instead tried to do everything itself." While there may be some merit to that as a positive indicator, all other things being equal, I think that you have to look more broadly. (Which is not to say that US-allied countries universally did better than Communist Block countries that were comparable prior to the Cold War; neoliberal trade certainly has a strong core/periphery effect; I think US-aligned countries in the core -- e.g., Europe particularly -- did better than comparable Communist Bloc countries, and the results are considerably more mixed otherwise.)
- santaclaus 10y agoWest Germany did alright.
- atmosx 10y agoSure but Marshall and the wall of Berlin had a lot to do with it.
- twoodfin 10y agoOn the other hand, South Korea.
- mc32 10y agoI'd counter with Taiwan south Korea, Japan, western europe vs eastern Europe, etc. Even Chile vs Brazil.
- Jtsummers 10y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_World Latin America was not actually aligned with the US and the First World during the Cold War era. They're only orbiting the US in the sense of being within the US sphere of influence and geography.
- dragonwriter 10y ago> Latin America was not actually aligned with the US and the First World during the Cold War era. Much of Latin America was, as demonstrated by the 1962 OAS resolution prohibiting participation by the Government of Cuba (without actually expelling Cuba), explicitly on the basis that "adherence by any member of the Organization of American States to Marxism-Leninism is incompatible with the inter-American system and the alignment of such a government with the communist bloc breaks the unity and solidarity of the continents".