Let’s Learn About the Cold War: Part 27 - Aftermath Published Dec. 29, 2015 By Senior Airman Sean D. Smith Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- After the dissolution of the Soviet Union marked the end of the Cold War, the world was left with something unprecedented -- a single superpower, the United States. Over the next 20 years, both China and Russia would rise to superpower status, but it would be a long and costly process for both. Russia suffered particularly after the Soviet Union collapsed. As the successor state to the USSR, Russia inherited many of the Soviet Union's financial woes, but not the means to address them. The Russian economy was devastated, with profound consequences for Russian citizens. It would take decades for Russia to recover, and several of the former Soviet satellite states, such as Romania, weren't much better off now that they were independent. The 1990s were extremely difficult years for the states that came off worse at the end of the Cold War, as Russia and its neighbors grappled with one of the most severe recessions in history. Power vacuums and opportunities created by the sudden removal of Soviet authority created numerous conflicts in the former Eastern Bloc, such as the Bosnian War, which was part of the enormously difficult breakup of Yugoslavia. Meanwhile, the Cold War had in many ways left the West stronger. Though the United States had spent upwards of $8 trillion in its efforts to contain communism, which included several bloody wars, the silver lining of the conflict included the establishment of NATO, and strong political ties that have endured and contributed to a more stable global climate. Cold War efforts to thaw relations between the United States and Soviet allies such as China opened dialogue that has led to positive relations and important implications for the world economy. Nearly 50 years passed between the announcement of the Truman Doctrine, President Harry S. Truman's plan to contain communism, to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. While the nature of the Cold War makes it difficult to summarize the human cost numerically, between the wars in Vietnam and Korea, American combat deaths approach 100,000 and the death toll outside of combat, particularly if including the number of Soviet citizens who died as a result of their own government's policies, easily reaches into the millions. Today, the Cold War remains culturally relevant both in the realm of global politics and popular entertainment. While the threat of nuclear war is considerably less immediate at the moment, it hasn't actually gone away, and there is no evidence to suggest that it will any time soon.