shape the rivalry by shaping the system. The most important thing the United States did during the Cold War was not the destruction it visited upon its enemy but the creation it achieved with its friends. By building a vibrant democratic community from the wreckage of a shattered world, America helped the non-Communist countries resist Soviet coercion even as Moscow’s power grew. By creating an example of relative freedom and prosperity, it eventually forced Soviet leaders and citizens to ask what had gone wrong in their own empire, which then encouraged them to undertake the reforms that
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