During the Cold War, the US was prosperous. But not because of the Cold War, but in spite of it. The Soviet Union was and, now Russia, is a third world nation with nukes. They had one quarter the GDP of the US and spent half of that on munitions. . The USSR never produced enough food to feed its populace, even though Russia was the main global exporter of wheat before communism. After the food riots in Rostov-on-Don and other cities, the Soviets imported food from the US, France and Argentina.paying in natural resources like chromite, furs, gold and other metals, The place was so backward they set up a smuggling outfit that bought video games, imported them to Sweden and stripped out the computer chips for use -- including on their ICBMs.