I feel like we, as Americans, always say we won the Cold War. However, when was the last time we sent a manned mission to space?
Ronald Reagan never claimed to have bested the Soviet Union and/or won the Cold War.
In the last few years, we've seen Russia annex the Crimea with little to no repercussions, taking land from another sovereign state against the signed 1954 decree that legally transferred the land to Ukraine. No one interfered.
So I was wondering, who do you think really "won" the Cold War?
**I realize the Crimea part falls within the 20 year rule, but I am looking for responses that fall outside the scope of the 20 years.
The US won the Cold War. However, your question can be addressed best by defining the Cold War.
I believe the best definition is this:
The Cold War was "a far-flung and intense ideological, political, military, economic, and cultural struggle for influence"^(1) between the Soviet Union and the United States. I believe this definition gives a concise and detailed depiction of the Cold War.
Hence, we must ask, which state MOST influenced (not controlled) the ideology, culture, economies, and political structures of the world in 1991 when the Soviet Union ceased to exist. The answer is clearly the US.
We cannot use information regarding current geopolitics to determine the "victor" since there is no longer a struggle occurring between the US and USSR.